Quaderni di Venezia Arti

A Driving Force

On the Rhetoric of Images and Power

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open access | peer reviewed
    a cura di
  • Angelica Bertoli - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
  • Giulia Gelmi - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
  • Andrea Missagia - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile
  • Maria Novella Tavano - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email

Abstract

The volume comprises a selection of papers presented at the 5th Postgraduate International Conference organized by the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Venice, 4-6 October 2023): A Driving Force. On the Rhetoric of Images and Power. In the introduction to his well-known The Power of Images (1989), David Freedberg claims not only that images hold power over us, but they are also, inevitably, related to ‘power’ itself. Art is therefore a powerful and non-neutral tool. Its forms and expressions influence and manipulate the realm of the real. Throughout human history, the artist’s creative power gave form, substance, and meaning to otherwise inert matter. This process turned the artist into a demiurge. Furthermore, once images are given their final form, they circulate and live a life of their own. The 5th Postgraduate International Conference was aimed at investigating the rhetorical nature of the intersection between image and power. In 1979 Yuri Lotman claimed that “rhetoric” is the displacement of the structural principles of a given semiotic sphere into another semiotic sphere. The Tartu semiologist’s approach implies that the “correlation with different semiotic systems gives rise to a rhetorical situation in which a powerful source of elaboration of new meanings is contained”. In exploring these meanings from a multidisciplinary perspective, this volume investigates two main themes: the power of the image, as an autonomous device, endowed with a pervasive and persuasive character; the image as a form for representing power which addresses questions concerning the sense of authority, and its negation, namely a sense of dissidence and counter-narrations.

Keywords New Media Installation ArtLatin faithSocially engaged artFeminist artVeniceSpeculative DesignJan Fryderyk SapiehaSixteenth-century Italian artPainted facadeScuole GrandiKustarRhetoricAby WarburgDecolonialityDesignImage and powerWearable technologiesOccupational realismMetaphorAuthorityCoronation of Miraculous ImagesSalon d'AutomnePortrait de la jeune fille en feuPost-representationSpeculative designHistoriographical biasDissidenceWarfarePostcolonialismGazeSaint GeorgeSurveillanceArtsPortrait de la jeune fille en fewCrossmappingJohn V PalaiologosSecond Post War PeriodGeneral intellectGeographical personificationsBeirutSemiologyPalaiologan RenaissanceUn’Ambigua UtopiaByzantine sculpturePower representationPowerAlternative pressFrench RevolutionIconographyGendered bodiesByzantine empireByzantine EmpirePost-RepresentationReligious submissionCountersurveillance FashionContemporary artLucerneVenice BiennalePoliticsPolish-Lithuanian CommonwealthVittorio VialeDistorted portraitItalyArts and craftsA/traversoVisual cultureTechnologyHolbeinNicolas Ibrahim SursockDroneMaterialismPolitical iconologyAllegoryImageCittadini originariMacedoniaPolitical iconographyPalazzo Madama, TorinoDirectorySursock MuseumAutotheoryPoor power imagesThe Peggy Guggenheim CollectionPropagandaExhibitionOur Lady of KodeńSexVisual identityOptic NerveSymbolsParaestheticsRenaissanceNational imageVisual CultureKodeńModern art historyRevolutionary festivalRussian EmpireNeoliberal imaginaryWoodFolkloreSalon dʼAutomneCountersurveillance fashionPoor power ImagesSapieha familyImage theoryFascismNew media installation artPower of the imagesRussian styleNew FormalismLebanonThe Bureau of Melodramatic ResearchLabour of lovePietro AretinoPublic sphereModern Art HistoryMelodrama

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-771-5 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-771-5 | Pubblicato 22 Dicembre 2023 | Lingua en