Browsing by Subject "taide"
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(2015)This Master s thesis analyses the politisation of collective memory in the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture founded in 1973 in Miami. The museum was established by Cubans who exiled after the revolution of 1959. The goal of the museum was to maintain Cuban culture and tradition until the return to homeland. The purpose of this thesis is to find out why an auction that took place at the museum in 1988 polarised the internal relations in the museum and why the functions of the museum slowly ceased after the auction. The research methods are anthropological participant observation, ethnographic fieldwork and archive research. The data is mainly gathered during the two months of field work in 2006 in Miami. The archive data comprises of 49 documents from the archives of the Cuban Museum, derived from the Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami. The interview data includes five in-depth interviews with key figures from Miami, three of which were central actors in the case of the museum. Furthermore, field notes and 71 media texts concerning the Cuban Museum collected from the Cuban Heritage Collection are analysed. The thesis demonstrates that the tensions between processes of counter-memory and official history are negotiated in the operations of the museum as the collective memory of a community becomes public. The thesis depicts how the politics of memory are apparent in the efforts of the Cuban community to institutionalise memory and participate in the processes of constructing Cubanness. The tight institutional structure and political and cultural unity of the Cuban community of Miami, and especially of the first, golden generation of exiles, have made possible a parallel public sphere local to Miami. This definition of Cubanness is based on a specific projection of time, where the authentic Cuba is recognised as the Cuba before revolution, and the socialist Cuba is considered a context of the disfigurement of Cubanness. Victoria Boym s concept of restorative nostalgia explains the nostalgic nationalism of Cubans forced to settle outside the borders of the homeland, as the negotiations of past in the operations of the museum aim at a reproduction of the home and at overcoming the temporal distance from the idealised Cuba of the past. This thesis proposes that the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture can be considered an institution that reproduces counter-memory, understood after Johannes Fabian and John R. Eidson as social action that makes collective memory public. The museum participated in the production of collective memory and discussion of authentic Cubanness as opposed to the State of Cuba s official understanding of history. The conclusion is that through the exile ideology of the Cuban community in Miami, the public representations of memory are controlled in such a way that the historicity produced in the museum did not sufficiently represent the Cuban community, and as such, did not gain general support. This may be one reason for the termination of the operations of the museum, even as the Cuban community continues to wait for the possibility of return.
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Radikaali vapaus marginaalissa : Taiteen ja julkisen keskustelun suhde taiteen tekijän näkökulmasta (2019)In this thesis, the relationship between art and public discussion is studied in the context of the maker of art. The starting point of this work is the observation that in the discussion and research about the role of art in society, the viewpoint of the maker often plays the role of a walk-on. Art is frequently the object of different societal desires and expectations that concern for example art’s impact in the societal activation of citizens. These desires commonly disregard the context and condition that effect the process of the making of art. In this study, the ideals of the role of art in public discussion, the structures that effect the actualisation of these ideals, and the potential of art as a part of public discussion, are discussed from the perspective of the maker. The relationship between art and public discussion is considered in the light of Jürgen Habermas’ ideal of communicative rationality, Chantal Mouffe’s idea of agonistic politics, and Jacques Rancière’s concept of the distribution of the sensible. Their ideas are put into dialogue with the point of view of the maker both through interviews of artists as well as through reflective autoethnographic artistic research. The interviews are conducted by using a semistructured theme interview method and the autoethnography leans on the tradition of artistic research. The interviewees are from the fields of visual arts and dance, as these fields share similarities for instance in their economic structures. Part of the material of the thesis consists of statistics and reports on the conditions of the making of art. In the interviews, art’s role in society is seen through the modern idea of art as a field that is to a certain extent detached from the rest of society, thus forming a radical sphere of freedom in relation to public discussion. Art is located in the margins of society which both enables the freedom of art but also suppresses it. Economical and institutional structures as well as structures related to publicity effect the actualisation of the ideals of art’s role in society. Changes in the societal structures seem to influence art’s makers perception of the place of art in society and in public discussion. In the study, art comes out as an activity that has either a supportive or a resisting political position in relation to the hegemonic order. The possibility for art to influence public discussion through mainstream media doesn’t appear strong in the interviews. Journalism related to art is criticised for concentrating on stories of the artists or on the success of the art, instead of on the contents of the art. The picture that is formed in the study of the relationship between art and public discussion shares similarities with the ideas of both Habermas and Mouffe as well as Rancière. Art is seen to have an important role in public discussion because it can for example challenge the existing power structures and bring forth things that have formerly been invisible in society. Through art it is possible to raise emotions and effect people especially through provoking shared affects. In the autoethnographic artistic research, art forms an affective and performative moment of discontinuity in relation to public space and discussion.
