Between East and West: Visual Culture of the Mediterranean Montenegro, Visual Culture of the...

VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS


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VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS:

STATE OF RESEARCH AND FURTHER

DIRECTIONS

CENTER FOR VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS

FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS

BELGRADE 3-4 JULY 2014



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VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS:

STATE OF RESEARCH AND FURTHER

DIRECTIONS

ABSTRACTS of PAPERS



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EDITED BY

Nenad Makuljević

ORGANIZING COMMITEE:

Prof. dr Karl Kaser (Karl-Franzens- Universität Graz), Prof. dr

Nataša Mišković (Universität Basel), Prof. dr Barbara Murovec

(Franc-Stele Institute, Ljubljana – University of Maribor), Prof. dr

Nenad Makuljević (University of Belgrade)

FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE

(3-4 July 2014)

Cover image: Felix Kanitz, Belgrader Gesellschaft, in: Serbien. Historisch-ethnographische Reisestudien. (Serbia - Ethnographic and Historical Travel Studies) Fries, Leipzig 1868, p. 450.



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CONTENT

FOREWORD 7

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 10

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 41



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FOREWORD

VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS: STATE OF RESEARCH AND FURTHER DIRECTIONS

In recent decades there has been a significant change in

observing art and culture of the Balkans. One of the current issues is

the study of visual culture of the Balkans. While in the Balkan

countries the national historiographies still dominate, it is becoming

quite obvious that the common social, political, artistic and cultural

frameworks influence the creation of all forms of cultural life in

entire Balkans. The Ottoman Empire, in which had lived majority of

Balkan nations; formation of a Yugoslav state, as well as the similarity

of political systems in Southeastern Europe all together have resulted

in establishing a common Balkan culture. In these processes, visual

culture has had a prominent place because it contributed to the

creation of private and collective identity, and represents one of the

most powerful communication tools between different ethnic,

religious and social communities.

Nenad Makuljević

Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy

Belgrade University



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ABSTRACT of PAPERS



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SAŠA BRAJOVIĆ

Department of Art History

Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade

BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: VISUAL CULTURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN MONTE NEGRO

The aim of this paper is to present fundamental postulates of culture

and visual culture of the Adriatic coast of Montenegro, recognized as

an integral part of that state at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and

following World War I in 1918.

The littoral part of Montenegro must be observed as part of the

broader panoramic picture of the Mediterranean. However, as the

entire Mediterranean in general, so too is Mediterranean Montenegro

a sum of geographic fragments, microregions, individual localities of

changeable structure and with a strong tradition of simultaneous

interdependence and communication.

Visual culture played a formative role in the creation of regions

of Mediterranean Montenegro. This paper will examine its role in two

regions: in the Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska, a specific geographic

entity made up of several microregions), and in the city of Stari Bar

(Old Bar), in the period between the 15th and the 19th century.



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A complex matrix of factors influenced the creation of visual

art in Mediterranean Montenegro, and in particular the varying

historical conditions within certain geographic environments.

Artifacts, artists, patronage, production, distribution, perception and

functions of art, as well as styles, techniques, materials in

Mediterranean Montenegro must be considered as part of examining

this phenomenon from the standpoint of geography of art.

Visual culture of these regions must be observed as part of the

broader geographic and historical horizon. It was created after

models conceived in the great centers of the Mediterranean,

Constantinople, Venice and Istanbul. Adapted to a given geographic

structure, historical conditions and the different roles of presentation,

visual culture demonstrates the spirit of malleability, a simultaneous

attraction and repellence between East and West in the Balkan

Mediterranean.



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IRENA ĆIROVIĆ

The Institute of History, Belgrade

ENVISIONING ARMED FEMININITY: REPRESENTATIONS

OF THE BALKAN WOMEN WARRIORS IN THE 19TH

CENTURY

During the 19th century in the Balkans, marked by the struggles for

independence, numerous images thematized battles and an idea of

wartime heroism. Viewed from the gender perspective, pictures of

war and warriors are created within framework of strong masculinity,

as the main characteristic of militancy. In this war imagery of the

Balkans, attention is raised by simultaneous occurrence of the images

of armed women. As a kind of intrusion into the exclusive masculine

war zone, those representations call for examination of the ideas they

valorized. The aim of the paper is to analyze visualization of a

woman warrior, in relation to the dominant notions of femininity.

