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Research Network

“Ornament: Motif – Mode – Image” 

The Research  Network “Ornament: Motif – Mode – Image”  is a cooperation between the NCCR Iconic Criticism - eikones, the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group "Kosmos/Ornatus" and external partners (EHESS Paris, Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz/MPI, Ruhr-University Bochum, UdK Berlin, University of Cologne).

Abstract:

Ornament enables the identification of pictures as ordering structures of the visible. With ornament it becomes clear that pictures do not merely depict, but also give structure. So ornament can be conceived of as an indicator of a picture's potential which does not lie primarily in its depicting capacity. This approach relates to the recent debates attributing a decisive effectual force to ornament as parergon. However, in contrast to such rhetorically oriented approaches, the specific visual quality of various historical forms of ornament will be brought into view. Thus, ornament will no longer be understood as mere decoration, nor as the mere functionless object of a history of style. Instead, it will be conceivable as a graphic structure which generates meaning in its own way. The research network examines ornament, independently of depiction, in its various historical and cultural articulations, for its own graphic function. Thus ornament can be located as a mode between image and motif.

Directors: Vera Beyer (Emmy Noether Research Group "Kosmos/Ornatus") and Christian Spies (eikones)

The network was founded in August 2006 and meets twice a year for a workshop. The following workshops have taken place so far:

Insignificant Ornament? – 24-25August 2006, NCCR Iconic Criticism – eikones, Basel  

Ornament/Ornamental/Image – 2-3March 2007, Ruhr University, Bochum

Surface/Ornament/Space – 13-16 September 2007, Institute of Art History – Max Planck Institute, Florence

Ornament: Structure or Parergon? – 4-6 April 2008, École des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Forthcoming:

Conference: Ornament : Motif – Mode – Image, 18-20 September 2008, NCCR Iconic Criticism – eikones, Basel

For further information on the members and their projects see the eikones homepage under the category “cooperations”.