|
The sacrosanctity of religious dogmas and beliefs, stringent laws of repression and codes of moral and ethical propriety have compelled artists to live and create with occupational hazards like uncertain audience response, self-censorship and accusations of deliberate misinterpretation of cultural production looming over their heads. In extreme cases, the battle between artistic iconoclasm and societal repression has forced creators to put their life on the line in defence of liberal self-expression. In recent years, issues surrounding the rights of minority cultures to recognition and respect have raised new questions about the contemporariness of the construct of blasphemy and sacrilege. Controversies over the aesthetic representation of the sacred, the exhibition of the sacred as art, and the public display of sacrilegious or blasphemous works have given rise to heated debates and have invited us to reflect on binaries like artistic and religious sensibilities, tolerance and philistinism, the sacred and the profane, deification and vilification.
This conference, the second in the series “Negotiating the Sacred”, will draw together theologians, historians, artists, lawyers, philosophers, political theorists, anthropologists, sociologists, media representatives, museum and art curators, as well as intellectuals from different religious and cultural groups to speak about the conception of sacralisation /desecration in artistic creation, representation of the sacred, exhibiting the sacred and to address the concerns about sensitivity towards religious and cultural difference.
Instructions for abstract submission
Please submit an abstract of about 200 words (for a 20 minutes paper), outlining your proposed topic, your approach, and the forms/media in which you intend to present your work.
Include a brief description of yourself, outlining your affiliations and your key publications, exhibits, and/or performances.
Send your abstract (preferably in WORD or PDF) to the e-mail address shown below.
Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 June, 2005
|