The intention is to highlight the ideals image of an armed woman

embodied, intertwined with a particular cultural and political ideas.



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VUK DAUTOVIĆ



RITUAL ASPECTS OF BALKAN VISUAL CULTURE

Important aspects of the visual culture in the Balkans in XIX century

are the religious rituals that constructed the identity of different

religious and ethnical groups in the Ottoman Empire and also in the

national states that followed it. Practicing the main religions in the

Balkan area: Christian, Jewish and Muslim, was denominated through

the world of their physical ritual objects. These ritual objects, seen as

the instruments that transfer the holiness and bring theological and

religious beliefs of these religions into being are shaped and

decorated in accordance with their function and symbolic

significance. Different ritual objects that exist in the Balkans, such as

church utensils and holly liturgical vessels, religious objects belonging

to the Synagogue, but also certain types of objects used in mosques

and the ones used for the purposes of private devotion, are not

similar in their form or function. Instead, certain similarities in the

visual aspect of rituals in the Balkans can be specified trough the

same way of visualizing magnificence, the same choice of suitable

materials and styles of decoration, in order to visualize their unique



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importance through the same cultural model as the frame of their

representation.

Some mutual influences and connections are also present

through the craftsmen who produced these objects and also through

the demands of popular piety that also affected their manufacturing.

Hence, the rituals and their objects as the aspects of visual culture

point out to the mutual exchange and influence between these

powerful religious entities, thus participating in the constitution of

the unique cultural model of the Balkans.



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JELENA ERDELJAN

Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade

VISUAL CULUTURE OF MEDIEVAL BALKAN

This paper will present a possible methodological framework for a

(re)assessment of visual culture of the medieval Balkans. It will argue,

from the point of view of border theory, that this space on the

crossroads should be observed as interface of multiple discourses of

production, formation and transformation of visual culture as one of

the key elements of identity. The perpetual act of self-definition had

its specificities in the Balkans and in each of its medieval polities or

states individually but it was always done in communication with

universal principles of the broader Mediterranean world and the

Byzantine Commonwealth. This paper will consider the

heteroglossial nature of visual culture of the medieval Balkans within

the context of the processes of social construction of (sacred) space

and (chosen) identity in the broader region of the Balkans and the

Mediterranean world. Issues which will be discussed include cultural

exchanges and stereotypes of otherness, processes of appropriation

and (re)interpretation of defining models in visual culture, dialogue

between official and popular (visual) culture and official cults and



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private devotion, social networks, topographies of entanglement, and

role of women ktetors.

The case study selected for this discussion is that of visual culture

created in medieval Serbia (XII-XV centuries), from Komnenian

times, through the Nemanide, Lazarević and Branković period to the

establishing of Ottoman administration. It will feature the most

prominent, landmark monuments of visual culture in medieval Serbia

such as Studenica, Dečani, Manasija, the endowments of Jelena Balšić

on Lake Skadar and Serbian endowments and donations to holy

places further afield, in Jerusalem, the Vatican, Bari.



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OLGA GRATZIOU

Department of History and Archaeology University of Crete

THE BALKANS BETWEEN THE MIDDLE AGES AND MODERNITY: PICTORIAL TRADITIONS AND VISUAL

CULTURE

The survival of medieval pictorial forms in religious painting into the

eighteenth century in the Balkans is in itself an intriguing

phenomenon, which deserves to be studied from an art historical as

well as an anthropological point of view. In Greek historiography the

practice of describing this long-lasting tradition as “post-Byzantine”

is well established; it implies the continuity of Byzantine culture for

centuries after the fall of Byzantium, reflecting national and religious

aspirations. In my paper I reconsider the term “post-Byzantine” and

discuss some of its implications. Furthermore, by examining visual

material dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, I shall

attempt to trace transformations of the old visual codes as well as the

emergence of a new pictorial language that corresponds to the

political situation and ideological orientation of the Orthodox

population[s] in the Ottoman Empire.



