For the Armenian-Russian mathematician, theologian and art-theoretician Pavel Florensky (1882–1937), the so-called reverse perspective of the Byzantine cult-image (in Greek: eikon) functioned not only as a phenomenon within painting, but also as an expression of a world-view that should ultimately define a cultural distinction between Russia and Europe. Florensky argued in various ways that the Russian-Orthodox reverse perspective represents ethical and aesthetical values that are superior to the Western linear perspective. He saw the lack of an exact definition of depth in the icon as an expression of true religious orientation towards a spiritual realm, which cannot be described within frames of our earthly – or Euclidean – categories of space and time. In other words, the reverse perspective became regarded as a real reversal of Western painting, requesting a different space, a different observer, and a different concept of reality. This dissertation is an “archeological excavation” in the 20th century Russian-Orthodox icon theology. By analyzing theories of Florensky in the first line, and also a number of his contemporaries and predecessors, I identify a complex of different layers similar to a palimpsest. In this palimpsest, archaism, paganism, patristic theology, and romanticism interact with a modern re-conceptualization of the medieval Orthodox icon. However, in a usual palimpsest the old letters shine through the new ones; Florensky, on the contrary, seems to project paradigms of his contemporary culture and science into his description of the medieval icon. In this case, would the reverse perspective not instead be a reverse palimpsest, where new texts become visible in the old texts? With this question, my dissertation introduces an approach to Florensky and the icon that is more complex than what has been the case in earlier research. A usual explanation of the formal aesthetics of the icon is that the icon painter directs his/her spirit towards Heaven and, consequently – and in contrast to the Renaissance painter – does not try to make a mimesis of the earthly things. However, I argue that this dichotomy between a profane and spiritual mentality should be regarded both as a condition for Florensky’s world view and, at the same time, as a construction produced by his thinking.

This thesis explores ways in which the reality of Kantor’s existence at a key moment in occupied Kraków may be read as directly informing the genesis and development of his artistic strategies. It argues for a particular ontological understanding of human being that resonates strongly with that implied by Kantor in his work and writings. Most approaches to Kantor have either operated from within a native perspective that assumes familiarity with Polish culture and its influences, or, from an Anglo-American theatre-history perspective that has tended to focus on his larger-scale performance work. This has meant that contextual factors informing Kantor’s work as a whole, including his happenings, paintings, and writings, as well as his theatrical works, have remained under-explored. The thesis takes a Heideggerian-hermeneutic approach that foregrounds biographical, cultural and aesthetic contexts specific to Kantor, but seemingly alien to Anglo-American experience. Kantor’s work is approached from Heideggerian and post-Heideggerian perspectives that read the work as a world-forming response to these contexts. Read in this way, key writings, art and performance works by Kantor are revealed to be explorations of existence and human being. Traditional ontological distinctions between process and product, painting and performance, are problematised through the critique of representation that these works and working practices propose. Kantor is revealed as a metaphysical artist whose work stands as a testament to a Heideggerian view of human being as a ‘positive negative’: a ‘placeholder of nothing’, but a ‘nothing’ that yet ‘is’ …

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:16:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_JALLAGEAS_N_03_2007.pdf: 18626663 bytes, checksum: a452b4a7a6bcac319bef2614c7d9770e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-07 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This thesis proposes to study the strategies of construction of the Russian (Soviet) filmmaker Andriêi Arsiénievitch Tarkóvski, establishing as the scope of the analysis the seven full-length features he made between 1962 and 1986. The central hypothesis is that the Tarkovskian cinematic works were made through the articulation of procedures inherent to the world view model organized through an reverse perspective, an articulation which opened possibilities for aesthetic experimentations associated to the predominant model, organized by the linear perspective. The underlying hypothesis is that the construction strategies in Tarkóvsky s cinema present themselves as a form o resistance to the Soviet cannons of arts and communication. The primary objective is to understand how these world view models connect with the visible world to produce visual messages and in which way such models problematize the concept of realism in the Arts and one of its derivatives, the Socialist Realism. The secondary objective is to discuss the procedures that intersect in time and space in distinct constructions: the Russian Avant-Gardes, medieval painting and Andriêi Tarkóvski s cinema. The final objective is to demonstrate how associative models dynamized the construction of this cinema through the use of the reverse perspective as a procedure, counterposing itself to the cannons established by the Socialist Realism. The theoretical basis of this research lies on the studies of the dialogical processes realized by the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, especially regarding his concepts of Small and Great Time, Chronotopy and Active Comprehension, in dialog with the manifests and writings of the Russian Avant- Gardes, taking mainly into perspective the conceptual field worked by the Russian thinker Pável Floriênski concerning the Reverse Perspective, and with the thoughts of Gilles Deleuze about the Ritornello. Methodologically, sequences of the seven fulllength features are selected in light of the concepts in which this work is based on. From these sequences the paradigms that trigger the association between the world view models have been highlighted: the potential lines that connect spaces; the formation of multiple centers and the densening of the centres or chronotopical extracts. Finally, this study stands out as it contributes to the problematization of guiding models of the totalitarian aesthetics that direct artistic and communicational creation and others, that direct strategies that aim at resisting artistic and communicational totalitarianism nowadays / Essa tese propõe estudar estratégias de construção no cinema do cineasta russo (soviético) Andriêi Arsiénievitch Tarkóvski, estabelecendo o campo de análise nos sete longas-metragens realizados por ele entre 1962 e 1986. A hipótese central é que a obra cinematográfica tarkóvskiana se fez, a partir da articulação de procedimentos inerentes ao modelo de visão de mundo organizado pela perspectiva inversa, articulação essa que abriu possibilidades para experimentações estéticas associativas ao modelo predominante, organizado pela perspectiva linear. A hipótese subjacente é que as estratégias de construção do cinema de Tarkóvski configuram-se como resistência aos cânones da arte e da comunicação soviéticas. Objetiva-se compreender, primeiramente, como esses modelos de visão de mundo se conectam com o mundo visível para produzirem mensagens visuais e de que forma tais modelos problematizam o conceito de realismo nas artes e seus derivados, o Realismo Socialista. Em seguida, pretende-se identificar e discutir os procedimentos que se intersectam no tempo e no espaço nas seguintes construções distintas: Vanguardas Russas, pintura de ícones medieval e cinema de Andriêi Tarkóvski. Finalmente, demonstrar como modelos associativos dinamizaram a construção desse cinema através do uso da perspectiva inversa como procedimento, contrapondo-se aos cânones estabelecidos pelo Realismo Socialista. Elege-se como campo teórico, o conjunto de estudos dos processos dialógicos na arte realizados pelo teórico russo Mikhail Bakhtin, principalmente os conceitos de Pequeno e Grande Tempo, Cronotopia e Compreensão Ativa, em diálogo com os manifestos e escritos das Vanguardas Russas, privilegiando-se o campo conceitual trabalhado pelo pensador russo Pável Floriênski acerca da Perspectiva Inversa e ainda com o pensamento de Gilles Deleuze sobre o Ritornelo. Metodologicamente são selecionadas seqüências dos sete longas-metragens à luz dos conceitos que embasam esse trabalho. Dessas seqüências destacam-se os paradigmas que desencadeiam a associação entre os modelos de visão de mundo: as linhas potenciais conectivas de espaços; formação de centros múltiplos e o adensamento dos centros ou extratos cronotópicos. Por fim esse estudo distingue-se por contribuir para a problematização de modelos norteadores da criação artística e comunicacional da estética totalitária e outros, que norteiam estratégias que buscam resistir ao totalitarismo artístico e comunicacional na contemporaneidade