From: "David Crowley" <[log in to unmask]>
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 the 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: [log in to unmask]
David Crowley
Humanities
Royal College of Art
London SW7 2EU
t: 0207 590 4485 / f: 0207 590 4490 / e: [log in to unmask]
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