LORA MARKOVA
(Bulgaria) “Mapping In-betweenness. On the Representation of Transcultural Identities in European Visual Media”
lora.p.markova(at)gmail.com
ABSTRACT: This presentation is a part of a larger research project that aims at studying how far transcultural identities have been represented in European artistic expressions and how far these artistic discourses shape the construction of European identities in-between cultures, discursive spheres, real and symbolic spaces. Thus, the dialectic relationship between representation and identity and how they mutually (re)produce each other will be constantly reinvented. The research focuses on European productions with glocal character, questioning if they transcend transcultural codes and symbols. Furthermore, the project tries to explore whether the communicative space between producers and receivers of cultural content could be conceptualized as a ‘third space’ with transcultural potential.
In order to render which artistic discourses are generated in European cultural space, the presentation will refer to visual media and cinematic representations. The oeuvre of European creators from diaspora and immigrant communities will be taken into consideration, since their work is often marked by the complex dynamics between European and non-European sentiments and the cultural sensitivity of in-betweenness. As ‘others within‘ they perform the freedom of being different from others as well as from their own selves in the interstice between cultures, roots and spatial distances. Thus, transculturality will be also studied as an integral element of the conceptual and aesthetic dimensions of their work.
BIO: Lora’s research interests focus on (new) media arts, interactivity and modes of contemporary spectatorship, transculturality and transcendence of aesthetic codes and cultural repertoires. Currently, she is completing an Erasmus Mundus MA in Euroculture at Deusto University – Bilbao, Spain, Georg-August University – Goettingen, Germany and Pune University, India. Lora holds a master’s degree in Media Culture (2007) and a Cum Laude master’s degree in Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education (2008) from Maastricht University, The Netherlands. She has worked for the European research project Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) – Amsterdam within the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Lora has also conducted research and published reviews on video art for the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) – Amsterdam. Her professional realization in media, communication and graphic design involves work in the private sector as well as a Blue-book traineeship at the European Commission, Brussels. Apart from following her academic interests, Lora is a practicing visual artist with a BA in Animation Cinema.
00:00:00Introduction
00:01:34Motivation and context
00:02:43Research Statement
00:03:28Cultural Identity and Representation
00:05:29Study Case
00:11:00Conclusions
