[Museum] ICOM-DEMHIST ICDAD Conference Brno 2010

["Marta Lourenco" <mclourenco@museus.ul.pt>]

Invitation and Call for Papers:

Arts and politics in houses and interiors of the 20th century
Brno/Czech Republic, 21-24 April 2010
The Moravian Gallery in Brno - Conference Hall of the Museum of Applied Arts

International Conference organised by the Moravska galerie in Brno (Czech 
Republic) in cooperation with ICOM International Committees for Decorative 
Arts (ICDAD) and for Historic House Museums (DEMHIST).

The Moravian Gallery in Brno, the second largest art museum in the Czech 
Republic, is exceptional for the wide range of artistic disciplines it 
covers. It is the only institution in the country collecting visual art that 
is concerned with painting, drawing, graphic art and sculptore - from the 
past and the present - as well as photography, applied art, graphic design 
and architecture.

We invite you to join us at an international conference dealing with the 
national and international significance of houses and interiors. It will be 
held in Brno, a historical city priding on examples of international and 
national culture, the city where Adolf Loos was born, where Josef Hoffmann 
studied and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built one of his most famous buildings.

Is modernism an "international" phenomenon? Are there national monuments in 
an international style? Are there "national" styles in the 20th century, at 
all? Ten years after, facing globalisation, it is time to ask questions 
about two of the most important currents in the past century: nationalism 
and modernism. By tracing types of houses and rooms, the conference will 
address the villa as form and means of social and political representation.

A main focus will be on the relationships of central European architecture 
to Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London and Glasgow. For the Villa Tugendhat and 
the Jurkovic House in Brno as well as Josef Hoffmann's birthplace in Brtnice 
set prominent examples for an opposition of "national" and "international" 
styles created and chosen by architects or owners. Do these styles of 
architecture and interior design mix at random in this region or is the 
choice significant for the client and the architect or designer?

The conference will investigate the historical and theoretical implications 
as well as the outcome of these choices. By contrast, examples for housing 
and gardening from western, northern and central Europe, e. g., Switzerland, 
Finland, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as from outside Europe, e. g., from 
the United States, Brazil, Israel or India, shall complement the Moravian 
experience.

Preliminary programme:

-          Two working days of lectures and contributions by invited 
speakers and other leading professionals - museum curators, historians and 
art historians, architects, designers, and theoreticians from European 
countries, America and Asia, supplemented by slide and video projections, 
will be presented in Czech and English languages. Interpretation to and from 
Czech and English will be provided.

-          Visits to memorial houses in Brno (the Reissig House - arch. 
Leopold Bauer, architect Dusan Jurkovic's own house, Villa Stiassny -arch. 
Ernest Wiesner, Tugendhat Villa -arch. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

-          Post-conference tours:
1.      Luhacovice Spa, Dusan Jurkovic, 1901-1903, "New Slavonic 
metropolis"; Zlin - "Bata town"(worker's housing - arch. Frantisek Lydie 
Gahura, Bata Headquarters - arch. Vladimir Karfik)
2.      Brtnice - Josef Hoffmann Birthplace; Libodrice - Adolf Bauer House 
(arch. Josef Gocar); Prague - Villa Müller (arch. Adolf Loos)

The conference is intended for museum professionals, academic teachers and 
students, free-lance curators, historians, designers, art managers, art and 
design theoreticians and publicists, journalists, etc.

More detailed information and the application form will be available as of 
January 2010 at www.moravska-galerie.cz <http://www.moravska-galerie.cz/> 
and www.icom-icdad.com <http://www.icom-icdad.com/>

The conference is made possible by funds from the EU Culture Programme 
2007-2013. Project title: Architecture and Interior Design in Central Europe 
in the early twentieth century. Josef Hoffmann and Dusan Jurkovic. A joint 
project of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts 
/ Contemporary Art, Vienna, the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and 
ICOM-ICDAD.

Contact address:
Katerina Tlachova
Moravian Gallery in Brno
Husova 18
CZ-662 26 Brno
Czech Republic
Tel.: +420 532 169 128
Fax: +420 532 169 181
E-mail: katerina.tlachova@moravska-galerie.cz
www.moravska-galerie.cz/en <http://www.moravska-galerie.cz/en>

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Comissão Nacional Portuguesa do ICOM