{"id":766,"date":"2015-05-01T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T04:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/?p=766"},"modified":"2018-09-13T15:02:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T19:02:49","slug":"matyczyk-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/2015\/05\/01\/matyczyk-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Symposium Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Moderator<\/a>
Moderator Tessa Hite introduces the second panel of the symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creative Conflict – The 31st Annual Boston University Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture, February 27th & 28th, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

This two-day event was generously sponsored by The Boston University Center for the Humanities; the Boston University Department of History of Art & Architecture; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Boston University Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association; and the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery.<\/em><\/p>\n

On February 26, 2015, news outlets around the world showed video footage released by Islamic State militants depicting the violent destruction of antiquities and artifacts at the Mosul Museum in Iraq. The vicious spectacle served as a sober reminder that a commitment to the preservation of art and cultural heritage is far from a foregone conclusion in contemporary life. The following day, the Boston University History of Art & Architecture community gathered at the Boston University Art Gallery<\/a> (BUAG) for the keynote talk of the 31st Annual Graduate Student Symposium, titled \u201cCreative Conflict.\u201d In his address, \u201cKilling Identity: Heritage Destruction in the Syria and Iraq Conflicts,\u201d Dr. Richard M. Leventhal, Executive Director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center<\/a> (PennCHC) at the Penn Museum and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, foregrounded the Mosul footage, stressing that cultural heritage is regularly endangered by conflicts worldwide. He explained its inextricable links to both memory and national and cultural identity in places like Syria and Iraq. Leventhal developed his lecture by outlining some of the work undertaken by the PennCHC, which implements a bottom-up, community-driven approach to help curators, scholars, and activists in conflict-stricken areas protect and safeguard cultural heritage. Dr. Leventhal ended his talk with a \u201cPost-conflict Postscript\u201d that introduced aspects of his own research on historical conflicts in the Yucat\u00e1n, Mexico. The keynote address sparked an engaging and thoughtful Q&A session, which highlighted the importance of identity and community-building for areas impacted by conflict.<\/p>\n

Considering discord and its visual manifestations across media, regions, and history, \u201cCreative Conflict\u201d continued on Saturday, February 28th, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with presentations by six graduate students from universities across the United States. This year\u2019s Symposium Coordinator, Sarah Parrish, a Doctoral Candidate in the Department, along with moderators Tessa Hite and Olivia Kiers, organized the day thematically with two sessions, \u201cWound\u201d and \u201cWeapon.\u201d In a recent conversation, Parrish explained that the symposium\u2019s title aimed to accentuate both the destructive and generative capacities of conflict, while the structure of the panels further foregrounded this idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWound,\u201d the morning session, was moderated by Olivia Kiers (Boston University) and emphasized situations in which\u00a0 different kinds of conflict impacted art objects. Kicking off the day, Steve Burges (Boston University) presented his paper \u201cFrom Iraq to Afghanistan: The 1954 Hague Convention and the Renewed Mission of the United States to Protect Culture,\u201d discussing strategies for protection of cultural heritage implemented by U.S. forces both before and after the 2009 ratification of the Hague Convention. Burges was followed by Christine Garnier (Tufts University), whose paper \u201cConsequences of Conflict: Personifications of Captivity in an Armenian Manuscript\u201d examined a fifteenth-century Armenian codex currently owned by the Boston Public Library. Focusing on three miniatures depicting themes of captivity and damnation, Garnier argued that these illuminations provide insight into the community in which the manuscript was made, pointing to its uncomfortable position between the Safavid and Ottoman Empires. Lauren G. Close (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) ended the session with her paper \u201cVandalism on the Pont-Neuf: Monuments as Propaganda in Revolutionary France.\u201d Through a close study of a seventeenth-century equestrian statue of Henri IV and its tumultuous history, Close articulated the monument\u2019s various uses, highlighting the changing roles of public artworks during and after the French Revolution.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, Tessa Hite (Boston University) served as moderator for the second session, \u201cWeapon.\u201d The papers all centered on the notion that art objects and images could play an active role in conflict, as participants or antagonists, capable of intervening and enacting change. The session began with Florencia San Martin Piutort (Rutgers University) whose talk \u201cPolitics of Collectivity: Muralism and Public Space in Brigada Romano Parra\u2019s (BPR) Practices During Unidad Popular,\u201d examined the BPR\u2019s program for social action, comparing it to those of other contemporaneous Chilean mural collectives. Piutort was followed by Luisa Fernanda Villa Morales\u2019 (American University) \u201cThe Embodiment of Violence in Performance Art: Regina Jos\u00e9 Galindo.\u201d In this paper, Morales analyzed an early work by Gallindo, Lo voy a gritar al viento (I will scream it at the wind), <\/em>and argued that through the artist\u2019s transgressive acts, viewers are encouraged to question the impacts of violence and their own roles in its perpetuation. The session ended with Megan Whitney (University of Arizona, Tucson) whose paper \u201cVisualizing Violence: Seventeenth Century Slapstick Humor\u201d focused on visualizations of domestic violence in Abraham Bosse\u2019s prints Le mari qui bat sa femme <\/em>and La femme qui bat son mari<\/em>. Through a careful analysis of the prints and their inscriptions, Whitney examined the placement of these images in the realm of humor.<\/p>\n

Following the day\u2019s presentations and discussions, \u201cCreative Conflict\u201d concluded with an \u201cEpilogue\u201d at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where curator Pamela Allara led the group through her exhibition \u201cPermanent War: The Age of Global Conflict<\/a>.\u201d Echoing many of the themes discussed throughout the symposium, \u201cPermanent War\u201d featured work by sixteen artists, and drew attention to artificiality and the theatrics of war. A poignant conclusion to \u201cCreative Conflict,\u201d the tour afforded participants and attendees some contemplative time to engage with artworks and\u00a0 reflect on the larger issues of violence and conflict in the creation, preservation and understanding of works of art. Indeed, as is evident by Dr. Leventhal\u2019s \u201cPost-conflict Postscript,\u201d and the \u201cPermanent War\u201d Epilogue, the drive to remember and reflect is an inextricable part of understanding conflict and artwork related to it.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the 31st Annual Boston University Graduate Student Symposium<\/a> was a valuable and thought-provoking event. More than just another interesting academic conference, \u201cCreative Conflict\u201d tackled difficult, violent, and destructive material. With its stimulating presentations and pauses for reflection, it suggested a desire on the part of artists, scholars, critics, and historians to be a generative and creative force in dealing with the intersections of the visual arts, culture, and conflict.<\/p>\n

Ewa Matyczyk<\/h3>\n

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Creative Conflict – The 31st Annual Boston University Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture, February 27th & 28th, 2015 This two-day event was generously sponsored by The Boston University Center for the Humanities; the Boston University Department of History of Art & Architecture; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Boston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":942,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}