In early 2023, the Centre for Modern Art and Theory announced a call for a one-month Visiting Research Fellowship for 2023. We received 28 appliactions from which the committee selected the top two.  Now we are delighted to welcome the new fellows in the autumn term: Julieta Pestarino and Avishek Ray.

Short Bio

Julieta is an Argentinean photography researcher with a PhD in History and Theory of Arts (Buenos Aires University, 2021) and a Master in Curatorial Studies (Tres de Febrero National University, 2019). She graduated with a degree in Anthropology (Buenos Aires University, 2015) as well as in Photography (IMDAFTA, 2011). Her research focus is on the history of Argentine and Latin American photography.

She was a CONICET doctoral fellow 2015-2020 during which she worked as a research assistant at the Latin American Architecture Documentation Center (CEDODAL). Since 2015 she is also part of the “Study Group on Contemporary Photography, Art and Politics” (FoCo) of the Gino Germani Institute (FSOC-UBA). She carried out several abroad experiences: at the State University of Campinas (Brazil, 2012), Institute of the City of Quito (Ecuador, 2016), Montevideo Center of Photography (Uruguay, 2016), Masaryk University (Czech Republic, 2018), Casa de Velázquez (Spain, 2019), and the Italian-Latin American Institute (Italy, 2019). Pestarino was a Graduate Intern 2021-2022 in the Curatorial Department (Latin American Art) of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (USA) and is currently part of the Bauhaus Lab Global Modernism Studies 2023 in Germany.

Project: Modern Photographic Exchanges

The starting point of my project at the Centre for Modern Art and Theory is the participation in 1952 of the photographer Karel Otto Hrubý at the VIII International Salon of Photographic Art of the Foto Club Buenos Aires (Argentina). During my Ph.D. thesis research, I analyzed the exchanges between Argentina with the rest of Latin America and Europe through the modern and global photographic exchange network of photo clubs. In this framework, Hrubý’s participation suggests questions such as, why did a photographer based in Czechoslovakia decide to participate in an exhibition so far as Argentina? What photographic institutions were in post-war Brno and how were they linked to the rest of the world, especially to a region as geographically and culturally distant as Latin America? Taking into account that the photo clubs formed a network of institutions guided by the standards established by FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l’art Photographique), what was the impact of photographic exchanges through international salons on Latin American and Czech photography in the 1950s?

Julieta´s experience with the fellowship:

„My experience as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Modern Art and Theory at Masarykova Univerzita was very positive and enriching. The Center’s team was very welcoming and integrated me perfectly into all their activities during the three weeks I was there. I had my own desk to work at and all the resources of the university at my disposal.
During these three weeks, I participated in and carried out the following activities:
– I presented the progress of my research at the „Work in progress“ meetings.
– I attended one session of the „Reading group autumn 2023„.
– I used the libraries of Masaryk University, in particular the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Informatics, as well as the Moravian Library. I also consulted the photographic archives of the Moravian Gallery and the Moravian Museum in Brno.
– I contacted local photo historians with whom I was able to exchange information for my research.
– I gave a lecture on modern Latin American photography in the course „Other Modernisms„.
– As part of the SMArt Talks series, I presented my lecture „Exploring Latin American Photoclub Networks and Their Global Exchanges (1930-1960)“.
It was very challenging to carry out so many activities in only three weeks in a completely new environment, but I think that is what made the experience so enriching. Maybe more time would have been even better, perhaps 5 weeks instead of 3 would have been ideal, but in my case it was not possible for me to stay in Brno any longer, due to work and personal reasons.
Everyone I met at the Center for Modern Art & Theory, as well as in the rest of the Filozofická fakulta and other faculties of Masaryk University, was extremely friendly and they quickly integrated me into their daily dynamics. I felt as if I had been there for months! The great social environment was remarkable and I ended the experience with many new friends and colleagues.“

Short Bio

Avishek Ray teaches at the National Institute of Technology Silchar (India). He is the author of The Vagabond in the South Asian Imagination: Representation, Agency & Resilience (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Nation, Nationalism and the Public Sphere: Religious Politics in India (SAGE, 2020). His research appears in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Contemporary South Asia, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Multicultural Education Review, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Tourism, Culture & Communication, among others; and he has held research fellowships at the University of Edinburgh (UK), Purdue University Library (USA), Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia (Bulgaria), Mahidol University (Thailand) and Pavia University (Italy). In 2021, he was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship.

Project: Jaroslav Hnevkovsky’s representations of India

My project revisits Jaroslav Hnevkovsky’s representations of India. Fondly referred to as the ‘Slavic Gauguin’, Hnevkovsky combined folk/nativist elements and realist forms in his depictions of India – an approach that was much acclaimed, albeit mediated by a certain Orientalist gaze. The term ‘folk’ — folk theatre, folk literature, folk music etc. — is laden with heavy connotations. However, can we say with a modicum of certitude what ‘folk art’ is? I use Hnevkovsky’s works as a case study to examine the ethos of constructivism that informs the association of India with ‘folk’.