1st RIOC - Page 12

João Pedro Amorim¹ & Luís Teixeira^2
1Universidade Católica Portuguesa, School of Arts, CCD/CITAR, pamorim@porto.ucp.pt, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0267-1276

²Universidade Católica Portuguesa, School of Arts, CCD/CITAR, lteixeira@porto.ucp.pt, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1206-4576 

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n2

Abstract

The public health measures that were put in place to contain COVID-19 impacted the lives of people and institutions alike. For its global impact and transformation, the pandemic has the potential to be classified as a mega-event. Such radical events have become great opportunities to the testing of new technologies and forms of organisation, (Masi, 2016) that might in the future become prevalent. The impact of the pandemic was particularly felt in the contemporary art world, as the entire cultural activity was suspended. During this period, art institutions and collectives around the world reacted by adapting and providing alternative materials online. This paper aims at reflecting upon the challenges facing the exhibition of contemporary art online. Following Boris Groys’ (2016) actualisation of Walter Benjamin, we problematise how the digital reproduction of art affects the aura of an artwork. Proposing a critique of the apparatus of digital platforms, we analyse how the digital reproduces and enhances ideological structures that overpass the whole of society. For that purpose we analyse how four different organisations (an artist-run space, an art gallery, a museum and an art biennale) have migrated their activity to online platforms. The case-studies will allow a broad understanding of the different approaches available – with some radically taking advantage of the digital environment, and others merely digitising the role taken henceforth by printed catalogues.

Keywords: reproducibility of the work of art, Art in the Digital, Aura, Contemporary Art, apparatus

Soujit Das¹  & Ila Gupta²

¹Assistant Professor of History of Art, Government College of Art and Craft Calcutta, West Bengal, India.

²Retired Senior Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning & Joint Faculty, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n1

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, along with the rise of the Mughal Empire, the social landscape of India changed drastically with the advent of the European colonial powers. In 1580 CE, following the First Jesuit Mission to the Court of Emperor Akbar, a new cross-cultural dialogue was initiated that not only impacted the socio-economic and political fabric but also the artistic productions of the time. The growing presence of the European traders, ambassadors, soldiers, and missionaries in the Mughal world also lead to several curious narratives that were widely circulated. These tales also gave birth to cultural misconceptions as the Europeans on several occasions were seen as social evils. They were often collectively addressed as Firang/Farang or ‘Franks’ and were perceived as ‘strange and wonderful people’ or ‘ajaib-o-ghara’ib’. It was during the Mughal reign when for the first time in Indian visual culture, a conscious attempt was made to document the life and customs of the European people. This paper attempts to understand how the processes of cultural alienation and Occidentalism had influenced the representation of Europeans in Mughal miniatures. It also argues how Mughal artists innovate new iconographic schemes to represent and perpetuate a sense of the ‘other’. How artists used these identity markers to establish notions of morality as well as of Islamic cultural superiority. The select illustrations also attempt to elucidate how these representations of Europeans were culturally appropriated and contributed to the Mughal ‘fantasy excursions’.

Keywords: Firang, Mughal, miniatures, Occidentalism, cross-cultural encounters