The 2026 conference theme ‘Avant-Garde and Migration’ highlights migration as a key concept of historical as well as current relevance. Migration may be understood in geographical and sociopolitical terms, addressing the migrating actors and movements of modernism and the avant-garde in the 20th century, as well as the socio-cultural and geopolitical dynamics and crises of Europe and the world today.
Further the concept functions metaphorically, pointing at various kinds of displacements and transgressions, such as: the reframing of the concept of the avant-garde and other aesthetic-philosophical notions depending on different contexts; transgressions between genres, media and modes of expression realised through the activities of the avant-garde; the transnational interaction between movements, actors and networks et cetera; and the interdisciplinary nature of avantgarde studies, characterised by its ‘migrating’ academic identities and agents.
The 2026 conference theme ‘Avant-Garde and Migration’ highlights migration as a key concept of historical as well as current relevance. Migration may be understood in geographical and sociopolitical terms, addressing the migrating actors and movements of modernism and the avant-garde in the 20th century, as well as the socio-cultural and geopolitical dynamics and crises of Europe and the world today.
Further the concept functions metaphorically, pointing at various kinds of displacements and transgressions, such as: the reframing of the concept of the avant-garde and other aesthetic-philosophical notions depending on different contexts; transgressions between genres, media and modes of expression realised through the activities of the avant-garde; the transnational interaction between movements, actors and networks et cetera; and the interdisciplinary nature of avantgarde studies, characterised by its ‘migrating’ academic identities and agents.
Organisers
Professor of Art History Andrea Kollnitz
Professor of Art History Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe
