International Scientific and Practical Forum «Traditional artistic culture issues of upland people. Martial and heroic themes in ethnic art»

The International Scientific and Practical Forum «Traditional artistic culture issues of upland people. Martial and heroic themes in ethnic art» is held from 14 to 21 September at the Abkhaz Institute of Humanitarian Research named after D. I. Gulia.

Social disasters and shocks are a powerful factor influencing the state of artistic consciousness, the development of art in all its manifestations, the fate of entire peoples, national cultural traditions and individual creative personalities.

In this regard, the resonance of the events of world and local wars in terms of the strength and depth of impact has no precedents in history, the tectonic shift in the consciousness of millions up to the present time is reflected in the relief of the entire culture of the XXI century.

The historical past of the peoples associated with the mountainous and foothill landscape, along with a peaceful existence, is filled with armed conflicts, the cause of which was largely the location of the territories of their residence and on the path of conquest campaigns. Caucasus, Carpathians, Balkans, Alps, Ural, Pamir, Tien Shan, Tibet, etc. were a powerful link between Europe and Asia, their various regions. Therefore, the path of numerous representatives of the army — Huns, Avars, Kipchaks, Mongols, Germanic and Iranian ethnic groups, Tamerlane’s troops, Crimean Tatars, etc. — lay, including through the lands of the mountain peoples.

Martial culture, real and mythologized, continuously developed and accumulated a significant part of the creative forces of the people. Many Abkhaz-Adyghe, Alanian, Turkic, Slavic, Romanesque, Germanic peoples, the peoples of Georgia and Armenia, other peoples of Eurasia have created a unique military culture that determined their national identity, mentality and allowed them to survive in the conditions of permanent war. The most important elements of these cultures are music, theater, architecture, dance, and visual arts.

Scientific comprehension of the cultural and artistic state in the period of cataclysms, changing in generations and reflected in art, a view of the most diverse events in history, artifacts that arose during the period of hostilities and after them — in the focus of the upcoming forum.

The following range of topics is proposed for discussion:

– traditional culture and art as a factor of survival in the era of social catastrophes;

– the image of war in the space of ethnic culture;

– music and martial arts: ethnographic and historical aspects;

– military history of the peoples of the Caucasus and its musical folklore;

– reconstruction of the combat tactics of mountain peoples in the works of scientists, educators, travelers;

– the art of fighting dance;

– traditions of musical cultures of mountain peoples;

– storytelling as an instrument of ethnic identification in the Caucasus;

– musical instruments and instrumental traditions of the mountain peoples: functioning, reconstruction, performance;

– Nart epic as a model of the world of the peoples of the Caucasus;

– instrumental epic of the peoples of Europe and Asia;

– problems of culture of ethnic marginal and enclaves;

– traditional musical cultures in a metropolis;

– composing schools of the peoples of the Caucasus: past and present.

The Organizing Committee invites to participate the music historians, ethnomusicologists, folklorists, instrumentalists, performing musicians, composers, culturologists, philosophers, historians, philologists.

The forum is held from 14 to 21 September at the Abkhaz Institute of Humanitarian Research named after D. I. Gulia: 384900, Republic of Abkhazia, Sukhum, st. Aidgylara, 44.

The organizing committee invites music historians, ethnomusicologists, folklorists, epic scholars, instrumentalists, choreologists, performers, composers, martial arts researchers, cultural scientists, philosophers, historians, and philologists to participate.

In addition to reports, discussions and round tables within the framework of the forum, concerts, master classes, video demonstrations, meetings with art masters are also planned.

This project is aimed at developing new mechanisms for regional cultural partnership, strengthening cultural relations between different civilizations, and also contributing to peace and sustainable development of mountain regions.

Attention! In emergency of a worsening epidemiological situation and restrictions on entry to Abkhazia, the event will be held online.

Forms of participation: report (10 min.), presentation (20 min.), including, demonstration of video and audio materials.

It is planned to publish a collection of articles.

Deadlines for submission of materials:

Application: Until August 20, 2020: full name, academic degree, place of work, position, address, e-mail, field of activity, intended form of participation, topic.

Until September 1, 2020 – materials for publication (up to 20,000 characters with spaces, including footnotes and references; no illustrations and musical examples), abstract in English (up to 250 characters).

E-mail: instrum_conf@mail.ru (marked “Petersburg and national musical cultures”).

Technical requirements for the texts: format rtf or doc (Word 1997–2003), font — Times New Roman, size 12, without formatting and hyphenation, are allowed only in italics. Footnotes and notes are placed after the main text. A numbered list of references is arranged at the end of the article in alphabetical order. References to bibliography are given through a colon in parentheses: the first digit is the serial number of the publication in the list, the second is the page number. For example: [2: 68].

Texts that do not meet the proposed requirements and issues of the conference are not considered. Requests for additional technical support are accepted by e-mail.

Chairman of the Organizing Committee – I.V.Matsievsky, Doctor of Art History, Professor, Head. SIII Instrument Studies Sector, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and MAI, Honored Artist of Ukraine and Poland;

Organising Committee

E. Ashuba, Director of the Abkhaz Institute for Humanitarian Research named after D.I. Gulia, Candidate of Philology, docent;

V. Kaslandzia, Deputy Director of the Abkhaz Institute for Humanitarian Research named after D.I. Gulia, Candidate of Historical Sciences, docent;

F. Avidzba, Deputy Director of the Abkhaz Institute for Humanitarian Research named after D.I. Gulia, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor;

A. Bulatova, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Organology, Russian Institute for the History of Arts;

A. Timoshenko, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Organology, Russian Institute for the History of Arts;

I. Karpets, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Organology, Russian Institute for the History of Arts.

Project Manager:

A. Sen, Research Scientist, Department of Organology, Russian Institute for the History of Arts.