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Aesthetics Forum with Lenka Piper
Event by: Inštitút estetiky a umeleckej kultúry FF PU Prešov
Location: University of Prešov Faculty of Arts, 17. novembra 6600/1, Prešov
Online event
About event
Indigenous Art in Context: History, Categories, and Contemporary Issues
What happens when Indigenous artistic practices are approached through Western categories of art, aesthetics, and cultural heritage? This lecture examines the historical and epistemological frameworks through which “Indigenous art” has been constructed, classified, interpreted, and institutionalised within Western art disciplines. Rather than treating “Indigenous art” as a self-evident category, it follows its emergence through several shifting paradigms: the initial “discovery” and documentation of Indigenous cultural production; its classification within the discourse of “primitive art”; the subsequent distinction between art and artefact; and the gradual recognition of Indigenous artists as individual authors and Traditional Owners as authorities in the interpretation and representation of their cultural practices. The second part of the lecture reconsiders the status and limits of “Indigenous art” as a category in the twenty-first century, asking whether a concept historically shaped by Western systems of classification can remain valid and functional in the context of contemporary Indigenous artistic practices.
Hybrid lecture & discussion
In person: Room no. 192 / Faculty of Arts, University of Presov
Connection: https://meet.google.com/yba-sqyh-yhy
Lenka Piper (PhD, Palacký University Olomouc, 2025) is a Czech art and cultural theorist and researcher specialising in modern and contemporary art, visual culture, and aesthetics. Her doctoral research examined Australian Indigenous art in relation to questions of locality, global circulation, and cultural translation. Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach, bridging art history, aesthetics, anthropology, and cultural studies. Her academic interests include the definition and boundaries of art, Indigenous art and aesthetics, and the shifting relationships between ethnographic and artistic classifications.
What happens when Indigenous artistic practices are approached through Western categories of art, aesthetics, and cultural heritage? This lecture examines the historical and epistemological frameworks through which “Indigenous art” has been constructed, classified, interpreted, and institutionalised within Western art disciplines. Rather than treating “Indigenous art” as a self-evident category, it follows its emergence through several shifting paradigms: the initial “discovery” and documentation of Indigenous cultural production; its classification within the discourse of “primitive art”; the subsequent distinction between art and artefact; and the gradual recognition of Indigenous artists as individual authors and Traditional Owners as authorities in the interpretation and representation of their cultural practices. The second part of the lecture reconsiders the status and limits of “Indigenous art” as a category in the twenty-first century, asking whether a concept historically shaped by Western systems of classification can remain valid and functional in the context of contemporary Indigenous artistic practices.
Hybrid lecture & discussion
In person: Room no. 192 / Faculty of Arts, University of Presov
Connection: https://meet.google.com/yba-sqyh-yhy
Lenka Piper (PhD, Palacký University Olomouc, 2025) is a Czech art and cultural theorist and researcher specialising in modern and contemporary art, visual culture, and aesthetics. Her doctoral research examined Australian Indigenous art in relation to questions of locality, global circulation, and cultural translation. Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach, bridging art history, aesthetics, anthropology, and cultural studies. Her academic interests include the definition and boundaries of art, Indigenous art and aesthetics, and the shifting relationships between ethnographic and artistic classifications.