Looking Back on the Conference...
The international scientific conference "Modernist Sculpture and Culture: Historiographical Approaches and Critical Analyses" (Split, October 26-27, 2017) resulted in successful and fruitful work. These two days were fulfilled with lively discussions around issues regarding modern sculpture and its determination.
The plenary speakers were Penelope Curtis, Ph.D., director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon who gave a talk on the topic "Modern Sculpture: Beginnings and Ends" and Catherine Moriarty, Ph.D., professor at the University of Brighton, whose talk was entitled "Sculpture on the Crossroads: Object, Context and Inquiry".
Experts from various domestic and foreign institutions alike could be found among the presenters, namely: Darija Alujević, Hans Bloemsma, Margarida Brito Alves, Dora Derado, Sanja Horvatinčić, Nataša Ivančević, Agata Jakubowska, Božo Kesić, Shahar Knafo, Ljiljana Kolešnik, Ana Kršinić Lozica, Ivana Mance, Dalibor Prančević, Patricia Rosas, Tarquin Sinan, Svjetlana Sumpor, Ferenc Veress, Barbara Vujanović, Davorin Vujčić, Hélène Zanin, Daniel Zec.
This two-day meetup in Split was articulated as a platform for intense brainstorming on the questions of approaching, analyzing and delineating modern sculpture. It posed questions such as: how relevant is modern sculpture today and should it be brought to its historical end? Is it possible to use modern sculpture or selected parts of its entire corpus as a trigger for thinking about current neuralgic key points of the "social body"? Or is it just a mediator between mere aesthetic pleasure and quondam contexts? What do the experiences of modern sculptors teach us today?
The discussion is to be continued at our next conference which we are pleased to announce will be held in autumn of 2018.
We are looking forward to seeing you all again!