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ALEKSANDAR JAKIR

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

University of Split

IMAGES OF “HAPPENING OF THE PEOPLE” AS IMAGES

OF HOPE AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN YUGOSLAVIA AND

ITS SUCCESSOR STATES DURING THE 20th ENTURY

It has been stated that disappointment virtually represents a key

experience of modernity and that the 20th century contemporary

history generally was marked by collective high-flying expectations

and great hopes, but also by heavy disappointments. During the

dramatic historical caesuras in this part of Europe which twice saw

the establishment and the downfall of Yugoslav states, collective

experiences of hope and disappointment were always also visually

depicted. The analysis of some widely distributed images of mass

rallies/demonstrations/happening of the people during the 20th

century, and how these images were used in the political and

historiographical discourse, seems helpful for a better understanding

of the process of interaction of state consolidation and mass

mobilization. The question is how these images are used politically,

communicatively and emotionally in modern mass societies. Actually,

it seems that all political breaks throughout 20th century history in



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the region were always in the first step accompanied by mobilizing

high-flying hopes and expectations of economic prosperity and

political self-determination towards a change to a „better“ system,

which, however, afterwards sooner or later was followed by

individual and collective disappointments.



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ALEKSANDAR KADIJEVIĆ


SERBIAN PUBLIC MONUMENTS OF MODERN TIMES (19-

20th c.) THE TYPOLOGY AND RESEARCH

During the last two centuries in the wider Balkan region a wide

variety of Serbian public monuments and memorials were raised.

Different by their form and function, they witness of the culture of

memory that induced their typological stratification. Except for the

chronology of creation, they can be classified according to the

structure, themes, style and position. Seen from a historical distance,

each monument reflects financial capabilities, cultural preferences

and ideological interests of its initiators, as well as creative potential

of deployed authors (sculptors, architects, engineers, urban planners,

sometimes even poets whose verses were imprinted on the surfaces

of the memorials).

In terms of periodization, monuments can be divided into

those from the period of the Principality (starting from the 1830),

period of the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918), the monuments from

the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941), as well as

those built in the socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991), the Republic of



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Yugoslavia (1992–2006) and the present-day Republic of Serbia.

Monumental memorials have outgrown in the signposts of a patriotic

culture that encouraged unique social constructs of past events. They

were used as popular national narratives within which traditional

symbols were given contemporary ideological meaning. Nevertheless,

by linking of heavily compliant achievements of too distant epochs,

by uncritical glorification of authoritarian rulers, exaggerating of

military successes and favoring narrow political movements, often led

to a deviation from principles of historical objectivity. Therefore only

a small number of Serbian monuments promote universal and

ideologically objective meanings, perpetuating spiritual monism and

daily pragmatism. Their well-established apologetic rhetoric was

followed by politicized public promotion, with ceremonies which

served the propaganda of the ruling elite, as much as an expression of

collective piety.



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KARL KASER

Südosteuropäische Geschichte und Anthropologie University of Graz

VISUAL CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE – ELEMENTS OF DECENTRED THEORY CONSTRUCTION

Preoccupation with visual cultures in history and in transcultural

comparison constitutes a product of ‘Western’ scientific

development; likewise modern visual technologies are results of

‘Western’ technology development. No wonder that previous theory

construction in the field of visual cultures is characterized by its

Western bias, which is caused, firstly, by the almost complete

exclusion of other world regions in the international discussion on

visual studies and, secondly, by the fact that other world regions are

not yet ‘swamped’ by the ‘picture flood’ and have therefore not yet

the urgent need for the study of the visual. This has consequences

insofar as the history of non-Western visual cultures has been

understood in the since the middle of the 1990s emerging and since

then intensifying discussion as deficit history at the best or has been

simply ignored.

Decentred theory construction, in the sense of not being based

on Western visual cultures, seems to be more than ever essential.

Therefore, my contribution intends to address several vertexes, which



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may contribute to a historical and relevant to the present day theory

construction. With regard to this we are located only at the

beginnings of the beginnings. My remarks therefore have to be

considered explorative and palpating.



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ANA KOSTIĆ


STATE INFLUELNCE ON THE VISUAL CULTURE OF THE

BALKANS: STATE AND RELIGIOUS ART IN 19TH CENTURY

SERBIA

19th century was a time of great political changes in the Balkans.

