Final Report Summary - SOCIALMAPONPARIS (The social meaning of images: advertising posters in the first half of the 20th century in Paris)
Main achievements:
As stated in the initial scientific proposal, the main purpose of the project has been the study of the efficacy of the images answering the following questions:
- How images mean something?
- How they can produce identities?
- Which type of narration of the world they convey?
Another point of theoretical interest has been the relation between art and non-art images and the related problem of the possible dialogue between art theories and images and signification theories. Actually this is a central question that we worked, starting from different approaches, here at CEHTA.
The empirical study case focused on advertising posters and art work at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris. An emblematic case to open the two mentioned theoretical problems.
The work of Acquarelli at the CEHTA concerned a series of activities that I resume here very briefly:
(1) participation to seminars;
(2) participation to the activities of CEHTA;
(3) creation of a group of lecture on theories of images (only 2010 - 2011);
(4) teaching activities (2011);
(5) participation in numerous international conferences;
(6) publication of four articles related to different aspects of the project;
(7) archive work / historical research;
(8) scientific organisation of the conference 'The sense of images between forms and forces. From the figurative to the figural: analysis of objects';
(9) writing of a draft of a further publishable article on posters and art in the beginning of the 20th century;
(10) participating on a research unity of the CEHTA on contemporary art;
(11) passing the exam of qualification to have the access to university career in France. This final report aims to resume all the activities done by Mr Acquarelli during his research period (part of this report is already present in the Mid-term Report and in the Periodic Report).
Activities (September 2010 - April 2012)
During the period of research, thanks to the IEF Marie Curie Fellowship Mr Acquarelli could integrate his methodologies with various authors who enrich his theoretical field. He attended various seminars on images and arts theories, in particular:
2010-11
- 'Conformation. Théologie et anthropologie de l'art européen aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles' ('Conformation' Theology and anthropology of European Art during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries) (my seminar).
- 'Anthropologie du visuel' (Anthropology of visual) (Prof. G. Didi-Hubermann).
- 'Races, nations, arts (XIXe-XXe siècles)' (Races, nations, arts) (Prof. E. Michaud).
2011-12
- 'L'art, une technique d'adaptation' (The art, a technique of adaptation) by Eric Michaud - during the seminars there was a series of courses by the invited scholar Mario Pezzella (University of Pisa) on 'The political and esthetical regime of the society of spectacle'.
- 'Détruire la peinture. Histoire et temporalités chez Caravage', my seminar (Destroying the painting. History and temporality in Caravaggio) - during the seminar there was a series of courses by the invited scholar Ralph Ubl (Eikones - Basel) on 'Delacroix, Klinger, de Chirico - Three conferences on the hand in painting'.
During his work as a researcher at CEHTA he could complete the study of all the works that Louis Marin wrote on the efficacy of images, on his notions of 'opacity' and 'transparency', and on the 'power of images' (mainly the books 'Le portrait du Roi', 'Des pouvoirs de l'image', and the posthumous edition 'De la représentation'). The work of Marin is a key reading in the problem of efficacy of representations (one of the main theme of the Acquarelli research); in this sense the link to Ricoeur ideas of structural identity between history and fiction as narrative discourses is very worthwhile (Acquarelli worked and explained this link in a lecture in January).
Moreover, during his work at CEHTA he could deepen the theoretical work of Aby Warburg and Walter Benjamin and their Kulturwissenschaft (science of culture): these two authors, too vast to be summarised here, allowed him to broaden the vision of history as a cultural process that can accept 'anachronistic movement'. Very briefly, Aby Warburg was very important to him to introduce the anachronistic point of view on history and Benjamin for the notion of 'history as a montage'. Two notions that opened the possibility to deal with images as a sort of objects that are working the iconographical 'archive', their own 'memory', in order to build atlas of images and to rethink genealogies and historical / cultural pertinences.
The second part of the research period was dedicated to further studies on the relation between art and non-art images and to the scientific organisation of a conference in April 2012. Furthermore, during the months of October and November, Acquarelli prepared the 'dossier' for the exam of 'qualification', a compulsory exam to have access to the university career in France. He translated most part of his work in French language in order to explain in detail his research career. He finally had the qualification in those scientific section he is more engaged in (Arts (18) and Communication (71)). This is an important step of the internationalisation of the research work of Acquarelli.
Specific theme of empirical work
Concerning the specific research on posters and the city of Paris, Acquarelli closed his first part of research in the archives (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque Forney, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs and others) to collect the needed iconographical material. He's now finishing a draft of an article on art field and posters at the beginning of 20th century in Paris. The numerous activities he did in our research centre (as a central part of his research training project) retarded a little bit the closing of the final version of this first research on posters, pictorial arts, urban spaces and modernity. Nonetheless, the state of his work at the end of the research period is already a good draft that could give him the possibility to have a new and original publication on this issue during the next year.
The most important thing is that his approach achieved an important maturity to control the theories of images and the problems of history in a heterogeneous field of research as the modernity of visual culture in the city of Paris. Actually his work opens new perspective on the visual culture of modernity and on the permeability between non-art and art object. Looking as a reference to the book 'Arcades projects' by W. Benjamin (his concept of 'readability' of the city) and Karlheinz Stierle's 'Paris, capitale de signe' (both in their French translation) Acquarelli proposed a new work on the modernity of Paris taking the advertising poster as a centre of his analysis.
