Das verirrte Kunstwerk. Funktion und Rezeption vom Wege abgekommener "Bilderfahrzeuge"

Unlike images that stay in one place, migrating images – in Aby Warburg's phrase, 'mobile image vehicles' – run fairly substantial risks. Not only does their involuntary reinterpretation and aesthetic, political or other ideological exploitation become more likely the further away they move in space and time from the context in which they were originally created or presented, but their function and sometimes even form are often altered in the process. In addition to these seemingly unavoidable detours, sidetracks and blind alleys, the Hamburg conference will also look at cases in which images were deliberately diverted from their mapped-out routes – or first removed from their places of origin – by theft, illicit trade or abduction. The purpose of the conference is to review the typical 'travel hazards' to which migrating images are exposed. As well as contributions on the proposed topics, comparisons between the respective careers of images that do and do not migrate will also be welcome.

The research project Bilderfahrzeuge. Warburg's Legacy and the Future of Iconology is a cooperation of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, the Warburg Institute (London), the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte (Paris), the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Warburg Haus (Hamburg) and is funded by the German Ministry of Higher Education and Science.