Call for Papers
REG|AC Revista de Estudios Globales & Arte Contemporáneo, issue 5, Winter 2017
Cold War networks and circulations: Cross-cultural Dialogues and Practices throughout the Global South (1957-1991)
Editors: Paula Barreiro López and Juliane Debeusscher
In the heat of the Cold War, social development(s) as well as material innovations – involving, amongst others, radical advancements in the fields of information, communication, aerodynamics and cybernetic technologies (for both, military and civil purposes) – favoured the creation of transnational networks that put the visual arts, literature, architecture, art criticism and theory into a proficient dialogue. The exchanges of information, knowledge and experiences went beyond the division into two ideological blocks and ideas were very often not just limited to a distinct region or scene but circulated across borders, thus creating cross-cultural dialogues that were challenging bipolar as well as non-aligned geographies of the Cold War.
Artistic migrations and collaborations sustained the interconnection of centre(s) and periphery(/ies), dialogue between practitioners, as well as the creation of new spaces – platforms or middle grounds – where ideologies in dispute and even antagonist conceptions of the static presentation of the Cold War could be expressed. Furthermore, transnational and even transcontinental exchanges promoted a general consciousness of social and political solidarity among the actors involved, but also resistance. Expressions of solidarity, expressed through states’ cultural policies or individual or collective initiatives on the margins of the system(s) became recurrent issues. Hence, from the end of the 1950s onwards, in the wake of the increasing anti-imperial struggles and processes of decolonization, constructive interactions within those networks led to a utopian and socialist turn that would eventually have a considerable impact in what started to be designated as the global south.
This issue of REG|AC aims to map Cold War cultural networks developed throughout or in contact with the transatlantic/pacific south (between 1957-1991), taking in account social as well as political relations, institutional agendas and the sphere of civic participation. We understand “transatlantic/pacific south” as a complex spatial and geopolitical configuration, comprehending on the one hand the Atlantic and the Pacific as dorsal spines around which different political, economic, military and cultural interests were grouping and interacted with one another; on the other hand, “south” refers in our understanding to an entity “invented in the struggle and conflicts between imperial global domination and emancipatory and decolonial forces that do not acquiesce with global designs. ” As such, transatlantic/pacific south is a political, social and cultural geography, which we suggest could have an important role in orienting and agencing specific relationships between social individuals and collectives, as well as cultural and artistic practices. Along with analyses of the manifold interactions that collaboration and exchange provided, this issue of REG|AC seeks to contemplate the complex dynamics through which cultural agents engaged with the social, economic, and geographical dissonances implied in these transfers, whilst claiming cultural accord on the basis of language, ideology, religion, and history. This issue wants to investigate in how far these interchanges participated in and/or disrupted the Cold War politics and it furthermore intends to critically discuss whether they participated in the construction of transnational movements, which anticipated and fuelled post-1989 narratives and structures of a postmodern and multicultural society.
Regarding such angles we would like contributors to consider the following key questions: How did networks of collaboration shape and transform spaces and platforms that put into a dialogue a wide range of cultural and social actors? What kind of exchanges between different disciplines provided these networks? What were the means and structures through which objects and ideas could circulate, and how did they influence the latters shape and content? How did these manifold interchanges participate in or interfere with the Cold War politics of representation and expression, as well as its ideological rhetoric?
We welcome articles in English or Spanish that especially address the following aspects: the poetic, aesthetic and political dimensions of the here outlined processes, as well as their repercussions on the construction of transcultural imaginaries (involving internationalism, solidarity and freedom); the material and ideological conditions backing such exchanges (including displacements caused by exile, migration or professional motives, adhesions to specific beliefs and political causes, as well as individual demand for communication and exchange); and finally theoretical reflexions concerning the relation between the study of these networks and the paradigm shift in Cold War historiography.
Participation
To participate in the call, please send by May 5th, 2017 an email to info@modernidadesdescentralizadas.com with your proposal for an article in a Word document including: 1) Title, 2) Abstract up to 500 words (approx. 3000 characters), 3) Keywords, 4) A brief CV of the author, specifying educational background, academic and professional activity, publications, and contact details. Considering the bilingual nature of REG|AC Journal, proposals are accepted both in English and Spanish.
Schedule
Reception of proposals – May 5th, 2017
Reception of selected articles – September 7th, 2017
Issue publication – End of 2017
The length of the articles must be between 20,000 and 40,000 characters (3000-6000 words), in addition to images if the author wishes to include them (in this case, the author will be responsible for asking permission to publish them, following the author guidelines about “Use of images”: http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/REGAC/about/submissions.
REG|AC is an open access academic peer-review journal. Articles proposed for publication must be unpublished and should follow APA citation rules. Once handed in, the texts will be blind peer-reviewed by two anonymous referees. Likewise, the journal will be distributed with the Creative Commons recognition license that allows the work to be shared with third parties, provided that they acknowledge their authorship, their initial publication in this journal and the conditions of the license.
We invite the authors to consult the norms published in the journal’s webpage:
http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/REGAC/about/submissions
Questions and inquiries can be addressed to info@modernidadesdescentralizadas.com
