Call for Applications: International Conference “Embodied Visions: Performativity, Visuality, and Materiality (1960s–1980s)”

We invite submissions for the international academic conference “Embodied Visions: Performativity, Visuality, and Materiality (1960s–1980s)”, which will take place May 27–28 at the Museum of the History of Medicine, Riga Stradiņš University, in Riga, Latvia.

The conference is organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia (ILFA) within the framework of the research project “Latvia's Cultural Ecosystem as a Resource for Resilience and Sustainability / CERS (2023–2026).”
The application deadline is March 21; notification of acceptance will be sent by March 28.

This interdisciplinary conference focuses on space, form, material, and movement within the context of visual and performing arts in the 1960s–1980s. This period was marked by radical shifts in artistic practice: performance art, conceptualism, experimental theatre, kinetic art, site-specific interventions, and more. At the same time, the era was shaped by complex ideological, material, and institutional constraints.

From unofficial artistic movements to state-supported experimental practices, the conference seeks to explore how embodiment, materiality, and performativity emerged in artistic works under socialism. How did artists confront issues of censorship and control by experimenting with form and process? What roles did alternative spaces, unofficial networks, and pedagogical structures play in shaping these practices? In what ways did these initiatives intersect with or diverge from art movements on the other side of the Iron Curtain?

The conference language is English.