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The Birch and the Star

The Birch and the Star

Category Archives: News

Call for Papers: Approaching esotericism and mysticism

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Marja Lahelma in Conference, News

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International conference “Approaching esotericism and mysticism: Cultural influences”

Turku (Åbo), Finland, 5–7 June 2019 

This multidisciplinary conference approaches the traditions of Western esotericism and mysticism from a cultural-historical perspective. The aim is to analyse the diverse influences of esoteric ideas and practices and the various forms of mysticism in their cultural-historical surroundings. We promote approaches that focus on individuals, groups and networks, and various archival source materials, but we also welcome papers dealing with esoteric or mystical textual traditions.

The conference will consist of keynote lectures and sessions that can be either traditional paper sessions or roundtable talks and panels.  The social program of the conference will consist of e.g. esoteric and occult walking tours in Turku and artistic performances (plans for an event together with Art Teatro Circus -group). An excursion to the exhibition on Finnish art and clairvoyance at the Gallen-Kallela Museum (11 May –8 September 2019) is also being planned. The exhibition is part of the research project Seekers of the New and is curated by Nina Kokkinen.

We invite people from different academic backgrounds to discuss western esotericism and mysticism included but not limited to the following topics:

  • Esotericism and mysticism in art, literature and music
  • Esotericism and mysticism in popular culture
  • Esotericism and mysticism in Nordic countries, Eastern Europe, South Europe etc.
  • Esotericism, mysticism and transnational networks
  • What has been hidden, silenced or otherwise remained in the margins of esoteric and mystical traditions and in the research field (e.g. gender, class, ethnicity…).
  • Ethics and positioning in the study of esotericism and mysticism
  • Individuals and archival sources in the study of esotericism and mysticism

To apply, please send an abstract (or panel proposal with abstracts) of approximately 150 words to the Donner Institute, donner.institute@abo.fi, no later than 31 December 2018. Letters of acceptance will be posted no later than 31 January, 2019.

Selected papers from the conference will be published in volume 29 of the Donner Institute Series Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis as the co-publication of the Donner Institute and research project Seekers of the New.

The expert symposium is arranged jointly by the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural history and the research project Seekers of the New: Esotericism and the transformation of religiosity in Finland during the era of modernisation, 1880-1940 at the University of Turku. The project is funded by the Kone Foundation.

Conference website: www.abo.fi/esomyst

Facebook event: Approaching esotericism and mysticism

Hashtag: #esomyst2019

Surrealism in and of Scandinavia, University of Oslo, 30 Nov 2018

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by Marja Lahelma in Conference, News

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The conference is organized by the ”Munch, Modernism, and Modernity” research group.

Nov. 30, 2018 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, University of Oslo, Domus Academica, Theologisk eksamenssal.

olav-stromme_dod-blomst.jpg
Olav Strømme, «Død blomst», 1935. Foto: Richard Jeffries ©Munchmuseet

Surrealism is without question one of the most influential and mutating intellectual and aesthetic practices emerging from the twentieth century. But “when” was Surrealism and “where” was Surrealism?

The movement was codified in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s with André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) as its foundational marker. For Breton, a revolutionary condition of Surrealism was its internationalism. Its participants held a wide range of nationalities; and throughout the 1930s, with Paris as a node, it appeared as an artistic and cultural movement on every continent due to the applicability of its revolutionary ideals and artistic practices to a variety of political and cultural circumstances. As a global movement it is often measured against, or understood within, the evolving thinking and artistic strategies of Parisian Surrealism. Recent studies have called attention to the culturally specific practices that constitute Surrealism as a global movement, drawing attention to more complex narratives within a multitude of manifestations and activities, challenging the canonical notion of Parisian Surrealism.

