A Talk on Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond, tomorrow at SSS-2

Centre for the Study of Social Systems
School of Social Sciences

CSSS Colloquium

Dr. Cathrine Bublatzky
(Chair, Visual and Media Anthropology,
Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg)

Will be giving a talk on
Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond

Date & Time: August 27, 2015 (Thursday), 11.30 a.m.
Venue: CSSS Committee Room, SSS-II

Abstract: With reference to contemporary artistic practices such as street art, video art or performance, this paper engages with art in border zones and in times of crisis and its possible impact on civil societies. Looking at different social and cultural contexts in India and beyond, the discussion will focus on the question what the social role of contemporary art can be today. How do artists position themselves in times of crisis? And how do they try to find artistic expression for experiences of trauma, atrocity and violence, or to create platforms for solidarity and dialogue? Whereas the boundary between art activism, political art or participatory art soften blurring, social factors such circulation, institutional environments or the reactions to an artwork foster a particular meaning attributed to an artwork. Providing exemplary insights into multiple dynamics of meaning production, this paper will problematize the role of contemporary art as social practice.

Bio-Data: Dr. Cathrine Bublatzky is a trained photographer and gained her MA in Anthropology and South Asian History in 2008. Since 2009 she is a Research Fellow at the Chair of Visual and Media Anthropology, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Heidelberg). Her research focuses on theories and methods in Visual and Media Anthropology, Art Anthropology, Popular Culture, and Urban Studies. Her seminars in Transcultural Studies, Anthropology and South Asian Studies are often research-based with a relation to Digital Humanities. In 2014, she finalized her dissertation on contemporary art in India "Along the 'Indian Highway': An Ethnography of an International Travelling exhibition

All are welcome