Numerous uprisings in this region caused the weakening and eventual

decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of new states such as

Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro. The newly-founded states

in the Balkans strived to establish their national identities as same as

national culture. In these processes of forming its national culture the

State had a very important role and its influence on visual culture and

arts was manifold.

In the 19th century the influence that the State of Serbia had on

the development of visual culture and arts was manifold. Its state

reserves were among the main sources sponsoring the arts. The State

influenced the artistic development through art scholarships in a

number of European art centres as well as actively sponsoring artists

and their own works. One such founding example of visual arts

promotion was evident in the way the State used its governing laws to

control the direction in which all arts developed. Through state-



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appointed institutions and art commissions the State was able to

oversee and streamline the direction in which art prospered.

Among the core aspects in which the State of Serbia influenced

the 19th century art development was in the domain of religious art.

The roots it took in influencing religious architecture and painting

were evident in the close relationship between the State and the

Church, which could be traced back as far as the times of Serbian

uprisings against the Ottoman Empire in the period 1804-1815 and

establishing Orthodox Church as national institution. One of the

ways that the State streamlined religious art was by introducing

certain arts-related legal regulations. This paper will deal with

introducing certain arts-related legal regulations and their influence

on religious architecture and painting in 19th century Serbia.



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NENAD MAKULJEVIĆ



BALKAN PARADIGM IN THE VISUAL CULTURE OF THE

BALKANS

The study of Balkan visual culture raises several methodological and

theoretical questions, which should confirm past studies and guide

future research. One of the fundamental questions deals with the

basic characteristics-presumptions of Balkan visual culture, or the

Balkan paradigm.

The visual culture of the Balkans is perceived as a specific

multicultural visual practice, comprising and connecting in itself

different religious, ethnic, national and political features. It is based

on a unique cultural space, determined by its geographical position,

cultural and political chronology and common aesthetic and artistic

ideals.

The Balkan region is a specific area in Europe, as it was under

the rule of the Ottoman Empire in modern times, which had a

profound impact on all aspects of cultural life – from visual culture in

private life to religious forms. The life of the Balkan peoples in 19th



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and 20th centuries was marked by creation of national states and

national identity in all aspects of cultural life.

The needs of Balkan patrons were satisfied by common artists-

masters. The clearest example may be found in the Damjanov group

of builders (tajfa), who constructed buildings for the needs of both

Ottoman authorities and the Christians in a large area including

Skopje, Veles, Niš, Smederevo, Sarajevo and Mostar. Similarly,

woodcarving workshops worked for patrons from different ethnic

and religious communities.

The examples of building and woodcarving workshops clearly

point to the main features of Balkan visual culture. They reflect not

only a common cultural space, but also the sameness of aesthetic and

artistic ideals in this area.



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NATAŠA MIŠKOVIĆ

Seminar für Nahoststudien University of Basel

SIBA – A VISUAL APPROACH TO EXPLORE EVERYDAY

LIFE IN YUGOSLAV AND TURKISH CITIES IN THE 1920s

and 1930s

Sarajevo Istanbul Belgrade and Ankara: Four cities in the Kingdom

of Yugoslavia and the Turkish Republic once belonging to the

Ottoman Empire, which had ceased to exist after a long period of

decay in 1922. Belgrade and Sarajevo both retained their oriental

character against the large-scale modernizing goals of their authorities

well into the interwar period. Sarajevo, occupied by the Austrians

from 1878 onwards and incorporated into the new Yugoslav

kingdom in 1918, featured a population which resisted Vienna’s

ambitious development plans with unwavering conservatism.

Belgrade, as the new capital city of Serbia and, from 1918, of the

Yugoslav kingdom, rejected the Ottoman legacy so passionately in

favor of an orientation towards Central Europe, that parallels to

Turkish cities even in the way of modernization long went unnoticed.

As Sarajevo and Belgrade, Ankara underwent a dramatic building

program after becoming the capital of the new Turkish Republic in



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1923. Istanbul on the other hand, the ancient metropolis around

which the Ottoman world once had rotated, lost much of its political

significance, but remained important.

