Behind the Artwork. Thinking Art Against Cold War’s Bloc Polarity | Katalin Cseh-Varga

It turns out that we know relatively little about the intellectual background of art production in socialist states such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, although it may have generated the factors that influenced what type of art was regarded as innovative, modern, or rather subversive. By looking into the role of mediators, trends in philosophy, and the journey of ideas from source to agent and medium, we can gain a comprehensive view not only of the region’s art scenes, but of the working mechanisms of the respective political regimes and how they presented themselves within and outside the Eastern Bloc.

There is an organic and dialectical relationship between mediators and philosophical currents, including their carriers. Important figures in art theory and criticism and artists themselves in socialist people’s democracies absorbed, translated, and networked philosophies. The journeys of these travelling ideas resulted in discussions, publications, events, and of course, in works of art. In my presentation I will present a number of case studies from the above mentioned countries to underline my argument.

about the project

Behind the Artwork. Thinking Art Against Cold War’s Bloc Polarity

Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies | FWF Hertha Firnberg (10.55776/T1074), 04/2019 – 02/2025

Katalin Cseh-Varga

The postdoctoral research project ›Behind the Artwork. Thinking Art Against Cold War’s Bloc Polarity‹ shapes an intellectual art history of the region which hitherto has largely been absent from Central and Eastern European art history. The project opens up the field of Central and Eastern European art history during late socialism to include a broader discourse on art and theory both in and beyond European thought.

The Chemical Composition of Iron-Gall Inks: How their Variability can affect the Parchment Degradation | Federica Cappa, Salvatore Caterino, Iulia-Maria Caniola

The degradation of proteinaceous material in parchment is driven by atmospheric conditions and materials like inks and pigments, with iron-gall inks causing the most severe damage. Characterizing the chemical composition and structure of these inks is crucial.

This project combines non-invasive techniques like FTIR and Raman spectroscopy with the micro-invasive Micro Hot Table (MHT) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) to analyze surface deterioration and chemical processes within the material's bulk. EPR reveals insights into the iron complexes in the inks, while MHT leverages the sensitivity of collagen fibers to water and heat, offering detailed insights into thermal response and structural changes in parchment.

The systematic approach enables analysis of the inks' chemical structure, identification of factors influencing chemical changes, and study of degradation patterns. Understanding the synergistic chemical interactions deepens our knowledge of ink-induced deterioration of collagen-based writing supports.

about the project
Synergetic Interaction of Writing Materials

Institute for Natural Sciences and Technology in the Arts | FWF Principal Investigator Projects (10.55776/P35484),
10/2022 – 09/2025

Federica Cappa
Salvatore Caterino, Iulia-Maria Caniola

The evolution of written documents involved not only aspects related to the content of the text (such as the language, style, etc.) but also followed the development of the materials and the technology used for their production. From the III century AD to the end of the Medieval Ages, manuscripts were mainly made from parchment. Parchment’s collagen fibers degrade under certain conditions (temperature, humidity, acid gases, and light), weakening their structure, and causing discoloration, cracks, and loss of material.

To study these phenomena, mock-ups of parchment, inks, and the combination of the two, are prepared by following medieval recipes and procedures, using traditional materials (e.g. natural oak galls for the inks), to simulate original objects as closely as possible. Non-invasive and micro-invasive techniques like FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy (EPR), and Micro Hot Table (MHT) method are applied. These techniques help to identify factors contributing to deterioration, allowing more accurate evaluations of an object's condition.

Project partners
Institute for Physiological Chemistry at the University of Vienna, Department of Chemical Sciences (EPR Lab) at the University of Padova (Italy)

Aesthetics on the Margins of Professionalized Practice. Insights from Analyzing Contemporary Transition Areas of Art and Design | Judith-Frederike Popp

The presentation gives an overview of the first main part of the project, addressing three questions: First, how the approach is situated in the field of philosophical aesthetics. Second, what results have been obtained from the analysis of art and design examples in the transition areas of digitization and virtualization on the one hand and of relationality on the other. Third, how an outlook can be issued.

The first answer focusses on problematizing a contemplative view in aesthetics and propose an agency-orientated perspective instead. From within such a perspective, the second answer traces an interplay between compression and externalization that is actualized in processes inter alia of prosthetic self-extension and interpersonal exposedness. The third answer outlines a rhythmic movement both with regard to a practice of balancing appearing and vanishing in everyday life and to an aesthetic-ethical practice of purposefully missing an isolated ideal of autonomy.

about the project
Mediated Autonomy. Ideal and Reality of Aesthetic Practice

Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies | FWF Esprit (10.55776/ESP146), 10/2022 – 09/2025

Judith-Frederike Popp

The project explores a linkage of aesthetic and ethical questions. First, it is proposed that aesthetic processes are rooted in a practical tension field between ideals of intensity, creativity or authenticity and their realizations. This field is outlined by tracing attributions of ordinariness and exceptionality in aesthetic practices with art and design examples from the transition areas of digitization and virtualization and of relationality.

Second, the normative scope is further examined by confronting artistic and everyday perspectives. Third, the aesthetic and ethical claims are linked through practical subjecthood while focusing on an idea of autonomy that aims at mediating between ordinariness and exceptionality, between being part of a bigger context and thriving for individuality. By doing so, an aesthetic-ethical perspective on subjecthood is provided that highlights the relevance of getting into poietical contact with oneself beyond one-sided ideals of exceptionality.

Weblink
https://judithfrederikepopp.com/Research

Project partners
Pauline von Bonsdorff (Finland), Jochen Schuff (Germany), Sebastian Lederle (Germany), Judith Siegmund (Switzerland)