Between modernity an tradition: Visual culture and nationhood Event as iCalendar

Vanine Borges Amaral and Ekaterina Volkova | University of Auckland

Visual cultures have played an important role in the establishment of national communities, and the construction and promotion of national identity. Two current doctoral candidates of CLL, Vanine Borges Amaral and Ekaterina Volkova, independently explore aspects of this phenomenon in Brazil and Spain’s autonomous community, Galicia, respectively. In this CLL research seminar, they present some results of their ongoing investigation, focusing on how the interplay of traditional elements and contemporary trends in visual arts reinforces the idea of nation.

Vanine examines how the process of summoning Brazilianness is discussed through the trajectories followed by Brazilian folk art from a community-based production to fulfill national and global market demands. While using some folk artists as illustrative examples, she examines how recurring visual and symbolic features are used to support the idea of nation in the country.

Ekaterina analyses some Galician artists who demonstrate local and global dimensions in their works and trajectories and whose sources of creative power are linked to their Galician roots. Their oeuvre expresses various facets of Galicianness through the juxtaposition of the traditional and modern, abstract and figurative, classic and popular. Finally, Vanine and Ekaterina intend to compare briefly the cases of Brazil and Galicia and identify certain patterns.