This project explores everyday life in these four cities, focusing

on visual evidence as a source, and on the contrast between imperial

heritage and the dynamic construction of national modernity. The

four cities provide excellent photographic collections from the

decades between 1920 and 1940: We focus on photo collections by

local photo reporters and illustrated newspaper reports to reconstruct

representations of everyday life and to extract the subjects which

excited the most of attention at the period, in all four places. In a

further step, a small selection of topics will be analyzed and

compared in in-depth life-world case studies for all the four cities.

This project unites specialists from Southeastern European and

Middle Eastern Studies. It is financed by the Swiss National Science

Foundation for the years 2013 to 2017. Apart from the usual written

and oral channels, we plan to present our results as a travelling

exhibition in the cities and institutions included in the survey, and in

the web portal Visual Archive of Southeast Europe. The project also

aims at contributing to the theoretical and methodological discussion

of visual culture in the region.



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BARBARA MUROVEC

Franc Stele Institute of Art History

Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy Ljubljana

VISUAL CULTURE OF SLOVENIA BETWEEN CENTRAL

EUROPE AND THE BALKANS

In Slovenia research of visual arts started in the time when there was

neither university (established in 1919) nor art academy (established

in 1945). In the beginning of the 20th century Slovenian art history

students followed lectures on philology, history and art history of

Balkans at Vienna university, with Josef Konstantin Jireček and Josef

Strzygowski. They above all contributed to the field of monument

protection. The fall of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the new

political map of Europe after both world wars determined education

and work of art historians and artists with new spatial context and

interpretation. A case study on Stane Kregar and his artworks enable

analysis of reception of abstract painting, relation between ideological

and artistic, and position of Ljubljana in the context of Yugoslav

visual culture. Moreover, it shed light on the position of Slovenia in

the Balkans twenty years after the fall of Yugoslavia, and the state of

research in this field.



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IVANA PRIJATELJ-PAVIČIĆ

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Split

HISTORY AND IDEOLOGY IN THE WORKS OF SIBENIK GOLDSMITH AND ENGRAVER HORATIO FORTEZZA

The paper will deal with the phenomenon of Humanist Mannerist

intercultural (Illyrism and Henetism) and intermedia (text – engraving

models) transfer of images of celebrated people from ancient history

(emperors, heroes, historians) that are reflected in the iconography of

richly decorated brass washbasins and ewers made by Šibenik famous

goldsmith and engraver Horatio Fortezza (Šibenik, around 1530 -

1596), which are now kept in the Museo Bargello in Florence, Museo

Correr in Venice, the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert

Museum in London and the Museum of the City of Šibenik.

The Fortezza's commissioners were members of prominent

Venetian patrician families such as Grimani, Dolfin, Cicogna,

Trevisan and Querini. It is assumed that they held high military and

administrative functions in Venetian Dalmatia (then perceived as part

of an ancient Roman province of Illyricum) between the 1555 and

1575 year.



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Since the Fortezza's period in context of Henetism ideology

and Venetian imperialism Venetian Republic insisted on the redesign

of the Serenissima as "Altera Roma", in the contemporary military-

maritime treatises Venetian "Capitani del mar", who participated in

the wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, were compared

with the famous ancient Greek, Carthage and Roman captains and

heroes.

The paper detects the strong influence on the iconography of

the Fortezza's basins and ewers of one of the most famous of such

treatises, "Della milizia Marittima" written by Cristoforo Canal,

dating from 1553 to 1554.

The Fortezza's vessels testify to the imperial constructions of

its clients in that time, their self-perceptions as well as their

perceptions of ancient identity of Illyrian (Slavic) “nation“.



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MILAN RISTOVIĆ



FREEZING THE BALKAN IMAGE: CASE OF GERMANY AND

AUSTRO-HUNGARY

(1903-1918)

Rounding of the negative stereotypes about the Balkans in the public

opinion of Germany Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy took place

within a period from 1903 to the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It was a product of a long process, especially in the case of the Austro-

Hungary and significantly shorter when the German public opinion was

concerned. In many examples it is possible to point out the influence of

the Austro-Hungarian to German approach to this subject as a result of a

long historical presence and activities of the Habsburg Empire on the

European Southeast and its interests, which in the early 20th century

came into conflict with the young nation-states (in the first place with

Serbia) .