What were the specific entanglements of Surrealism and Scandinavia? For example, in a neglected passage of the First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), André Breton paid homage to Knut Hamsun. Quoting at length from his novel Hunger (1890), Breton attributed the notion of automatic delirium to the Norwegian author, thus championing his prose as a quintessential precursor to Surrealism. In 1894 August Strindberg, whom Breton in Arcane 17 (1944) proclaimed to belong to a lineage of prominent revolutionary thinkers, published an essay in the Parisian magazine La revue des revues, declaring the need for a new art through the application of chance in artistic creation. In 1934, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen declared the need for a Surrealist revolution in Scandinavia, and a number of artists joined the movement, organizing talks and exhibitions, publishing books and periodicals as well as adapting Surrealist strategies into their own practices.

This conference seeks to invigorate these intersections, and to ponder how Scandinavia has been surrealist and vice versa. We wish to probe historical, aesthetic, formal and cultural discourses, – French and Scandinavian, or of other origin for that matter – which may shed light on the productive intersection of Surrealism and Scandinavia. We hope to complicate the traditional historical narrative of “Scandinavian Surrealism” and to re-open and expand the question of Surrealism’s broader relevance to art and culture in and of Scandinavia.

Program

8:30. Registration and coffee

9:00. Introduction

9:15. Keynote address: Karen Karen Kurczynski, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

10:15. Coffee Break

10:45. Panel I:  Symbolism in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair: Jon-Ove Steihaug, Munch Museum

Thor Mednick, U. Toledo, “I Grow Fatigued: Jens Lund and the Emergence of Nordic Surrealisms”

Clarence B. Sheffield, Rochester Institute of Technology, “Haakon Bugge Mahrt’s Modernisme and the Complex Cultural Context of Scandinavian Surrealism ”

Marja Lahelma and Hanna-Reeta Schreck, U. Helsinki & Independent Scholar: “Ellen Thesleff’s Art in a Surrealist Context”

Discussion

12:00. Lunch Break

1:15. Panel 2: Women in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair:  Pat Berman, Wellesley College

Kerry Greaves, U. Copenhagen, “Women, Surrealism, and Denmark”

Martin Sundberg, Norrköping Art Museum, “In and out of Surrealism: Greta Knutson-Tzara and the Swedish Art Scene”

Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, NTNU, “Modish and Erotic Fabulations. Rita Kernn-Larsen’s Surrealism”

Discussion

2:30. Panel 3: Narrative in and of Surrealism
Panel Chair:  Øystein Ustvedt, National Museum

Lars Toft-Eriksen, Munch Museum and UiO, “Rolf Stenersen and the Surrealism of Edvard Munch”

Emil Leth Meilvang, UiO, “Psycho-biology and life aesthetics in Danish, inter war Surrealism”

Kristoffer Noheden, Stockholm University, “Surrealism in Stockholm: 1949, 1986”

Discussion

3:45. Coffee break

4:00 Response and group discussion

6:30 Dinner for the speakers

Conference fee: kr. 200 / 100 for students. The fee covers coffee/tea and lunch.

Register and pay here

This is the eighth conference organized and sponsored by the Munch, Modernism, and Modernity Research Group at the University of Oslo, the Munch Museum, and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo.

The planning committee: Patricia Berman, Emil Leth Meilvang, Mai Britt Guleng, Ute Kuhlemann Falck, Jon-Ove Steihaug, Øystein Ustvedt, Øivind Storm Bjerke, and Øystein Sjåstad.

For questions: oystein.sjastad@ifikk.uio.no
https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/munch/events/conferences/2018/munch-2018.html

The Birch and the Star’s trip to Ainola

31 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by Marja Lahelma in Members' events, News

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On 29 August 2018 members of The Birch and the Star visited Ainola, the home of composer Jean Sibelius and his family, located in Järvenpää close to many other artists’ homes around Lake Tuusula. We spent the afternoon exploring every nook and corner of the charming early 20th century house designed by the architect Lars Sonck. We were even allowed to take a peak into parts of the house that are usually closed from the public. In the upstairs bedroom the presence of Aino Sibelius, who continued to live there after her husband’s death, could still be felt. And in the little room where Jean Sibelius had spent hours composing, reading and thinking, we encountered a ceramic bust of Beethoven sculpted by Sibelius’ friend Sigurd Wettenhovi-Aspa. The wonderful collection of artworks mostly consists of gifts given to Sibelius and his family by artist friends and admirers of the composer’s work. The garden has been kept beautifully with some plants originating from the time the Sibelius family still lived there. Of course we also stoped to pay our respects at Jean and Aino Sibelius’ grave.