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(2013)This thesis is a study about art as a constructive element of the society. The aim of this work is to prove the significant and special nature of art as a creator of the future of the society, as well as show how the curiosity of art is a part of social and political research. The scientific argument of the thesis is based on studies by Claude Lévi-Strauss and Victor Turner. The main thread and the basic concept of the work has been to examine the term 'bricoleur', used in Lévi-Strauss`s 'La Pensée Sauvage' to describe a person recreating new by using the surrounding society as his material. The starting point of this thesis is to study and examine the relationship between the bricoleur and art. The key work from Victor Turner has been 'The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual', and also 'The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure'. The viewpoint of Lévi-Strauss has been extended by using the thoughts and arguments of Turner´s studies about ritual symbolism. By comparing the thoughts of these two anthropologists the intention is to show the diverse and versatile meaning of art as a constructor of the society. The subject has been examined by using artistic examples. The thesis focuses especially on the work and the artistic production of three artists. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are examples of visual artists and Jean Sibelius is an example from the field of music. The study analyzes and examines the artistic repertoire of other artists as well, such as the art work of Pablo Picasso´s. The basis of the selection of the artists has been their great social impact as well as the fact that they lived in the same era on different continents. The structure of the thesis has been divided into four main sections: The first part examines art as a phenomena and focuses on theoretical and historical definition, as well as the relationship between art and society. The chapter is to make the reader understand what the thesis is talking about when it is talking about art. The second part is about the nature of art as a creator of cohesion through the light of artistic examples and social circumstances. Through the examples of Rivera, Kahlo and Sibelius the artistic work shall be seen as an empowering element of the society. The third chapter concentrates on the analysis of the artistic data and proves how the comparison of the artistic work is relevant, even if it was born on two different continents. The aim of the chapter is to show through very concrete examples how it is possible to create the new through art. The fourth section examines the work of Lévi-Strauss and Victor Turner. The chapter looks into the anthropological discussion of the subject. The chapter also intends to show how by studying the ritual context and symbolic meaning of art, as well as the nature of bricoleur, the role of art will be understood as an important and significant element in society. The study argues that art has a unique role as a force that regenerates and recreates the society. It also shows the significance of art as a transformative, intergrative and empowering phenomena.
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Transgression taidetta : Etiikan, estetiikan ja politiikan kohtaaminen Julia Kristevan ajattelussa (2013)Tutkielma tarkastelee bulgarialais-ranskalaisen Julia Kristevan (s. 1941) ajattelussa muodostuvaa kytköstä etiikan, politiikan ja taiteen välillä. Kristeva etsii taiteen kielistä sekä muista normaalista kielenkäytöstä poikkeavista diskursseista subjektia, kieltä ja yhteiskuntaa horjuttavaa käytäntöä. Päämääränä on uudenlainen etiikka: pyrkimys paljastaa näiden rakenteiden taustalla toimivat mekanismit. Kristevan näkökulma subjektiin, kieleen ja yhteiskuntaan on psykoanalyyttinen ja jälkistrukturalistinen. Ymmärrys puhuvasta subjektista yhtäaikaisesti viettiperäisenä sekä sosiaalisesti rakentuneena tarjoaa mahdollisuuden ylittää kielen ja ruumiin perinteisen vastakkainasettelun. Kristevan ratkaisu on herättänyt sekä kiitosta että kriittisiä näkökulmia. Tutkielmassa esitelläänkin Kristevan teoria subjektista ja sen rakentumisesta sisäisesti jakautuneena psykofyysisenä olentona sekä avataan siihen kohdistunutta kritiikkiä. Kristevan keskeiset käsitteet kuten ’semioottinen’ ja ’symbolinen’ sekä ’abjekti’ valottavat teorian taustalla olevaa näkemystä 'toiseudesta'; siitä mikä jää merkitsevien käytäntöjen ulkopuolelle tai tulee torjutuksi yksilön kohdalla tai yhteisöissä. Keskeisiksi, läpi Kristevan tuotannon kulkeviksi kysymyksiksi, nousevat erilaiset transgressiivisuuden muodot sekä ’eettinen käytäntö’. Kristevalle etiikka koskee sitä, miten erilaisia sosiaalisia järjestelmiä voidaan tarkastella sekä miten hahmottaa sitä, minkä ne sulkevat ulkopuolelleen. Niin subjekti, kieli kuin myös yhteiskunta tarvitsevat Kristevan mukaan erilaisia transgressioita, rajanylityksiä, joissa ero 'saman' ja 'toisen' ('sisä-' ja 'ulkopuolen') välillä kumotaan hetkeksi. Ilman tätä mahdollisuutta, muuttuisivat rakenteet staattisiksi ja totalisoiviksi. Psykoanalyytikkona Kristevan teoria liittyy kiinteästi yksilöiden hyvinvointiin: elämän mielekkyys, merkityksellinen kieli sekä yhteisöllinen elämä ovat sidoksissa transgression mahdollisuuteen. Ne ovat riippuvaisia kumouksista, jotka mahdollistavat liikkeen psyykkisten todellisuuksien sekä semioottisen ja symbolisen välillä. Taide esittäytyy Kristevan ajattelussa arvokkaana käytäntönä, jossa edellä mainittu liike tai kumoukset voivat tapahtua. Kristevan teoriaa on useimmiten sovellettu yksittäisissä teosanalyyseissa, mutta tutkielmassa hahmotellaan lisäksi kokonaisnäkemystä siitä, mitä Kristeva tarkoittaa puhuessaan taiteesta eettisenä käytäntönä sekä missä mielessä taide voi olla poliittista Kristevan ajattelun puitteissa. Taiteen kyky horjuttaa subjektia ja kieltä vertautuu Kristevalla poliittiseen vallankumoukseen. Taiteen taistelu erilaisia yhden totuuden diskursseja, konformismia ja normalisaatiota vastaan sekä kyky tuoda esiin diskurssien ja subjektien singulaaristen, intiimien psyykkisten tilojen moninaisuutta tekeekin Kristevan taiteen teoriasta poliittisen hyvin erityiseen tapaan.
Now showing items 1-4 of 4