These processes are influenced primarily by external political

circumstances, as it was the outbreak of the crisis in Macedonia in 1903,

the assassination of Serbian royal couple in the same year, the change of

direction of Serbian foreign policy from dependence to Vienna and



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Budapest and turning to Russia and France, then confrontation over

Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, the surfacing of a negative image of the

Balkans and Balkan nations-with a striking predominance "Serbian issue"

was also influenced by the presence of anti-Slavic discourse in the

German propaganda and the confrontation with Russia, which is

considered to be the main sponsor of pan-Slavic nationalism that threaten

the internal stability of the two Central forces due to the significant

presence the Slovene population (Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Czechs,

Yugoslavs).

When constructing this stereotype in his most radical visual forms can be

observed effects of a racist discourse as well as indirect impact "of the

methodology" close to anti-Semitism. In addition, by the anti-Balkan

"interpretation”, developed in detail and visually seductive, there was also

a fusion with the elements taken from anti-orientalist approach. Thus,

during the process of "freezing" a negative image of the Balkans had

become more complex, as a borderland, the peripheral area, maybe

European geographically, but not culturally and “racially” enough

European.

The interpretation of the "nature of the Balkans" in German and

Austrian magazines come to the conclusion about non-European nature

of the "Balkan man" usually embodied in the figure of the "Balkan-

komitaji bandit" or local rulers who came to power by assassinations and

do not differ in their nature and cunningness from their peasant backward

people. These processes can be traced through a number of illustrations



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in the German and Austrian magazines, such as: Simplicissimus, Ulk,

Kladerradatsch, der Wahre Jakob, Lustige Blaeter, die Muskete, die

Bombe, Kikeriki, and others the who have been devoted to

"visualization" of the Balkans from 1903. till the end of the First World

War. Regardless of the number of their differences in editorial policy, and

political affiliation, tinting a negative image of the Balkans was almost

negligible. This approach is important in the propaganda stigmatization of

certain Balkan nations (as in the case of Serbia in 1903, 1908, 1914, or all

of "The Balkan" 1912/13). Such an approach up to the start of the First

World War was part of the propaganda "preparing the ground" and part

"justification" for its war policy.



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BRANKA VRANEŠEVIĆ



IDEA OF PARADISE AND VISUAL CULTURE OF THE

BALKANS

Idealized or demonized, the area of the Balkans has always been a

field of susceptible to mythologization. From the earliest times visual

culture testifies of the presence and significance of visualisation of

key signifiers of civilization among which the idea of Paradise plays a

prominent role, whether in the pagan of in the monotheistic religious

discourse. In the Late Antique and Early Christian period, visual

culture of the Balkans offers a number of exceptional examples of

different formulas of visualization of this percept. This paper aims to

present the different visual modes of articulation of the dogma of

salvation in the Balkans in the period between early 4th and the

beginning of the 7th century, of which the idea of Paradise is the

cornerstone, as demonstrated by representations of the image of

Paradise in the sacred space of churches and in particular on the floor

mosaics preserved therein.

The formation of visually and materially recognizable image of

paradise on floor mosaics in the Balkans in the Early Christian period



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is grounded on the complex abstract, mental image of Paradise

developed from Jewish and Greco-Roman antiquity and further

specified in the teachings of the doctors of the Church. In terms of

iconography and iconology, it relies on a number of schemes of

Graeco-Roman and Hellenistic tradition, mostly allegorical in nature,

which are based on textual templates of biblical and non-biblical

narratives on salvation.

An analysis of prominent examples of floor mosaics in the

sacred spaces of large centers in the Balkans such as Herakleia

Lynkestis, Caričin Grad, Ulpiana, Butrint, Stobi, Ohrid, Philippi,

Amphipolis, Philippopolis, as well as comparison with material found

in other centers of the Roman Empire, offers insight in the specificity

and diversity of iconographical solutions and high artistic merits in

presenting the idea/image of Paradise in the corpus of Early

Christian floor mosaics in the Balkans.



