[Fwd: CFP: Art, History and Memory in post-war East/Central Europe]
Jan George Frajkor
Subject: Fwd: Zs: Forum fuer osteuropaeische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte Nr.
2
CALL FOR PAPERS
Art, History and Memory in post-war East/Central Europe
Association of Art Historians Annual Conference 2004: Old/New?
University of Nottingham, UK, 1-4 April 2004
This is the first call for papers for a conference strand on approaches
to the art and architecture of Eastern/Central Europe in the light of
the experience of 'post-socialism'.
Art, History and Memory in post-war East/Central Europe
The past was highly politicised during the socialist period in
Eastern/Central Europe. The force of history was invoked to legitimate
authority. And 'collective memory' was activated to contest lies and
distortions in the historical record. Memory and history were often
counter-posed in what Havel described as the struggle to 'live in
truth'. What role did art and architecture play in these processes? And
how should this often tendentious art be considered today? By similar
measure the historiography of the field needs to be re-examined. What
was the relation of scholarship to authority?
With currents of nationalism, nostalgia, lustration and triumphalism
pulsing through post-communist societies, memory and history have been
brought into new relations in the last dozen years. How the histories
of art, architecture and design of the socialist period are written
continues to be an ethically and politically sensitive matter. As
Slovene writer Marina Grzinic commented in Fiction Reconstructed
(2000) 'it is time to find and to re-write paradigms of specific
spaces, arts and media productions in Eastern Europe.'
The convenors of this strand welcome proposals of papers dealing with
any aspect of art (widely defined to include architecture and design),
theory or art historiography of East/Central Europe since the Second
World War.
Abstracts of 200-400 words should be sent by e-mail to the organisers
by 1st November 2003. Speakers will receive confirmation of acceptance
of their papers in mid-November 2003.
Abstracts or queries should be addressed to either/both convenors:
Dr Deborah Schultz
Research Fellow
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QN
t: 01273 877109 / f: 01273 877174 / e: d.sc...@sussex.ac.uk
David Crowley
Humanities
Royal College of Art
London SW7 2EU
t: 0207 590 4485 / f: 0207 590 4490 / e: d.cr...@rca.ac.uk