úterý | 18. 5. 2021 - 19. 5. 2021 | 10:00
international seminar | online
Aby Warburg’s cultural anthropology: method and perspectives
Co-organized by the Department of Czech Modern Philosophy of the Philosophical Institute of the Czech Academy of science
Abstract
Over the past decades, Aby Warburg has been recognized as a leading figure in art theory. By insisting on the powers of the image, however, the prevailing contemporary reception of Warburg's work tends to forget the fact that his method aspired to develop a historical science of culture (Kulturwissenschaft) and more particularly a science of art (Kunstwissenschaft). The multifocal construction of his method which combines art history, cultural history, biology, psychophysiology, philosophy and anthropology, delineates the boundaries of an aesthetic that should encompass all aspects of sensitive life and be attentive to the emotional-pathetic and perceptive aspect of our being in the world. Stepping aside from those contemporary interpretations that emphasize Warburg's fascination with images and their magical concretions, this workshop aims at reassessing the gnoseological aspect of his work. The investigation of "geographical migrations" of symbols, of cultural transfers during the Renaissance, as well as of historical metamorphoses and formal survivals (Nachleben) from Antiquity to the present day, call upon the use of research tools, deriving from a series of academic disciplines: from the historical-critical method of philology to the aesthetics and theories of form of the late 19th century, as well as the diffusionist theories of anthropology. By seeking to restore the lines of force that structure Warburg's science of art, we will show it was directed towards the ambitious project of forging – through the study of artistic and extra-artistic symbols – an anthropology in the sense given to this word in the 18th century: a "science of man". We will thus pay specific attention to the core of Warburg's cultural anthropology: the idea of Man in his substantial capacity to be "expressive".
Program
May 18th, 2021, from 10 to 12 am:
Moderator : Lara Bonneau (FLÚ-AV ČR)
Giovanna Targia (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Zürich): « Periodicity, Rhythm, Ausdruckswertbildung. On Aby Warburg's Anthropological Approach to the History of Style ».
Mildred Galland-Szymkowiak (CNRS-Thalim) "Une source de Warburg : « Das Symbol » de Friedrich Theodor Vischer (1887)"
May 19th, 2021, from 10 to 12 am:
Moderator : Céline Trautmann-Waller (CEREG-Sorbonne Nouvelle / IUF)
Vincent Duquenne (ENS, ED 540) : "Que nous apprennent les œuvres d’art sur le jeu animal ?"
Carlotta Santini (CNRS/ENS) : "Une querelle sur la méthode. Aby Warburg et Leo Frobenius."
May 25th, 2021, from 10 to 12 am:
Moderator: Caroline van Eck (University of Cambridge / King’s College)
Chiara Vecchiarelli (ENS/ED 540) : "L’imaginal, ou de l’image comme fonction de la vie."
Maria-Filomena Molder (IFILNOVA, Lisboa) : "La plus ingrate et dangereuse des disciplines ?"
May 26th, 2021, from 10 to 12 am:
Moderator : Mildred Galland-Szymkowiak (CNRS-Thalim/ENS)
Matteo Pagan (SNS, Pisa) : "L’être humain en tant que corps expressif : Helmuth Plessner et Aby Warburg en dialogue."
Lara Bonneau (FLÚ-AV, ČR) : "La Kulturwissenschaft warburgienne : une théorie de l’homme en mouvement."
June 1st, 2021, from 10 to 12 am:
Moderator : Lara Bonneau (FLÚ-AV ČR)
François-René Martin (Beaux-Arts, Paris/École du Louvre) : "Warburg et Panofsky en France. Reconsidérations vingt ans après."
Carlo Severi (CNRS/ESS) : "L’anthropologie d’Aby Warburg : mémoire sociale et agentivité des images".
To join
The seminar will be held in French and English.
To join contact please:
The seminar is co-organized by the UMR 8547 Pays Germaniques-Transferts Culturels of the École Normale Supérieure, the UMR 7172 THALIM Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, the EUR Translitterae and the Department of Czech Modern Philosophy of the Philosophical Institute of the Czech Academy of science (FLÚ - AV ČR).
