Research

as Dr. Carlos Idrobo

Senior Researcher (Affiliated with the Department of Art History, University of Turku, Finland)

Philosophical Hermeneutics

German Romantic Landscape Painting

Nineteenth century art histories

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Phrónesis)

Narrative Construction of Identity

Art-based Research (Photography and Performance of Walking)

Postdoctoral research (2021-2023)

Hermeneutics of Walking

Walking as Motif, Practice and Reception Strategy in Contemporary Arts, with special consideration of Finnish Art

Project funded by the Koneen Säätiö  (Kone Foundation), Finland

Research article (2020-2021)

Walking between Time, Memory and Oblivion
The Walking/Photography of Jouku Leskelä, Juha Suonpää and Jari Silomäki

Article funded by the Börje ja Dagmar Söderholmin rahasto / Valokuvataiteen Museo Helsinki

Liikkuvuuden rajat - konkreettinen ja kuviteltu liikkuvuus pitkällä 1800-luvulla /

Mobility limits: concrete and imagined mobility in the long-nineteenth century

Research group project (2020-2021)

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Project funded by the Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto (Wihuri Foundation), Finland

More information at: https://long19thcentury.blogspot.com/

Das, was von uns weggeht - Abwesenheit, Zeit und das Wandermotiv in der deutschen Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts (PhD Dissertation, 2017 - German only)

English Title: He who walks away from us - Absence, Time, and the motif of the Wanderer in the 19th-Century German art

Project funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Düsseldorf, Germany and the Stibeth Stipendium DAAD.

Introducción a la interpretación heideggeriana de la phrónesis aristotélica (2008, Master Thesis - Spanish only)

English Title: Introduction to the Heideggerian interpretation of the Aristotelian Phronesis

Problemas en la construcción narrativa de la identidad (2004, Thesis in Psychology studies - Spanish only)

English Title: Problems in the narrative construction of identity

Walking Drawing Kinaesthetics between Art and Science, in: Paulo Luís Almeida, M. Bismarck, M. C. Silva & P. Alegria (Eds.): Drawing across x along x between University Borders: Approaches to Drawing Research Across Disciplines. 2025. i2ADS edições, Portugal, 107-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34626/i2ADS/2025-0001

Countryside Borderscapes in Finland, in: Ennen ja nyt 21:6 (2021): Rajoja, rajaseutuja ja -aitoja pitkällä 1800-luvulla, 27-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37449/ennenjanyt.111109

Sensing Boundaries on Foot: Experiencing Limits of Mobility through Nineteenth Century European Art, in: Ennen ja nyt 21:3 (2021): Liikkuvuuden rajat – konkreettinen ja kuviteltu liikkuvuus pitkällä 1800-luvulla, 43-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37449/ennenjanyt.109311

The Hermeneutical Value of Bodily Experiences for Art History Research, in: TAHITI, 10 (4), 118–132, March 2021. https://doi.org/10.23995/tht.103184

Heinrich Drebers Sappho und ihre Darstellungen als Selbstmörderin in der Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts, in: Graeff, Alexander (Hg.): Okkulte Kunst, Bielefeld 2019, S. 89-103. (ISBN: 978-3-8376-4763-1)

'Grafía de un camino de bosque' (Graphy of a forest path). Artistic contribution for a special edition of the online magazine Interartive. Dec. 2018.

He who is leaving… The figure of the wanderer in Nietzsche’s „Also sprach Zarathustra“ and Caspar David Friedrich’s „Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer“, in: Nietzsche-Studien 41. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. November 2012.

„Ein Wanderer in Balance zwischen Abgründen und Gipfelerlebnissen. Interview mit Carlos Idrobo“, Interviewerin: Ute Krienke, in: Götterbote. Magazin des Ordens für okkulte Kunst e.V. Kulturelles Gedächtnis - Konzepte, Philosophien, Erfahrungen. August 2012.

La experiencia de lo que ahí habla y quiere ser escuchado. El topos del signo y del símbolo en la hermenéutica gadameriana, in: Rafael Cúnsulo (Hg.), Actas I Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Hermenéutica. A cincuenta años de Verdad y Método. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino. Argentina 2010.

Reconocimiento y conocimiento de sí en la simbólica de la prudencia, in: Rafael Cúnsulo (Hg.), Actas I Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Hermenéutica. A cincuenta años de Verdad y Método. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino. Argentina 2010.

Aventura y conflicto en la construcción narrativa de la identidad. A propósito de un relato de Italo Calvino, in: Hitos, Revista de Filosofía. No. 5 o 6. Universidad Minuto de Dios. Bogotá 2010.

