Call for papers – Writing Space with Moving Images: Exhibition, Museum and Urban Itineraries
The pervasiveness of moving images in exhibition spaces is one of the most characteristic features of the contemporary artistic and media scene, and manifests itself in forms that are continually redefined in their use and in artistic research. Much has been written in an aesthetic perspective on the so-called cinema effect in contemporary art (Dubois 2006), on the relocation (Casetti 2012) of cinema in the museum, and on that set of phenomena that have been identified at different times as “cinéma d’exposition” (Royoux 1997, 2000), “other cinema” (Bellour 2000), “artist’s cinema” (Connolly 2009), and “othered cinema” (Balsom 2013). Furthermore, a growing amount of research recently has come to question the forms of penetration of moving images in everyday spaces, from urban scenarios to private contexts (De Rosa 2013, Ravesi 2011).
In this second area, which distances itself from an analysis of artistic phenomena in a strict sense, however, there are still many issues to be investigated. In particular, scholars have not yet taken adequately into consideration the role of moving images in the design of exhibition spaces, here understood not only as museum itineraries dedicated to cinema, from a historical, aesthetic or technological point of view (i.e. the exhibitions proposed by the Cinémathèque française or at the Turin Film Museum), but also permanent or temporary exhibitions of museums such as those of history, science and technology, archeology or ethnography (i.e. the museums curated by Studio Azzurro). There is a further absence regarding the exhibition forms of fairs and great exhibitions, as well as commercial presentations in shop windows and promotional spaces, which exploit moving images in various ways. In addition, there is a need for more widely researched projects that come out of the museum and enter the urban space, intersecting with a city’s architectural layout, as in the case of festivals (such as the Screen City Biennal or the Façade Festivals), in the directions of videomapping or hybridization with art, as in the case of Doug Aitken in New York with Sleepwalkers (2007) or in Rome with Frontier (2009).
The forms of writing of museographic paths are influenced by increasingly sophisticated exhibition design techniques, which can range from the use of video devices to new forms of augmented and virtual reality, as is usefully demonstrated by some museographic activities in different contexts. The writing of space as we intend to analyze it in this special issue is to be understood as the process of constructing a physical and cognitive path, which structures both the spatiality and the temporality of fruition.
How do moving images help to shape of the spaces in which they are installed? How are the forms of spectatorship structured? In which forms are exhibits integrated with each other and with moving images, to build a museographic itinerary? How were moving images used in the various types of exhibition and presentation spaces during the 20th Century? What kinds of supports are used and how can one trace their history? What is the role of the exhibition designer and how does s/he work with moving images? And what is the role of new technologies, and in particular of digital media, in these contexts and practices?
This special issue seeks to explore the use of moving images as a museographic tool, distancing itself from the institutions of contemporary art in order to address all forms of writing the exhibition space through cinema, video and other devices linked to moving images, focusing on museums, commercial presentations and fairs, on architectural and urban contexts, in the present or with a historical perspective.
Below are some of the lines of investigation, not exclusive, which can be followed:
- Forms of exhibition design
- The role of exhibition designer or visual designer
- The design of space with moving images
- Moving images in exhibitions (permanent or temporary) devoted to cinema
- Moving images in permanent or temporary museum displays (historical, of science and technology, archaeological, ethnographic)
- Moving images in fairs, trade shows, great exhibitions
- Moving images in urban itineraries
- Forms of spectatorship
- Analysis of museographic devices (screens, projections, virtual reality, augmented reality)
- The exhibition of moving images outside of artistic contexts from the beginning of the 20th century
A limited number of longer contributions (approximately 5000-6000 words) will be accompanied by a number of interventions that will focus on case studies (approximately 3000 words).
Please send an abstract and a short biographical note to mandelli.elisa@gmail.com and francesco.federici@iuav.it by March 30, 2018 April 15, 2018. Abstracts should be from 300 to 500 words of length (either in English or Italian).
If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article by June 30, 2018. Contributions will be submitted to double blind peer review. The number 14 of Cinergie will be published in December 2018.
ReferencesS. Arcagni, Oltre il cinema: metropoli e media, Turin, Kaplan, 2010.
Id., Screen city, Rome, Bulzoni, 2012.
E. Balsom, Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2013. R. Bellour, “D’un autre cinéma”, Trafic, n. 34, summer 2000, pp. 5-21.
G. Bruno, Atlante delle emozioni: in viaggio tra arte, architettura e cinema, Milan, Bruno Mondadori, 2006.
F. Casetti, “The Relocation of Cinema”, NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, n. 2, autumn 2012, http://www.necsus-ejms.org/the-relocation-of-cinema/.
M. Colleoni, F. Guerisoli, La città attraente: luoghi urbani e arte contemporanea, Milan, EGEA, 2014.
M. Connolly, The Place of Artist Cinema: Site, Space and Screen, Bristol-Chicago, Intellect, 2009.
M. De Rosa, Cinema e postmedia. I territori del filmico nel contemporaneo, Milan, postmedia books, 2013.
P. Dubois, “Un ‘effet cinéma’ dans l’art contemporain”, Cinéma&Cie: International Film Studies Journal, n. 8, autumn 2006, pp. 15-26.
P. Dubois, E. Biserna, e P. Brown (a cura di), Cinema, Architecture, Dispositif, Udine, Campanotto Editore, 2011.
F. Federici, Cinema esposto. Arte contemporanea e immagini in movimento, Udine, Forum, 2017.
S. McQuire, The Media City. Media, Architecture and Urban Space, London, SAGE, 2008.
E. Mandelli, Esporre la memoria. Le immagini in movimento nel museo contemporaneo, Udine, Forum, 2017.
G. Ravesi, La città delle immagini: cinema, video, architettura e arti visive, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2011.
J.-C. Royoux, “Pour un cinéma d’exposition. Retour sur quelques jalons historiques”, Omnibus, n. 20, april 1997.
J.-C. Royoux, “Cinéma d’exposition : l’espacement de la durée”, Art Press, n. 262, november 2000, pp. 36-41.
P. Virilio, “Dal media building alla città globale: i nuovi campi d’azione dell’architettura e dell’urbanistica contemporanea”, Crossing, n. 1, december 2000, pp. 5-15.
