Conference "Figurations of Force in the Avant-Gardes between 1900 and 1940"
Foto: Design: QART Büro für Gestaltung, Hamburg; Image: Francis Picabia, Sans titre, circa 1920. Copyright: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB, Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg / Volker-H. Schneider
When: Wed, 04.02.2026 2:00 PM until Fri, 06.02.2026 3:30 PM
Where: DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe »Imaginarien der Kraft«, Gorch-Fock-Wall 3, 1. OG, 20354 Hamburg, 1021
The emphatic evocation of ›forces‹ can be regarded as one of the defining features of avant-garde movements—both within and beyond Europe—between 1900 and 1940. Bringing together case studies from a range of disciplines, this conference seeks to explore the diverse artistic strategies and forms through which notions of force were articulated in art and literature. Focusing on aesthetic figurations of force provides an opportunity to re-examine avant-garde conceptions of force beyond their explicit programmatic invocation and to shed light on previously unobserved historical and systematic interferences and transitional phenomena that cross linguistic, geographical, and disciplinary boundaries.
Organization: Caroline Adler, Adrian Renner, Julia Soytek