“Prismatic Memories: Comparative Visual Politics from Post-Yugoslav Countries.”

This conference “Prismatic Memories: Comparative Visual Politics from Post-Yugoslav Countries,” to take place from 22-24 May 2025 at eikones – The Center for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel, invites proposals for 25-minute presentations on the visual aspects of memory culture and politics in post-Yugoslav countries. In mainstream discourse, visual memory projects in the countries that once constituted Yugoslavia are often discussed in isolation because of the specific local histories and mythologies they refer to. However, these ostensibly disparate histories, like the light beams refracted through a prism, in fact intersect in aleatory ways. Meanwhile the history of Yugoslavia that unites them all, can manifest quite differently, often influenced by the ideologies that characterized the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

This year, in the context of the thirtieth anniversaries of both the Srebrenica Genocide on July 11, 1995, and the ratification of the Dayton Peace Agreement on November 21, 1995, presents an opportunity to explore the visual memory politics of post-Yugoslav countries -- most of them still in a state of neoliberal “transition” -- in relation to each other. Attending to the iconographic, narrative, aesthetic and art historical embeddedness of the various displays of memory, whether they take the form of a public memorial, a graffito, an exhibition or another kind of intervention, we are looking at instances of politics – both past and contemporary -- becoming visible. We also ask after the infrastructures and administration of such memories, and their (geo)political entanglements. While we are interested in case studies that memorialize a range of historical events, we are especially interested in case studies from after 1999 and the last decade.

The conference will take an interdisciplinary approach. Contributions from a range of disciplines including art history, cultural studies, comparative literature, memory studies, philosophy, anthropology, political science and beyond, are welcome. In addition, we welcome perspectives from curators and other cultural workers, as well as people involved in arts and cultural administration. The conference language is English, and presentations should not exceed 25 minutes and will be followed by a discussion period. If you have any questions, please send them to hella.wiedmer-newmanunibas.ch. Please send a short abstract of up to 200 words with a bio of up to 100 words by February 20, 2025. The conference is an in-person event. Travel and accommodation costs up to a certain amount will be covered.