Preliminary Programme

With a certain degree of liberty, the history of Spanish Modernity can be represented as the history of displacement, loss, recovery, and enshrinement of works of art. In 19th-century Spain, paintings, which in the course of the War for Independence came to be seen as part of the national heritage, became subjects of military, diplomatic, political, and financial disputes. Exhibiting paintings in public museums was presented as the only solution worthy of their newly acquired status of national treasures.

The creation of public art museums in Spain (Museo de la Trinidad, the Prado, etc.) triggered important issues concerning the cultural policy of the bourgeois nation-state-in-the-making. These included the strategies of bringing art to the people and of admitting the people into the presence of works of art. The existence of such museums relied on a need among the foreigners to travel in order to consume Spanish works of art in situ. Travel literature and lithographed reproductions fed this need, while the discourse on the authenticity of the works of art being exhibited provided the museum-goers with frameworks to explain and narrate their experiences.

In the proposed paper, I will examine one aspect of the discourse of Spanish art museums, namely, their compensatory representation of the Spanish history. I will focus on the texts pertaining to the early history of the Spanish museums, written by foreigners (Ford, Inglis, Merimée, Viardot), as well as Spaniards (the Madrazo brothers, Cruzada Villaamil, and others). I will also study the public rituals which took place within the museums’ walls in the course of 19th century, such as Sunday visits to the museums, group tours for soldiers, exposition rearrangements, inauguration ceremonies, and the celebrations of the artists’ centennials.

I propose to view the 19th century Spanish public art museums and the texts associated with them (museums guides, handbooks, the works by art historians, memoirs, etc.) as metaphorical battlefields on which those who made and consumed the image of Spain abroad, and those who crafted Spanish cultural policy, led a discussion about Spanish independence, identity, and nationalism. I will also present an ideologically informed view of the purchasing, conservation, and reproduction policies of the museums administration. Furthermore, I will study the principles of the installation and presentation of works of art in these museums. (Show less)

Résumé : With approximately twenty-five different populations (Papel, Manyak, Biafada, Bijagos, Fula, Mandingo, Balanta..) living within a territory of about 36 thousand square kilometers, the history of Guinea (whose capitanery were annexed to Cap Verde until 1879) was primarily regional until the end of World War II. If some factors had effected the country as a whole and had in some way contributed to its shaping (the end of the slave trade and its replacement by the peanut trade arround 1860, the unfolding of colonial conquest but only completed by 1920 for continental Guinea and by 1935 for the Islands..) they didn't build neither a common feeling nor a common culture. Thus, Guinea-Bissau is an exemplairy case of a nation and national state which was "constructed during the fight". Started in 1963, the anticolonial war lasted for ten years before the country declared unilateraly an independance that Portugal recognised in 1974. On what memorials "lieux de mémoires" (place of memories) can a national culture build itself once the peace is back ? Reference to the colonisation time is excluded, to convoke an African Africa with for example ancient empires as the animistic Mandinka Empire of Gabu (17e to 19e centuries), confederating forty seven provinces during the 19th century, is to jeopardize national unity. Gabuké were Mandingo (today 15% of the population) and their empire fell in 1864[-]1867 (date uncertain), under the blow of the theocratic Pulaar (or Fula or Peul) State (today around 20% of the population). Of course constant reference to Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973), the African Party of the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, and the narrative of the fighting for Independence, could be the first elements of a common culture for a time. But to what to turn after 1980 and the overthrown by Nino Vieira (the Guineen) of Amilcar's brother (the Caboverdien Luis Cabral) government ? To what to refer after the end of the "construction of socialism" and then the end of a unifying and unique party (1994) ?
I will search for elements of answer in the films made by Flora Gomes, in Abdoulaye Sila's novels (the two big artists and creators of the country) and even more within filedwork done by me among bissauguineens. (Show less)

The national movements in central and eastern Europe were built much more on culture than their western counterparts. In the 18th century the nation building efforts in the German lands, in Poland, Hungary and in the Czech lands still concentrated on language, but later on music and especially operas came to play a major role in the construction of nations. While opera was still an international genre at the end of the 18th century, only a hundred years later the repertoires and the staging in central and eastern Europe were thoroughly nationalized. Moreover, operas were perceived as an expression of the various nations in the region and became a part of their identities. Since the connection between music and nationalism was particularly strong in the German lands and in the Czech lands, the presentation will deal with these two cases more amptly.

After a prelude about the function of operas for the national movements in central and eastern Europe the main part of the presentation concentrates of German, Russian, Hungarian, Polish and Czech national operas by composers such as Wagner, Glinka, Erkel, Moniuszko and Smetana. Since national operas can only be understood as a phenomenon of reception, they need to be put in their particular political and societal context. The comparison then touches upon the libretti and the music of several national operas and uses sound examples. The last part of the presentation shows the staging of national operas, their significance for the development of music and musical theatre in general, and their impact on the change of national identities in central and eastern Europe. (Show less)