Reproductions of artworks were a crucial element of official narratives aimed at shaping Polish i... more Reproductions of artworks were a crucial element of official narratives aimed at shaping Polish identity after World War II. In this article, we explore the strategies employed in constructing visual messages in the first volume of the book series Ziemie Staropolski (Old Poland’s Territories) titled Dolny Śląsk (Lower Silesia), published in 1948 and devoted to the Western territories ceded to Poland after the war. In our case studies, we discuss such aspects as, on the one hand, framing, lighting, viewpoint and selection; on the other, geographical, political and social contexts. We propose two notions to explain the political use of reproductions. The first is geohistorical medium, which we employ in reference to how reproductions actualise the meanings of artworks in relation to geography and history. The second is affective reproduction, which we use to address deliberately shocking arrangements of reproductions with photographs that include ruins, artworks or people. We emphasise that both strategies aim at a specific group of viewers whose experiences oscillate between memories of war and hopes for the future. The reproductions we discuss participated in the construction of the postwar geopolitical order in Central Europe.
The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of th... more The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of the twentieth-century photography, whose ambition was to modernize human perception, hence also society. A project with such an objective, characteristic of the avant-garde, required not only the use of photography as a tool of “ocularcentrism,” to use a term coined by Martin Jay, but also some more solid epistemological and ontological foundation. The author analyzes the project of the New Vision, introducing two interpretive contexts, i.e. astrology and astronomy, which are understood as specific paradigms of cognition and knowledge. First, both concepts are located in a more general discourse of the philosophy of history (Nietzsche, Benjamin), and second, they are related to the practice and theory of the New Vision and the idea of developing a new vision of reality, shown at the famous “Film und Foto” exhibition (Stuttgart, 1929). The basis of the present interpretation is methodologic...
The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of th... more The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of the twentieth-century photography, whose ambition was to modernize human perception, hence also society. A project with such an objective, characteristic of the avant-garde, required not only the use of photography as a tool of “ocularcentrism,” to use a term coined by Martin Jay, but also some more solid epistemological and ontological foundation. The author analyzes the project of the New Vision, introducing two interpretive contexts, i.e. astrology and astronomy, which are understood as specific paradigms of cognition and knowledge. First, both concepts are located in a more general discourse of the philosophy of history (Nietzsche, Benjamin), and second, they are related to the practice and theory of the New Vision and the idea of developing a new vision of reality, shown at the famous “Film und Foto” exhibition (Stuttgart, 1929). The basis of the present interpretation is methodological reflection on the ideologization of photography in the so-called revisionist studies which favor the critique of the apparatus of power. Instead, the author proposes a concept of photographic vision connecting the picture and the spectator or, in other words, calling for taking into consideration the process of reception. This proposal, close to Hans Belting’s anthropology of the image, renounces the idea of the passive spectator, subject to the picture, in favor of the analysis of its perception. In the context of the New Vision, the picture-spectator relationship has been approached in terms of astrology and astronomy.
The subject matter of the article is the series La Vue by Zbigniew Libera, in which photograph it... more The subject matter of the article is the series La Vue by Zbigniew Libera, in which photograph itself and landscape view become the objects of the play with language and image conventions. The reference for this play is here writings of Raymond Roussel (1877-1933), and his conceptualized strategy of doubleness. Libera refers directly to Roussel’s creation assumption that language writes itself and is independent from reality, and also to the strategy of doubleness. Taking under consideration the process of perception, Libera represents the illusion of desired object and in the same time the illusion of photographic picture. The author of the article presents this play as a highly sophisticated and grounded in the history of photographic conventions where unsharpened image is unreadable and often called a mistake. The further argument is that we can describe this perception using Carl Jung category of active imagination, which let explain how La Vue provoke our imagination and in effect how one brings abstract desires to our attention. In consequence, the aim of Libera seems to be the awaken of the viewer and making him aware of his responsibility for a perceiving.
