Visual Arts & Material Culture Panel (Lieke Wijnia and Petra Carlson Redell)

As described in the conference theme, the notion of dis/rupture has various sides – it is an ambiguous term. It has a liberating, freeing side: disruption can work as a requirement for change and transformation. And yet, when dis/rupture gains a seemingly permanent state, it has the potential to hurt and destroy, irreparably. Both these processes fundamentally challenge, question and change existing relations. Dis/rupture transforms the relational, but also vice versa, relationality is fundamental in rupture and disruption. To understand dis/rupture is to understand its relational dimensions.

How can we understand this dual relational dynamic through artistic practice and material culture? Can we uncover how the arts stimulate and encourage rupture? How material culture becomes a vessel that carries and passes on the spirit of dis/rupture?

We see at least three possible entry points:

1.         Artists are often seen as being ahead of the zeitgeist, ahead of their times, creating icons, symbols and images that years later become mainstream. They encourage or even chase rupture. At the same time, now more than ever, artists maintain a more reactionary state, responding to the current state of our times. They produce cultural, political, societal criticism through visual language and material use. Some artists feel like they need to react: ignoring it or working on pure formal levels feels like misuse of privilege, as if colourblind. But could a deeper form of resistance and dis/rupture be lost in that very eagerness to respond?

2.         The change from the lone genius to collectives and teamwork – does this parallel the change from dominance of monotheism to a more holistic spiritual view on the world and human’s place in it? Does it reflect a longing for relational wisdom and embodied engagement instead of abstract visions of transcendence and a lonesome creator?

3.         The dis/rupture between the fields of art and religion is currently being negotiated. Has religious art become artistically housebroken? In what ways do the fields of art and religion challenge each other discursively, intellectually and in terms of form and expression? In what ways do they in fact already overlap?

We welcome various types of contributions and formats, from papers presenting scholarly reflection to artistic performance, and on themes directly or loosely related to the above description, as long as they engage with the theme of dis/rupture, visual arts and/or material culture. The art and material culture that is subject of the presentations can be historical, modern or contemporary. Within the ISRLC conference the VA/MC panel hopes to offer a third space for creative forms of intellectual encouragement. Let’s disrupt this conference for the better!

Feel free to contact us with your contribution ideas before submitting a final proposal.

Queries and abstract proposals of no more than 350 words should be sent to Lieke Wijnia (Stedelijk Museum Schiedam) at lieke@stedelijkmuseumschiedam.nl and/or Petra Carlson Redell (University College Stockholm) at petra.carlsson@ehs.se no later than 31st January, 2026.