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The ERC project FRAGILE IMAGES (Grant no. 101141247) invites to challenge the dominant notion of understanding images as powerful actors. Moving away from the prevalent focus on affective, persuasive, and immersive images, this project foregrounds the temporal instability, semantic ambiguity, and ontological self-reflexivity of images. Starting from the gaze as a mediator between image and viewer, between activity and passivity, between power and weakness, the project proposes to intertwine a praxeology of showing with a praxeology of viewing. This radically new approach brings together perspectives from Visual Studies and cultural history and applies them to Roman imagery from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. On the basis of archaeological and written evidence from this period, ‘fragility’ is explored as a pictorial quality.

In collaboration with eikones - Institute for the Theory and History of the Image - this workshop situates these concepts within a broader framework. In three days, we will test, refine, and expand the potential of “fragility” as an image-theoretical concept by deliberately juxtaposing contributions on Roman imagery with studies focusing on other historical periods, geographical areas, and disciplinary backgrounds.