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Demonstrations in front of the parliament, Ljubljana, March 23 1993. Photo: Tone Stojko. © Muzej za novejšo zgodovino Slovenije [National Museum of Contemporary History], collection Tone Stojko, inv. n. TS19932303_22.

The Conference of the International Society for Cultural History organized in Tallinn, Estonia under the title Global cultural history brought together cultural historians from all over the world. The focal perspective of its 12th edition was to think about the world’s interconnectedness as the starting-point for cultural-historical research, and to discuss the circulations and interactions of things, peoples, ideas, and institutions across cultural and geographical zones. Keynote were speeches organized each day, so we had an opportunity to firstly listen to excellent Peter Burke with a lecture on observation of the concept of Renaissance in a global perspective. In my opinion, a lecture on Brazilian adaptation of ideas steaming from European Enlightenment carried out by his wife and collaborator Maria Lúcia Garcia Pallares-Burke was even more intriguing. I would also expose fascinating expounds of Anne Gerritsen, who took a closer look upon trade activities of the 18th-century merchants in a small Chinese village and presented their translocal, transregional and also transnational outcomes and influences. Altogether there were over 300 presenters, ranging from highly interesting to poorly elaborated papers, however there were charming possibilities to get insights into research perspectives of cultural historical approach not only to other spaces and times, but also to some other branches of humanities.

 

Abstract:

Dr. Urška Strle – Ivana Kobilca, the networking artist

The paper will pay attention to certain biographical aspects of the most renowned Slovenian female painter Ivana Kobilca (1861-1926), which will shed light on her social networks in particular. Such a focus is chosen to efficiently explain how a woman, a native of peripheral and rather conservative town of Ljubljana (Habsburg monarchy) managed to become a successful artist. Not only she achieved a thorough education in the field of painting (despite the lack of opportunities for women to enroll on artistic academic institutions), she also lived from artistic work throughout her lifetime. As a single and not particularly well-to-do member of the middle-class bourgeoisie, she managed to travel abroad, to live for decades in cultural Capitals of Europe such as Munich, Paris, and Berlin and encountered contemporary artistic currents there. Her biography reveals her own thoughtful strategies to overcome barriers that limited artistic expressions of women in the time of belle époque. A special focus of the paper is laid to the turn of 1918, when new political loyalties and diversion from former cultural circles, which arose with establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, added to her withdrawal from public space. The study is based on various forms of ego-documents (correspondence, notes, address books, photographs), periodicals and is contextualized by a broader socio-cultural environment.

 

 

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