22 November 2024, Centre for Transnational Literary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow

The aim of this research seminar is to investigate cultural transfers in the field of visual arts between Poland, Central Europe and South Africa.

Is it possible to write a history of “encounters” and cross-pollination between Polish and Central European art and South African visual culture? What are the possible manifestations of such a “potential” Polish-South African art history – despite the fact that they might be hardly discernible, often concealed in depleted archival resources or simply unacknowledged in official and personal repositories? What kind of history would that be? Will it always be a history of unrealised possibilities or, on the contrary, a history that could be unearthed and documented despite being patchy, often one-directional, full of gaps and omissions, and well-hidden in various personal and institutional archives? Do other Central European countries have a similar history (or histories) of “encounters” with South African visual culture? How is it different from/similar to their encounters with art from other countries of the Global South? Are the core ideas of Piotr Piotrowski’s influential theory of “horizontal art history” based on an anti-vertical, de-centred, and non-binary model of cultural exchange between various “margins” or “peripheries” and their respective art histories the best instrument to describe the relationship between Polish and Central Europe visual culture and South African arts?

Proposals for 20-minute presentations, consisting of a brief biographical note (including academic title and institutional affiliation) and a 150-word abstract, should be sent to robert.kusek@uj.edu.pl by 30 September 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 7 October 2024.