Kaleidoscopic activities between anthropology and art
For anthropologists and artists “doing fieldwork” in contemporary worlds, art can be much more than an object of investigation. As sources of enrichment for anthropological practices, their diverse engagements with art are generating work that incorporates and combines research methods and ‘outcomes’. Curation and creation through visual, audio, or performing arts are at the heart of their work, extending the established anthropological interest in writing as a medium of thought and knowledge sharing. The kaleidoscopic presentation of art practices that now overlap and relate to fieldwork in its varied manifestations demonstrates the diversity and aesthetic complexity of these gestures, which are increasingly seen as essential to forming knowledge.
The Anthropologies of the Arts network has committed to advance the scholarship, discussion, and presence of anthropological approaches to the arts and of artistic approaches to anthropology. It seeks to build on its existing network of scholars, artists, and institutions to continue its exchanges with cultural production venues, thus building links between the university and other public or civil society initiatives. For EASA2020, this objective has taken the form of an online exhibition, and it will unfold into an offline version in Lisbon during September 2021. The exhibition has been curated in relation to the theme “field/works”, and it presents works by anthropologists and artists who break disciplinary boundaries, and whose practice foregrounds experimental, and open approaches to the theme.
The “field/works” exhibition has been curated, designed and digitally constructed in collaboration with a team of the Faculty of Fine Art at Lisbon University, and they will also host the offline exhibition in 2021. The online exhibition will be presented in a savvy interactive space for anthropology and art, open to inputs from EASA members and beyond, and it will be reactivated with various features during the conference and the coming year.
