The first general conference of the ENBaCH Project is intended to bring together research on Baroque forms of exchange and networking, as a basis for a modern network of researchers working on themes related to the cultural heritage of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The European Network for Baroque Cultural Heritage (ENBaCH, http://www.enbach.eu) - is a research project supported and funded by the European Commission.

“Baroque” of course has various connotations depending on regions and cultural contexts but also on various approaches in different research fields. As ENBaCH is defined as an interdisciplinary project it is intended to confront these aspects and discuss their impact on what might be defined as “European Cultural Heritage”.

A well-known historiograpical conundrum is the question of periodization. One useful, practicable approach is the collection of characteristics of an epoch from the cultural point of view: works of art, intellectual activities and developments, societal structures and contemporary ways of coping with diverse challenges in a specific society. Baroque culture was influenced by war, famine and epidemic diseases, and the resulting urgency of finding collaborative solutions for survival. New environments and infrastructures, increased mobility of craftsmen, artists and workers as well as the trade of artefacts and goods, and a vivid exchange of knowledge mark the period as much as its art, which represents a reaction to these threats to life in various ways.

We welcome papers on the following aspects of Baroque culture and exchange in particular:

- formal and informal networks of politics (e.g. the role of courts, diplomacy, agents) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
- the Baroque circulation of ideas and knowledge (e.g. the Republic of Letters)
- the development of arts and cultural practices (“artists and artefacts on the move”, baroque festivals and piety, fashion, cooking, etc.)
- (with particular relevance to the venue of the conference): the Baroque perception of the human body in various works of art, death and dying in relation to confessional frameworks, coping with disease and disaster from a medical point of view (e.g. health care provisions, facing famine and epidemic disease) and collaboration in medicine and health care

Conference language: English. The papers should be given in English and should take max. 20 minutes.
Discussions and commentaries by attending delegates may include also other languages.

Abstracts of one page max., in English, accompanied by a very short CV, should be sent to baroquebodies@meduniwien.ac.at by the end of April 2012

We will be able to cover moderate travelling costs and accommodation for invited speakers other than those involved in the ENBaCH project. Please enquire for details.

Rooms are reserved at two hotels at a convenient location; speakers and conference delegates will benefit from a reduced room rate. Rooms are limited and available on first come, first served basis only.

For any further questions about the conference practicalities please contact
Paul Zogmann (paul.zogmann@meduniwien.ac.at)