As stated in the initial scientific proposal, the main purpose of the project has been the study of the efficacy of the images answering the following questions:
- How images mean something?
- How they can produce identities?
- Which type of narration of the world they convey?
Another point of theoretical interest has been the relation between art and non-art images and the related problem of the possible dialogue between art theories and images and signification theories. Actually this is a central question that we worked, starting from different approaches, here at CEHTA.
The empirical study case focused on advertising posters and art work at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris. An emblematic case to open the two mentioned theoretical problems.
The work of Acquarelli at the CEHTA concerned a series of activities that I resume here very briefly:
(1) participation to seminars;
(2) participation to the activities of CEHTA;
(3) creation of a group of lecture on theories of images (only 2010 - 2011);
(4) teaching activities (2011);
(5) participation in numerous international conferences;
(6) publication of four articles related to different aspects of the project;
(7) archive work / historical research;
(8) scientific organisation of the conference 'The sense of images between forms and forces. From the figurative to the figural: analysis of objects';
(9) writing of a draft of a further publishable article on posters and art in the beginning of the 20th century;
(10) participating on a research unity of the CEHTA on contemporary art;
(11) passing the exam of qualification to have the access to university career in France. This final report aims to resume all the activities done by Mr Acquarelli during his research period (part of this report is already present in the Mid-term Report and in the Periodic Report).
Activities (September 2010 - April 2012)
During the period of research, thanks to the IEF Marie Curie Fellowship Mr Acquarelli could integrate his methodologies with various authors who enrich his theoretical field. He attended various seminars on images and arts theories, in particular:
2010-11
- 'Conformation. Théologie et anthropologie de l'art européen aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles' ('Conformation' Theology and anthropology of European Art during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries) (my seminar).
- 'Anthropologie du visuel' (Anthropology of visual) (Prof. G. Didi-Hubermann).
- 'Races, nations, arts (XIXe-XXe siècles)' (Races, nations, arts) (Prof. E. Michaud).
2011-12
- 'L'art, une technique d'adaptation' (The art, a technique of adaptation) by Eric Michaud - during the seminars there was a series of courses by the invited scholar Mario Pezzella (University of Pisa) on 'The political and esthetical regime of the society of spectacle'.
- 'Détruire la peinture. Histoire et temporalités chez Caravage', my seminar (Destroying the painting. History and temporality in Caravaggio) - during the seminar there was a series of courses by the invited scholar Ralph Ubl (Eikones - Basel) on 'Delacroix, Klinger, de Chirico - Three conferences on the hand in painting'.
During his work as a researcher at CEHTA he could complete the study of all the works that Louis Marin wrote on the efficacy of images, on his notions of 'opacity' and 'transparency', and on the 'power of images' (mainly the books 'Le portrait du Roi', 'Des pouvoirs de l'image', and the posthumous edition 'De la représentation'). The work of Marin is a key reading in the problem of efficacy of representations (one of the main theme of the Acquarelli research); in this sense the link to Ricoeur ideas of structural identity between history and fiction as narrative discourses is very worthwhile (Acquarelli worked and explained this link in a lecture in January).
Moreover, during his work at CEHTA he could deepen the theoretical work of Aby Warburg and Walter Benjamin and their Kulturwissenschaft (science of culture): these two authors, too vast to be summarised here, allowed him to broaden the vision of history as a cultural process that can accept 'anachronistic movement'. Very briefly, Aby Warburg was very important to him to introduce the anachronistic point of view on history and Benjamin for the notion of 'history as a montage'. Two notions that opened the possibility to deal with images as a sort of objects that are working the iconographical 'archive', their own 'memory', in order to build atlas of images and to rethink genealogies and historical / cultural pertinences.
The second part of the research period was dedicated to further studies on the relation between art and non-art images and to the scientific organisation of a conference in April 2012. Furthermore, during the months of October and November, Acquarelli prepared the 'dossier' for the exam of 'qualification', a compulsory exam to have access to the university career in France. He translated most part of his work in French language in order to explain in detail his research career. He finally had the qualification in those scientific section he is more engaged in (Arts (18) and Communication (71)). This is an important step of the internationalisation of the research work of Acquarelli.
Specific theme of empirical work
Concerning the specific research on posters and the city of Paris, Acquarelli closed his first part of research in the archives (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque Forney, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs and others) to collect the needed iconographical material. He's now finishing a draft of an article on art field and posters at the beginning of 20th century in Paris. The numerous activities he did in our research centre (as a central part of his research training project) retarded a little bit the closing of the final version of this first research on posters, pictorial arts, urban spaces and modernity. Nonetheless, the state of his work at the end of the research period is already a good draft that could give him the possibility to have a new and original publication on this issue during the next year.
The most important thing is that his approach achieved an important maturity to control the theories of images and the problems of history in a heterogeneous field of research as the modernity of visual culture in the city of Paris. Actually his work opens new perspective on the visual culture of modernity and on the permeability between non-art and art object. Looking as a reference to the book 'Arcades projects' by W. Benjamin (his concept of 'readability' of the city) and Karlheinz Stierle's 'Paris, capitale de signe' (both in their French translation) Acquarelli proposed a new work on the modernity of Paris taking the advertising poster as a centre of his analysis.