Kickoff Meeting of the International Project CULTURAL INTERACTIONS IN THE MEDIEVAL SUB-CAUCASIAN REGION: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL AND ART-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Workshop |
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| Description | The main objective of this project is to investigate exchanges and interactions between the medieval cultures of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, including monuments in Eastern Anatolia, now in Turkey. The project will focus on a complex understanding of the cultural contacts characterising these geographical spaces from the 5th to the 13th century, within a “global” dialogue. The main issue with such an endeavour is a series of historiographical layers preventing a confident analysis of the material, visual, and ritual cultures of this area. Indeed, the cultures of the Caucasian and Sub-Caucasian regions (Zekiyan 1996) have had a complex and contested history throughout the period of modern art history’s existence. Its historical situation has led to multiple colonial interests. In the 19th century, for two centuries, the region was divided between the Russian Empire and its Ottoman counterpart. Later, it was torn between the USSR and Turkey. Under the USSR, three formal states appeared – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – which became independent nation states only in 1991. This condition had its roots in the medieval period, when the different states somewhat corresponded to the present ones. To make this situation even more complex, Eastern Anatolia was from 1915 to 1921 the setting of an event that is considered by many states, including Switzerland and the Czech Republic, a genocide. Subsequently, medieval monuments were destroyed or heavily damaged in the region, probably by the Turkish army. An art historical problem thus also touches on contemporary history. |
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