We wish to thank museum director Hanne Selkokari for being such a wonderful host!

IMG_1590.jpgIMG_1600.jpgIMG_1603.jpgIMG_1597.jpgIMG_1605.jpgIMG_1606.jpgIMG_1595.jpg

Current events in The Birch and the Star / Ajankohtaisia asioita The Birch and the Starissa

20 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by Marja Lahelma in Members' events, News

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Greetings from the general annual meeting

The Birch and the Star held its general annual meeting in Ateneum Art Museum on June 6, 2018 and elected a new board for the association. Riikka Stewen was elected as chair of the association. Other board members are Marja Lahelma (communications officer) and Petra Lehtoruusu (secretary) with Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff (vice-chair) and Anne Pelin as vice-members. Nina Kokkinen continues as treasurer.

Join us for a trip to Ainola Museum on Aug 29, 2018

On August 29th the association organizes a trip to Ainola Museum for its members. The programme includes visiting the Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius’ home with museum director Hanne Selkokari as our host. The trip is limited to members of The Birch and the Star, but joining the association is possible during the trip. Welcome to join us and contribute to the association’s future activities!

The programme starts in Ainola on Wednesday Aug, 29 at 16:00.

Call for Ideas on the association’s future

The board is beginning work on a strategy for the associations future and kindly asks members to submit ideas for developing the association and its activities. Please send any proposals for activities to the associations secretary Petra Lehtoruusu (petra.lehtoruusu[at)helsinki.fi).

Updating the association’s membership register

The association is updating its membership register and kindly asks members to send their current contact information to secretary Petra Lehtoruusu (petra.lehtoruusu(at)helsinki.fi). Thank you for your help!

Best regards,
The Birch and the Star Board of 2018

***

Terveisiä vuosikokouksesta!

Vuosikokous Ateneumin taidemuseossa 6.6.2018 valitsi yhdistykselle uuden hallituksen. Yhdistyksen puheenjohtajaksi valittiin Riikka Stewen. Hänen lisäkseen hallitukseen valittiin Marja Lahelma (tiedottaja) ja Petra Lehtoruusu sekä varajäseniksi Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff (varapj) ja Anne Pelin. Taloudenhoitajana jatkaa Nina Kokkinen.

Kesäretki Ainolaan 29.8.2018

Birch and the Star järjestää jäsenilleen retken Ainolaan 29.8.2018. Ohjelmaan sisältyy vierailu kansallissäveltäjä Jean Sibeliuksen kotimuseoon Järvenpäässä museonjohtaja Hanne Selkokarin johdolla. Retki on avoin vain jäsenille, mutta retken aikana on mahdollista liittyä yhdistyksen jäseneksi. Tervetuloa mukaan!

Ohjelma alkaa Ainolassa ke 29.8. klo 16:00.

Tule mukaan ideoimaan yhdistyksen tulevaisuutta

Hallitus aloittaa strategiatyön yhdistyksen kehittämiseksi. Jäsenistöltä toivotaan palautetta ideoita yhdistyksen tulevaa toimintaa varten. Ehdotukset voi lähettää sihteeri Petra Lehtoruusulle (petra.lehtoruusu(at)helsinki.fi).

Yhdistyksen jäsenrekisteriä päivitetään

The Birch and the Star pääivittää jäsenrekisteriään ja pyytää jäsenistöä lähettämään ajantasaiset yhteystietonsa sihteeri Petra Lehtoruusulle (petra.lehtoruusu(at)helsinki.fi). Kiitoksia avusta!

 Terveisin,
The Birch and the Starin hallitus 2018

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