Reproductions of artworks were a crucial element of official narratives aimed at shaping Polish i... more Reproductions of artworks were a crucial element of official narratives aimed at shaping Polish identity after World War II. In this article, we explore the strategies employed in constructing visual messages in the first volume of the book series Ziemie Staropolski (Old Poland’s Territories) titled Dolny Śląsk (Lower Silesia), published in 1948 and devoted to the Western territories ceded to Poland after the war. In our case studies, we discuss such aspects as, on the one hand, framing, lighting, viewpoint and selection; on the other, geographical, political and social contexts. We propose two notions to explain the political use of reproductions. The first is geohistorical medium, which we employ in reference to how reproductions actualise the meanings of artworks in relation to geography and history. The second is affective reproduction, which we use to address deliberately shocking arrangements of reproductions with photographs that include ruins, artworks or people. We emphasise that both strategies aim at a specific group of viewers whose experiences oscillate between memories of war and hopes for the future. The reproductions we discuss participated in the construction of the postwar geopolitical order in Central Europe.
The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of th... more The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of the twentieth-century photography, whose ambition was to modernize human perception, hence also society. A project with such an objective, characteristic of the avant-garde, required not only the use of photography as a tool of “ocularcentrism,” to use a term coined by Martin Jay, but also some more solid epistemological and ontological foundation. The author analyzes the project of the New Vision, introducing two interpretive contexts, i.e. astrology and astronomy, which are understood as specific paradigms of cognition and knowledge. First, both concepts are located in a more general discourse of the philosophy of history (Nietzsche, Benjamin), and second, they are related to the practice and theory of the New Vision and the idea of developing a new vision of reality, shown at the famous “Film und Foto” exhibition (Stuttgart, 1929). The basis of the present interpretation is methodologic...
The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of th... more The paper focuses on the New Vision – one of the most important developments in the history of the twentieth-century photography, whose ambition was to modernize human perception, hence also society. A project with such an objective, characteristic of the avant-garde, required not only the use of photography as a tool of “ocularcentrism,” to use a term coined by Martin Jay, but also some more solid epistemological and ontological foundation. The author analyzes the project of the New Vision, introducing two interpretive contexts, i.e. astrology and astronomy, which are understood as specific paradigms of cognition and knowledge. First, both concepts are located in a more general discourse of the philosophy of history (Nietzsche, Benjamin), and second, they are related to the practice and theory of the New Vision and the idea of developing a new vision of reality, shown at the famous “Film und Foto” exhibition (Stuttgart, 1929). The basis of the present interpretation is methodological reflection on the ideologization of photography in the so-called revisionist studies which favor the critique of the apparatus of power. Instead, the author proposes a concept of photographic vision connecting the picture and the spectator or, in other words, calling for taking into consideration the process of reception. This proposal, close to Hans Belting’s anthropology of the image, renounces the idea of the passive spectator, subject to the picture, in favor of the analysis of its perception. In the context of the New Vision, the picture-spectator relationship has been approached in terms of astrology and astronomy.
The subject matter of the article is the series La Vue by Zbigniew Libera, in which photograph it... more The subject matter of the article is the series La Vue by Zbigniew Libera, in which photograph itself and landscape view become the objects of the play with language and image conventions. The reference for this play is here writings of Raymond Roussel (1877-1933), and his conceptualized strategy of doubleness. Libera refers directly to Roussel’s creation assumption that language writes itself and is independent from reality, and also to the strategy of doubleness. Taking under consideration the process of perception, Libera represents the illusion of desired object and in the same time the illusion of photographic picture. The author of the article presents this play as a highly sophisticated and grounded in the history of photographic conventions where unsharpened image is unreadable and often called a mistake. The further argument is that we can describe this perception using Carl Jung category of active imagination, which let explain how La Vue provoke our imagination and in effect how one brings abstract desires to our attention. In consequence, the aim of Libera seems to be the awaken of the viewer and making him aware of his responsibility for a perceiving.
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