PRESS
RELEASE
13.10.2015
IMAGING THE PUBLIC SQUARE
An international conference of the Piazza e monumento
research group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz –
Max-Planck-Institut (22–24 October 2015)
Recent broadcasts of scenes playing out in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine have
reinforced our awareness of the significance of the public square as a venue of
action and assembly. As a consequence of protest movements, but also
independently of them, images circulated in various media have participated in
the construction of a visual culture of the public square. Each of these images
should be historicised and analysed according to its own logic. The conference
to be carried out from 22 to 24 October 2015 within the framework of the
Piazza e monumento project at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – MaxPlanck-Institut will take the image and imagination of the square as a point of
departure for a comparative historical analysis and discussion of selected
thematic focusses.
Squares are physically built and experienced architectonic spaces. Yet they are also the
subject of a pictorial history of their own that, as opposed to the image of the city, has
hitherto hardly been investigated systematically and in its own right. In eight sections,
the discussion will therefore concentrate on matters pertaining to the depictive means
and modes as well as the production and reception aesthetic of images of squares, but
also on the question of the square’s transformation and the process character of its
perception by way of the image.
The built city and the designed city are mutually dependent entities but, on the contrary,
mutually influencing ones. As shown in the contributions by Cornelia Jöchner and
Christine Beese, the square is often the result of a pictorial concept in the architectural
planning process, whether in connection with entirely new venues or the partial alteration
of older ones. The degree to which architectural designs are capable of intervening in the
existing structure of a city is thus worthy of consideration. In other words, to what extent
do such plans develop a dynamic of their own, above and beyond the function assigned
them, leading in the long term to changes in existing built environment?
The square is often the main feature of a picture, situated in a larger spatial context, and
it can be regarded as an embodiment of the city. Since images of squares vary
historically and culturally, but also respond to one another and are subject to processes
of change ‒ as addressed in the lectures by Carolin Höfler, Kimia R. Shahi or Yan Geng –,
the matter presents itself of the image of the square as an independent artistic
statement. What perspectives on the public square, and thus on the city and the
territory, are developed pictorially? What artistic media are employed in the process, and
who are the makers and recipients of these images? These questions also apply to
images in which the idea of the piazza – which will be discussed from various
perspectives by Michael Diers, Ermanna Panizon, Daniel Leis, Fabrizio Nevola, Karin
Wimmer, Stephanie Hanke and Joseph Imorde – continues to have an impact today.
Images of squares find their way into many publications, whether as illustrations,
elements in a visual argument, or the focal points of research itself. From Renaissance
architectural theory and pre-modern engravings to modern architectural and urban
anthologies, images of squares are important players on the theoretical and
methodological levels. What is the significance of these images in architectural and urban
studies – including from a history of science perspective – and what social, political and
cultural conceptions of society are linked to them? In his evening lecture, Niklas Maak will
discuss the fact that concepts of publicness currently go hand in hand with the image of
the square, while also taking a closer look at those concepts.
To an increasing degree, the square is the subject of popular media in various forms,
ranging from film, literature and the comic to (often anonymous) newspaper, television
and cell phone images. This media presence of the square will be the focus of the
contributions by Bram Kempers, Katja Bernhardt, Jakob Hartmann and Bettina MorlangSchardon featured in the section on «medialization» as well as in the lectures by Anna
Emmerling and Godehard Janzing in the section headed «revolution». To discuss the
square’s medialization means to consider the relatively rapid blending of media reality
with social and political reality, but also to take the pictorial history of the square into
account. How much do pictures tell us about the square when protestors climb onto
monuments with fluttering flags, as in Kiev? And how much about the visual history of
liberty itself, in whose pictorial memory works such as Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the
People have etched themselves, and which merits re-examination against the
background of studies such as Jutta Held’s Monument und Volk? What impact does the
medialization of the square have on the ephemerality of certain elements (platforms,
public artworks, protest signs, etc.) that – as will be shown, for example, by Alessandra
Acocella and Ursula Grünenwald ‒ temporarily re-design and semanticize the square?
And: what is the relationship between the pictorial focus on the square and the
construction and transformation of squares? In other words, what effect do experiences
of the square from near and far have on its perception, but also on its material-physical
constitution? As Dietrich Erben will ask, to what extent can the square be discussed as a
«hyper image» owing to the plurality of the images that also physically shape its
perception, and what role is played by the frame?
A visit to the Photo library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz with Costanza
Caraffa, Ute Dercks and Almut Goldhahn will moreover provide an opportunity to discuss
a number of the issues on the basis of the photograph as an object that also exhibits
retouching in places, or addresses a posteriori animation of squares with the animated
figure («figura animata»).
PRESS
RELEASE
13.10.2015
IMAGING THE PUBLIC SQUARE – An international conference of the Piazza e monumento research
group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Mario De Biasi, Milano. Piazza Duomo, 1951
Concept
Alessandro Nova, Brigitte Sölch and Stephanie Hanke
Location
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi, 51
50122 Florence - Italy
Further information
Dr. Tim Urban
Research coordination and Public relations
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institut
Via Giuseppe Giusti 44, 50121 Florence - Italy
Tel. +39 055 249 11-1, Fax +39 055 249 11-55
[email protected]
www.khi.fi.it
PRESS
RELEASE
13.10.2015
IMAGING THE PUBLIC SQUARE – An international conference of the Piazza e monumento research
group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut