Periphery, Province, Borderline: The Case of a Local “Art World” in Florina (Greece). (original) (raw)

Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery- An homage to Ljubo Karaman

Periphery, Province, Borderline: The Case of a Local “Art World” in Florina (Greece). The center and periphery discourse about visual arts arise a number of issues related to political, economic and cultural dependencies but also to the specificity of regional art as expressed in the research of Ljubo Karaman, Jan Bialostocki, Nikos Hadjinikolaou, Terry Smith, Foteini Vlachou and other scholars. In the case of Greece, visual arts, after the creation of the Greek state in the 19th century, are shaped by the demand for academic art according to European standards. The harmonization with the important European centers continues during the 20th century. However, visual arts in Greece are characterized by diversity, as artists adopt the international trends, while often combining them with elements of modern Greek culture. Although Art History in Greece focuses on the study of the fine arts produced in the capital and the major urban centers, the case of Florina, a small provincial town on the border with the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania, where a significant number of artists are active in the post-war years, is special. This paper showcases the formation of a local "Art World", within the specific historical, social and cultural context, in parallel with the conditions concerning the production, distribution and reception of the work of art in the local environment. In particular, the hierarchical evaluation between the artists with academic studies and those who practice the artistic work without corresponding studies, the interaction between them, the particularity of the local artistic production in relation to the manifestations of the visual arts in Greece are investigated. A special aspect of the subject under investigation is the effort of the local community to create institutions similar to those of the center, which led in 2006 to the establishment of the School of Fine Arts (University of Western Macedonia).