Hertziana Insights – Art-Historical Research in Video

Our series Hertziana Insights explores the possibilities of a video format for scholarly communication in art history and strives to present the institute's multiple research projects, recently redefined both methodologically and geographically.

How can we vividly convey art-historical research that increasingly addresses interdisciplinary and intermediary issues and places great importance on objects and their materiality? Through Hertziana Insights, structured as concise online documentaries, we promote direct communication in video format of some of the areas of research from the Institute.

Now We Have Seen. Women and Art in 1970s Italy

The film traces the work of Italian women artists in the 1970s and links it to the theoretical discourses and social achievements of the feminist movement, which, like no other protest movement in this period, had an enduring impact upon Italian society. more

Palimpsest Naples. Natural Disasters

The goal of the research area Palimpsest Naples is to identify and understand the stratification of Naples. The video illustrates that this complex stratification is not only based on social development and urban planning, but has also been significantly shaped by various natural disasters. more

Pablo Echaurren and the Counterculture Years

The video turns to the 1970s and its counterculture, when the student movement in Italy changed tack and broke with all social norms, including those set by the protests of 1968. more

Massimo Piersanti, Exhibition Photography in 1970s Rome

In the postwar period, contemporary art was increasingly communicated through temporary exhibitions. Due to the transiency of these exhibitions, their photographic documentation and their staging become of crucial importance. more

The videos present objects relevant to our research onsite and in their historical contexts, taking into account their materiality, shape, and spatial effect. Interviews with contemporary witnesses and researchers, as well as historical footage from film and television archives, allow for direct and authentic communication that provides an opportunity to present research questions, methodology, and findings directly in contact with the artwork. In this way the viewer can get close to places, people and objects that are otherwise difficult to access, such as archives, artists' studios, historical film material, museum deposits, and private collections.

Given our cooperation with the international scientific community and our multilingual external audiences, especially in Germany and Italy, the videos are usually subtitled in multiple languages. Since in some cases the interviewees are also historical witnesses to the subject matter, the videos are supplemented by more detailed interviews that are archived separately, so that original audiovisual material is also available for future research purposes.

Supporting Scholars at Risk

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Bibliotheca Hertziana decided to welcome and support seven Ukrainian and Russian fellows as part of the #ScienceForUkraine initiative.  more