Conference of Canadian Medieval Art Historians: “Sacred Spaces in Medieval and Medieval Revival Art and Architecture” – Day 1


DATE
Saturday March 15, 2008

Day one of a 2-day conference.

The sacred spaces allied with medieval and medieval revival art and architecture were a locus of identification, which appears to contradict the more recent commodification of the sacred and the antique. Because contemporary consumption markets the antique, and academia must accept its complicity, the constitution of what is sacred remains important in defining the past and present moment.

The aim of this 2-day conference is to share research and new perspectives on sacred spaces in the context of medieval and medieval revival art and architecture. One particular area of inquiry is how does a Canadian perspective enhance the study of medieval time and space including its various reiterations. The conference will broadly address the question of what compels the continued re-examination of sacred spaces with particular emphasis on medieval and medieval revival social and spatial structures. This broad context allows for a variety of multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, and theoretical approaches to the study of medieval art and its various revivals since the Middle Ages.

Papers will be considered that address any art practice in the medieval or medieval revival periods, including
• Social and cultural constitutions of sacred spaces
• Iconology and iconography of the sacred
• Performance and reification of sacred spaces
• Imagined spaces and cultic spaces
• Expressions of cultural identity through architecture
• Strategies of patronage and religiosity
• Public and private constructions of sacred spaces
• Manifestations of the sacred in texts, culture, and/or the body
• Sacred pilgrimage
• De-sanctified spaces
• Gender and sexuality in relation to sacred spaces.
Submissions on these and related topics are welcome from fields including, but not limited to art history, classics, language and literature, religion, architecture, and cultural studies.

Deadline for submission of papers was Sept 22, 2007



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