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TANJA ZIMMERMANN

Fachbereich Literaturwissenschaft/Slavistik

University of Konstanz

THE CULTURE OF MIGRANT WORKERS: BETWEEN HOME

AND HOST LAND

Although intellectual elites from Eastern and Southeastern Europe,

as Nabokov, Brodsky, Kundera, Ugrešić, ect., experienced

dislocation, discontinuity, outclassing and estrangement, they

transformed the state of exile into a literary condition. As Edward

Said observes, the exile advanced not only to a literary topic, but even

to an aesthetic rule. “Nomadism” became a canon of postmodern

writing which transforms auto-biographical experiences into texts,

creates a plurality of identities and of phantasmatic mirror worlds.

Literature assumed a role of the “third place” between the home and

the host land, where the wounds of the exile were cured by narration.

Thus, the experience of the exile became a means of self-stylization

and self-celebration of authors’ masochistic narcissism.

Whereas the exile is associated with high culture and the

sublime, non-material world, the migrant milieu is linked with low

culture and the material, corporeal world, ruled by money, absorbing

and dehumanizing human lives. Migrant workers do not populate



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imaginative “third worlds”, but material non lieux – transitional places

on the brink of the society without tradition and identity (provisory

dwellings, ect.). Although they constantly swing between two

countries, their culture is not perceived as a dynamic, moving one,

but as a sedentary one. Whereas intellectual elites belong at the same

time to the culture of home and host land, migrant workers are

excluded from both of them, being incompatible even with patriotic

concepts of the home land. The paper will try to outline the main

characteristics and modes of representation of migrant culture on

some examples from the visual culture, as paintings and films.



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IVANA ŽENARJU

Institute for Serbian culture Priština,

Leposavić

VISUAL CULTURE OF THE 19th CENTURY IN KOSOVO

AND METOHIJA

Being part of the Ottoman Empire, territory of present-day

Kosovo and Metohija was influenced by Tanzimat reforms during

the 19th century. Ottoman reform movement led to greater freedom

for non-Muslim layers of society. This resulted in change of public

space and visibility of minorities, as well as emphasizing multi-ethnic

and multi-confessional character of the Empire. It was most clearly

seen in the development of visual culture reflected in the restoration,

construction and decoration of religious buildings. Correlations

between Muslim, Christian and Jewish populations, primarily due to

trade links, led to the similar model of creation of visual identity. It

was accompanied by the traveling artists who have worked with equal

success for customers of different religions.



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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Prof. Dr. Saša Brajović Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Irena Ćirović, MA Research Assistant The Institute of History, Belgrade [email protected] [email protected] Vuk Dautović, MA Research Assistant Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] [email protected] Prof. Dr. Jelena Erdeljan Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Prof. Dr. Olga Gratziou Department of History and Archaeology University of Crete [email protected]



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Prof. Dr Aleksandar Jakir Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Split [email protected] Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Kadijević Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Prof. Prof. h.c. Dr. Karl Kaser Südosteuropäische Geschichte und Anthropologie University of Graz [email protected] Ana Kostić, MA Research Assistant Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Prof. Dr. Nenad Makuljević Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Prof. Dr. Nataša Mišković Seminar für Nahoststudien University of Basel [email protected]



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Prof. Dr Barbara Murovec Franc Stele Institute of Art History Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy Ljubljana [email protected] Prof. Dr Ivana Prijatelj Pavičić Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Split [email protected] Prof. Dr Milan Ristović Chair for General Modern History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Dr Branka Vranešević Teaching Assistant Department of Art History Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade [email protected] Prof. Dr Tanja Zimmermann Fachbereich Literaturwissenschaft/Slavistik University of Konstanz [email protected] Dr Ivana Ženarju Research Associate Institute for Serbian culture Pristina, Leposavic [email protected]



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Conference is sponsored by:

Beokran D.O.O. Belgrade

SIBA Project Swiss National Science Foundation




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CENTER FOR VISUAL CULTURE OF THE BALKANS

University of Belgrade

Faculty of Philosophy

Between East and West: Visual Culture of the Mediterranean Montenegro, Visual Culture of the...

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Transcript of Between East and West: Visual Culture of the Mediterranean Montenegro, Visual Culture of the...