Cuando de noche un amigo, Homenaje a Carlos B. Gutiérrez, in: Memorias del XVII Foro Nacional de Filosofía. Universidad de Caldas, Manizales 2009.

Tres variaciones en la negación nietzscheana, in: Memorias II Congreso Colombiano de Filosofía. Sociedad Colombiana de Filosofía y Universidad de Cartagena. Cartagena 2009.

Cuando la esfinge nos interroga, in: La Palabra. Periódico Cultural de la Universidad del Valle. Año 13 No. 135. Cali, Feb. 2004.

“From Boundary to Symbol: The Visual Evolution of Rural Fences in Finnish Art, 1890s-1950s” at Why so Nordic? The ‘Nordic’ as fact and fiction in art history, 14th triennial NORDIK Conference of Art History in the Nordic Countries, 20–22 Oct. 2025, University of Helsinki, Finland.

“Walking Through the Living Image of Dead Things: ‘Unearthing’ archived bodies in Juha Suonpää’s Isoisä (2018)” at Reactivating Archives in Contemporary Art, 2–3 Oct. 2025, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.

“Walking Drawing Kinaesthetics between Art and Science” (lecture + practice-sharing session) at Drawing Across x Along x Between University Borders, 16-18 Oct. 2024, University of Porto, Portugal.

“Cinematic Walking Kinaesthetics: Display, Performance and Reception of a Movement in Classical Hollywood Cinema” at Thinking (in) Motion – Comics and Film, 5-7 Sep. 2024, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

“Losing Horizon: Paradigms of (Anti-)Narrativity and (Un)Walkable Landscapes in nineteenth-century European Painting” at Peinture d’histoire, peinture à histoires ? Procédés narratifs dans la peinture européenne du XIXe siècle (History painting, painting stories? Narrative processes in 19th century European painting), 13-14 Jun. 2024, INHA, Galerie Colbert, Paris, France.

“Archives on the surface, archives of movement” Keynote Speaker. Sediments of Knowledge: A joint research day for doctoral students in art history at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi, Finland, 27 Nov. 2020.

“The Hermeneutical Value of Bodily Experiences for Art History Research: Reflections Outside the Paint Box of Art Historical Practice”. TAHITI 8: National Conference of Art History in Finland. From Material to Immaterial - Art Historical Practices in the Contemporary World. University of Turku, 28-29 Nov. 2019.

“On Belonging and Identity Construction. Carl Philipp Fohr, Caspar David Friedrich, and the Wanderer”. 34. Deutscher Kunsthistorikertag: Kunst lokal, Kunst global. Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker. Technische Universität Dresden, 08-12 Mar. 2017.

“Nietzsches Ökonomie und Dynamik der Bewegungen: Zur Wahrheit in der Performativität des Tanzes“. Keynote Speaker. Berliner Nietzsche-Colloquium. Technische Universität Berlin. 23. Nov. 2011.

“The Figure of the Wanderer in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Caspar David Friedrich’s Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer”. 18th International Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society. "Between Reason and Unreason: Nietzsche – The Enlightenment – Romanticism". Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations. Queen Mary College, University of London, 9-11 September 2011.

“Zarathustras doppelte Vorrede als Tanzrede“. 4. Internationale Forschungskonferenz der internationalen Nietzsche-Forschungsgruppe. Nietzsches Vorreden. Universität Greifswald. 15. Jul. 2011.

“La experiencia de lo que ahí habla y quiere ser escuchado. El topos del signo y del símbolo en la hermenéutica gadameriana”. I Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Hermenéutica. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino. Tucumán, Argentinien. May 2010.

“Reconocimiento y conocimiento de sí en la simbólica de la prudencia”. I Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Hermenéutica. Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino. Tucumán, Argentinien. May 2010.

“La circularidad de la phrónesis. Homenaje a Franco Volpi (1952-2009)”. II Congreso Internacional Martin Heidegger. Universidad del Norte. Barranquilla, Kolumbien. Oct. 2009.

“Cuando de noche un amigo. Homenaje a Carlos B. Gutiérrez”. XVII Foro Nacional de Filosofía. Universidad de Caldas, Manizales. Sep. 2009

“Tres variaciones en la negación nietzscheana”. II Congreso Colombiano de Filosofía. Sociedad Colombiana de Filosofía y Universidad de Cartagena. Cartagena, Colombia. Sep. 2008

“… Esos realistas de la vida pública, esos discapacitados culturales…” Grupo Praxis. Universidad de los Andes. Oct. 2006.