Monuments, Site-Specific Sculpture and Urban Space (Be'er Sheva, 18 Dec 14)

Ben Gurion University of the , Be'er Sheva, Dec 18, 2014 Deadline: Jun 30, 2014

Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, Sapir Academic College

Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Department of the Arts

Call for Papers: Monuments, Site-Specific Sculpture and Urban Space: A symposium honoring the jubilee of ’s Monument to the Negev Brigade

18 December 2014

In honor of the fiftieth jubilee of the Monument to the Negev Brigade, and in honor of its creator, Dani Karavan, the Ben-Gurion university and its Department of the Arts is holding a symposium that seeks to shed new light on the monument and upon related art historical issues. The Monument to the Negev Brigade, or by its full name, The Negev Brigade Independence War Memorial, was created in the outskirts of Be’er Sheva, , upon a hill overlooking the city. Built between 1963-1968, it was a pioneering work of art in twentieth-century large-scale site-specific sculpture. It was one of Karavan’s first projects, one that anticipated his future artistic develop- ment as a sculptor engaged with site-specific sculpture internationally. Made entirely of exposed concrete and negotiating volume, space, light and shadow, the monument challenges traditional boundaries between sculpture, environmental art and architecture. As a pioneering manifestation of modern art in Be’er-Sheva, it has acquired a prominent place in its urban space, existing both within it and without, and connoting multiple levels of local and national meanings. With the monument as its point of departure, this symposium invites papers that open up new per- spectives and propose new frameworks for approaching and analyzing monuments, memorials and site-specific sculpture, as well as their relationship to urban space. Papers may address issues of memory and commemoration, the materiality of concrete as a medium in sculpture and architecture, environmental artworks in light of changing environments and urban developments, and the discourse between site-specific sculpture and its publics. Fresh methodological approach- es from a variety of disciplines, such as art and architectural history, urban studies and the nas- cent fields of geohumanities and memory studies are welcome. We cordially invite you to propose papers by sending a title and an abstract (up to 300 words) in English, in MS Word format to [email protected] by June 30, 2014. Please include your academic / professional affiliation, email and telephone number. For further inquiries please contact Dr. Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, [email protected].

The symposium will be held in conjunction with the events honoring the Monument to the Negev Brigade Jubilee, and the Monument to the Negev Brigade exhibition at the Negev Museum of Art,

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Reference: CFP: Monuments, Site-Specific Sculpture and Urban Space (Be'er Sheva, 18 Dec 14). In: ArtHist.net, Apr 26, 2014 (accessed Oct 2, 2021), .

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