Our curator took part in the
«Transforming a community through sustainable management of cultural heritage» programme
Now our platform is ready for the next projects to make a positive change and contribute to Ukraine's revitalization.
The video was prepared by the Fortress of Culture Tvrđava kulture Šibenik
6 days of the study visit are over and that was an extraordinary experience!
The programme «Transforming a community through sustainable management of cultural heritage» was organized by Tvrđava sv. Ivana and ERSTE Foundation. For 6 days in Šibenik the leading experts in cultural heritage revitalization from the Fortress of Culture shared their successful experience on various aspects in cultural management. 16 cultural experts from Ukraine took part in the programme.
Knowledge on the EU funding programs, grant-writing, project management, sustainable cultural heritage development, partnership projects, transformation of a community through culture, digitisation of cultural heritage, the power of the civil society as the changemaker, the specifics of work within a cultural institution, was shared within this amazing pilot project.
Existential challenges Ukraine is facing are closely connected with the intentions of Russia to destroy the cultural heritage and Ukrainian identity. For this reason, transferring of successful experience on cultural heritage revitalization from other countries is of immense importance to us.
Curator Yana Gryniv received a certificate on completion of an
art course at the University of Oxford
The course focused on how to look at modern art, from 1900 to the present day, in an open-minded, critical and analytical way. It was taught by Gordon Reavley who is specialising in the topics in Art History and Visual and Material Culture for Oxford University's Dept of Continuing Education (OUDCE), and Critical Theory for the University of Nottingham.
FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, a total of about 100 study hours.
As the activity of our platform is organised through conceptual art projects, we would like to share an essay about a major figure in the formation of conceptual art. The essay was prepared by our curator within the framework of the course at the University of Oxford:
"Marcel Duchamp: a man of controversy and provocation, a world-known artist, who influenced the formation of Dada, surrealism, abstract impressionism, pop-art and conceptual art, and gave up art for chess. Did Marcel Duchamp ruin aesthetics or created a new one?
It seems that Duchamp throughout his whole career liked challenging the art world. He started with painting and in 1913 his Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2, 1912 (Philadelphia Museum of Art), created a sensation at the New York Armory Show.[1] It represented a juxtaposed machine-like figure as if in motion. Despite the title of the painting, which referred to an old tradition of a female nude subject, it is hard to tell whether it is really a nude, descending a staircase. Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse also worked with the traditional subject of a nude, using a new approach and creating new techniques. In case with Marcel Duchamp when the painting was exhibited at the New York Armory Show, it became the artwork which questioned modern art. The meaning of the painting was obscure and it involved a great deal of provocation.
However, gradually Duchamp shifted from painting to a new form of art, causing even a bigger uproar. In 1917 a urinal was submitted to the exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists in New York.[2] The Society of Independent Artists was organized by Marcel Duchamp and a group of people who wanted to challenge the set scope of rules for art by establishing a society which accepted all artists for a yearly fee of 5 dollars. For a fee of 1 dollar anyone could exhibit 2 artworks in their unjuried group exhibition.[3] So, Duchamp bought a porcelain urinal in a shop and signed it with a pseudonym R.Mutt. However, despite the proclaimed unjuried exhibition, the Society rejected to accept the Fountain, thus breaking the rule which was the ground for creating the Society initially. Was it a prank or not, but with this bold move by Duchamp set a whole new trend which influenced the subsequent development of art. This bold move set the question of who can define. By taking an object from everyday life and mass culture and adapting it, Duchamp questioned what art should be. This had a great influence on the Dada movement and pop art. Duchamp has often been controversial. An interesting fact is that Duchamp enjoyed using the word play to give meaning to his artworks, and in the case with the Fountain he was mocking the rich art collectors and institutions. Nevertheless, it was the support of a rich art collector Walter Arensberg and a famous gallerist Alfred Stieglitz who promoted his artwork. After the Fountain was rejected from being exhibited at the First Annual Exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists in New York, it disappeared. However, after the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibition it was exhibited at the Gallery 291 and photographed by Alfred Stieglitz[4], an American gallery owner and photographer. Considering that the Fountain was promoted by a notable figure in the art world, influenced how it was in due course treated by the art world. And the use of word play influenced the development of surrealism.
He wanted to create art not for the eye, but for the brain. With the notion of readymades, he introduced the question of the role of an artist and the role of art, and had a great influence on the Dada and pop art. By combining objects from everyday life in an unexpected way he set the trend of surrealism. He could make an oil painting, or he could take a reproduction of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and draw a moustache and goatee over it (L.H.O.O.Q, 1919, 38 replicas were made by Duchamp[5]), or he could take a bicycle wheel, mount it on a chair and present it as a sculpture. By rejecting traditional art forms and conventions, Duchamp influenced abstract impressionism. The idea came first, and then the materials and technique, which had a great influence on the development of conceptual art. Moreover, Duchamp went even further with art provocations. He not only turned to readymades, but he created multiple copies of his artworks (which was broadly used in pop art), as the objects he used for creating them could be easily bought in many shops. For instance, Duchamp created 15 copies of the Fountain, which are part of art collections throughout the world. Thus, he raised the issue of the role of originals and copies in art, the question of value of art.[6] Duchamp abandoned the standards of retinal painting, rather trying to convey a message and make us think, and any means could be chosen for that purpose.
It was an art not for the eye, but for the brain. Duchamp turned against Modernism and focused on the meaning in an obscure way, which involved the spectator into questioning to develop his own understanding.[7] Duchamp questioned the fundamentals of art, its purpose, the role of an artist. His artistic work was like a chess play which set the questions which are still relevant to be contemplated and resolved. He set the game of chess which still goes on.
Sources:
[1] Terry Riggs, “Marcel Duchamp”, (Tate: October 1997).
[2] Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal"
[3] Francis Naumann, "'The Big Show,' The First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, 1917," Part I: Artforum XVII, no. 6 (February 1979): pp. 34-39
[4] Murat Germen, “Inadvertent - Ars Accidentalis”, (Sabanci University, 2008), p.2, Researchgate.
[5] The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, "Marcel Duchamp”
[6] Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal" (March 27, 2017)
[7] Mary Acton, Learning to Look at Modern Art (Routledge: 2004), p.72