MSA Memory and Arts Working Group Workshop

‘Subtle transitions’

Organisers: Branislava Kuburović (Prague City University), Irena Řehořová (Charles University), Ondřej Váša (Charles University)

Besides pivotal events, which are often commemorated and automatically receive sufficient attention, there are also changes and processes unfolding in cultural, social, and natural environments that are much less apparent. However, their impact in the long term is no less significant. Art and creative practice provide a platform where these processes can be made visible. Due to the multiplicity of means of expression and affective infrastructure offered by art, it can effectively draw attention to issues that might otherwise be neglected or even go unnoticed.

Considering the focus of the Lima Memory Studies Association conference on “Memories in Transit”, the workshop can be seen as an opportunity to discuss a subject here that the Memory & Arts Working Group members also plan to present in Lima.

As the workshop is taking place in Prague, we would also like to encourage papers on the dynamics of memory and “subtle transitions” in the rich but often contested cultural, social and natural environment of Central East Europe. We invite contributions that seek to explore how art and artists engage with memory related to specific communities, places or temporalities of the region.

Thematic areas within this broader frame might include, for example:

• Artivism, socially engaged art
• Memory of communities
• Migrations, diaspora
• Memory of violence and conflict
• Imagined memoryscapes

We specifically welcome contributions addressing the following themes:

• Memory and the environment
• (Post)industrial landscape (material, natural, social)
• Fragility of ecosystem

The workshop is open to various formats: 20-minute presentations, discussions, “conversations with images”, reading sessions etc. We invite artist presentations as well as more theoretically based contributions.

Please submit your suggestions, indicating the preferred form of your participation (presentation, proposal for a roundtable etc.) including an abstract of max. 300 words by February 19 to irena.rehorova@fhs.cuni.cz  and branislava.k@praguecityuniversity.cz.

The programme for the two-day workshop includes a meeting of the Memory&Arts Working Group on Thursday 4th and a “miniconference“ with contributions on the above-specified themes on Friday 5th.

It is up to each participant to choose whether they prefer to engage in just one or both parts of the workshop. Members of the Memory&Arts WG who do not wish to present a contribution during the second day are also encouraged to join (please inform us in this case as well that you plan to attend the meeting).