ARTCITY7: 7th International Art and the City Conference |
| Website | https://artandthecity.sciencesconf.org/ |
| Submission deadline | January 15, 2025 |
The Art and the City conference series was founded by art historian Dr. Tijen Tunali in 2018 as the outcome of her Marie Sklodowska Curie research fellowship “ Art and the City: Urban Space, Art and Social Movements.” Since then it has taken place every year in a different city (Tours, Berlin, Aarhus, Amman, Göttingen) with funding from MSH Val de Loire, Forum Transregionale Studien, Carlsberg Foundation, Aarhus University, Columbia University and Max Planck Institute- MPI MMG.
The primary purpose of this conference is to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues and collaborations among scholars with a specific focus on the intersections of art, aesthetics and the politics of the urban environment. It aims to shed light on various aspects related to these themes, such as artistic rebellion on the streets, the "right to the city," the aesthetics of urban social movements, and art activism in urban spaces. This diversity allows for a multifaceted understanding of the ideologies, relationships, meanings, and practices that emerge from the interactions between art and the urban environment. The conference strives to offer insights and promote a better understanding of how these interactions play out in different regions ultimately contributing to the broader discourse on urban life, art, and social transformation.
The conference functions as a hub for scholars across humanities and social sciences with exhibitions, special issues in journals, edited books, and joint grant applications.
The conference is organized in partnership with the LIA-Asme (Laboratoire International Associé “Arts, société, mieux-être”, Côte d’Azur University Nice (France), Villa Arson Nice (France), Laval University in Québec (Canada).
Keynotes
PD Dr Sacha Kagan, Center for World Music, University of Hildesheim
Assoc. Prof. Leah Modigliani, Visual Studies, Tyler School of Art and Architecture
Interdisciplinary Scientific Committee 2025
Sabina Andron, Architectural History, University of Melbourne
Constantinos Diamantis , Culture, Creative Media and Industries, the University of Thessaly
Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernández, Art History, University of Nevada – Reno
Andrew Hewitt, Art and Design Research Centre, University of Northampton
Mel Jordan, Center for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University
Panos Leventis, Architecture, Drury University
Leah Modigliani, Visual Studies, Tyler School of Art and Architecture
Sacha Kagan, Sociology of Art, Leuphana University
Vittorio Parisi, Aesthetics, Villa Arson
Tijen Tunali, Art History, University of Rennes 2
Submission Guidelines
This year’s conference theme, “Art, Urbanocene, and the City,” centers on the emerging paradigm of the Urbanocene and its implications for urban artscapes. We invite scholars, artists, and practitioners to reflect on the following interdisciplinary points of inquiry:
- The potential and challenges posed by eco-art’s interaction with urban ecologies
- How urban art redefines ecological and urban relationships within the Urbanocene paradigm.
- The strengths and limitations of art in catalyzing collective action toward sustainability and ecological justice
- Exploration of the potential and challenges posed by eco-art’s interaction with urban ecologies
- How art mobilizes urban communities and fosters an inclusive ecological consciousness
- Architectural approaches to equitable sustainability and ecological consciousness in urban settings
- Art’s potential to reflect on the notions of capability and citizen empowerment (e.g. from the perspective of Amartya Sen and Martha Nusbaum, among others)
- How art redefines and confronts public space, fostering novel interpretations and forms of engagement
- The potential of art to create innovative, transformative spaces for citizen participation in urban environments
- Art’s capacity to activate, capture, and subvert urban experiences, challenging traditional perspectives on urban space
- The role of art in empowering marginalized voices and subjects within the city to assert their presence and agency
- Artistic narratives that emerge around social organization within gentrified urban spaces
- Art’s ability to reshape sensory and perceptual engagements with the city
- The aesthetic dimensions of urban social movements and their commitment to participatory democracy
We welcome contributions from diverse academic fields, including but not limited to urban studies, art history, political science, sociology, architecture, and environmental studies. This conference aims to gather a broad spectrum of insights that will enrich our collective understanding of how art interacts with and transforms the urban sphere in an era increasingly defined by ecological and social crises.
Contributors are invited to submit abstracts that should be 500 words maximum. Along with the abstract, please include a brief, recent Curriculum Vitae (no longer than one page) and send it to the conference convener, Tijen Tunali, at tijen.tunali@univ-rennes2.fr by January 15, 2025.
There will be no online presentations.
On the third day of the conference in the afternoon, there will be a free city tour to see the urban art activities in Nice
The fourth day of the conference there will be an optional trip to Monte Carlo and Monaco.
Selected papers will be invited to contribute to an edited volume contracted by Routledge or to a special issue in the Urban Studies Journal.
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to Tijen Tunali, at tijen.tunali@univ-rennes2.fr, for other information please go to https://artandthecity.sciencesconf.org/