Nottingham, 1.-4.4.2004)
Date: 7/8/03

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.schultzsussex.ac.uk

David Crowley
Humanities
Royal College of Art
London SW7 2EU
t: 0207 590 4485 / f: 0207 590 4490 / e: d.crowleyrca.ac.uk