Networks: Visual Anthropology Network

VANEASA Interest groups

VANEASA decided to install special interest groups when needed. In case you are interested to create an intest group within VANEASA please contact Beate Engelbrecht beate.engelbrecht(AT)sowi.uni-goettingen.de

The Anthropology of Art interest group within VANEASA was first launched at the EASA conference in Paris, 2012. The objective of the interest group is to build a forum for EASA members interested in Art, either in terms of exchanges with art practice and theory or/and as a subject of study. We have left the definition of “Art” open to discussion, but it is definitely not restricted to visual practice. ww

We have had our first meeting in this last EASA conference in Tallinn, 2014. We organised this meeting as a Lab (L200 Anthropologies of Art). The rationale was to generate a group discussion on the objectives of the interest group. A central theme that emerged through our meeting was the uncertainty in the processes of collaboration between Art and Anthropology. It has been argued that there had been some misunderstandings in these exchanges. We thought it was necessary to put together these experiences and discuss which are the reasons for these misunderstandings? Which concepts are we putting in play in these processes? Are we using the same concepts in different ways? We decided to organise a workshop where we would focus on the discussion of a number of concepts. This workshop, “Encountering Concepts in Art and Anthropology”, took place at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain during the 11 and 12th of June 2015. The concepts discussed were: “method/work”, “research”, “creativity”, “participation/exclusion”, “institutions” and “archives”. Following the workshop, we are working on a blog where the discussion on these concepts will continue.

If you want to join the interest group or just want to follow our activities please email rogersansi[at]gmail.com re: Anthropology of Art interest group.