Three decades after the radical transformations of the USSR and its satellites began in the 1980s–1990s, the topic of ‘transitioning’ from socialist states to liberal democracies remains highly contentious in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the last decade, the transitional past has been increasingly instrumentalized, by national-populist actors and in the counter-memories of their opponents. In the context of heated contestations of memory, with high political stakes, spaces for dialogue are rapidly shrinking and public spheres are becoming increasingly ‘disconnected.’

The project addresses this societal issue by engaging with memory practices of the ‘transitional period’ beyond the polarized versions. Drawing on approaches of cultural analysis of discourse and affect, critical memory studies, public history, (digital) ethnography, and intersectional study of gender and generations, we aim to develop strategies for facilitating more cohesive and at the same time more critical practices of remembering that have the potential to lead to dialogue and form reflective communities. The comparative approach will allow for developing strategies and policies on a transnational (European) level based on trans-local resonances rather than top-down scripts.

Team members: Ksenia Robbe (Principal Investigator), Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen; Agnieszka Mrozik, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences; Andrei Zavadski, Post-doctoral Researcher at the Center for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Alexander Formozov, Dekabristen e.V.

The project is part of the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) programme – an initiative of 12 European Institutes for Advanced Study and coordinated by the IAS CEU in 2021/22.

Links:

Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University

Zukunftskolleg Universität Konstanz: Selected CAT Teams

Events as part of the project:

European Solidarity Centre, Gdańsk:

Wokół filmu „Kryształ” w reż. Daryi Zhuk. 30.09.22

Co znaczy dla ciebie przełom lat 80. i 90. XX wieku? Warsztaty. 01.10.2022

Humboldt Labor/Humboldt Forum, Berlin:

‘Crystal Swan: Film und Gespräch zu Wendezeiten in Belarus und Deutschland’, 05.05.2023

‘Was bedeutet Ihnen die Wendezeit der 1980er und 1990er Jahre? Workshop für und mit Berliner*innen’, 06.05.2023

Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź:

’Białoruś w latach 90. XX wieku a polskie doświadczenie transformacji. Wokół filmu Kryształ w reż. Daryi Zhuk’, 13.10.2023

’Co znaczy dla Ciebie przełom lat 80. i 90. XX wieku? Przypomnijmy sobie razem czasy transformacji. Warsztaty z udziałem mieszkańców i mieszkanek Łodzi’, 14.10.2023

Ethnographic studies of the Humboldt Forum’s reception and of the participatory practices employed by its creators, conducted at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Part of CARMAH’s major project titled Making Differences: Transforming Museums and Heritage in the 21st Century, funded by Sharon Macdonald’s Alexander von Humboldt Professorship.

The Garage Journal was an independent interdisciplinary platform that advances critical discussions about contemporary art, culture, and museum practice in the Russian and global contexts. It published empirical, theoretical, and speculative research in a variety of genres, celebrating innovative ways of presentation. Fully peer-reviewed and available in open access, it aimed to provide a sourcebook of ideas for an international audience.

I was a member of the journal’s Editorial Board.

Co-curated by Alexandra Evtushenko and Andrei Zavadski as part of the public programme for the exhibition ‘Mirror Without Memory’ by Thomas Demand, this series of discussions, entitled ‘The Arts of Memory,’ focused on the understanding of the past through art practice. Historians write and rewrite history, search for and discover historical facts and offer their interpretations. Politicians instrumentalise and politicise the past, reject certain interpretations and defend or even impose others. Activists fight for the broadening of the historical narrative and the inclusion of histories and voices previously excluded from it. What place do artists hold in this process of rethinking the past? What is their contribution to collective memory work? Each of the six discussions in the series was devoted to one art form and one aspect of art’s engagement with the past.

Discussion 1. Imagining the Past: Cultural Memory and Fiction in Literature (Polina Barskova, Maria Stepanova, Ilya Kukulin, Olga Lavrentyeva, moderator Lev Oborin)

Discussion 2. Moving Image and a Fluid Past: How Film Pushes the Boundaries of History and Memory (Egor Isaev, Askold Kurov, Aleksey Fedorchenko, Marianna Yarovskaya, moderator Alisa Taezhnaya)

Discussion 3. Beyond the Document: The Past in Theater Practice (Valery Zolotukhin, Alyona Karas, Anastasia Patlay, Elina Petrova, moderator Olga Tarakanova)

Discussion 4. Sounds of the Past: How Music Forms Collective Memory (Aleksandra Kolesnik, Vera Martynov, Mikhail Kaluzhsky, Sergej Newski, moderator Lev Gankin)

Discussion 5. How We (Never) Spoke and (Do Not) Speak About Gender (Nastya Krasilnikova, Daria Serenko, Karen Shainyan, Sasha Talaver, Oksana Vasyakina, moderator Katerina Suverina)

Discussion 6. Mnemonic Solidarity? Contemporary Art, Collective Memory, and Participatory Practices (Alexander Morozov, Haim Sokol, Galina Yankovskaya, Anton Valkovsky, moderator Alisa Savitskaya)