Mapping Memories Conference: Contested Memories of the Difficult Past. Eastern Europe and Its History of the 20th Century

Mapping Memories Conference: Contested Memories of the Difficult Past. Eastern Europe and Its History of the 20th Century

Veranstalter
Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb)
Veranstaltungsort
Hotel President, 12, Hospitalna Street, Kyiv, 01023, Ukraine
Ort
Kiev
Land
Ukraine
Vom - Bis
30.09.2016 - 02.10.2016
Deadline
20.07.2016
Von
Mirjam Schmidt

The German Wehrmacht invaded Kyiv on 19 September 1941. Barely two weeks later, on 29 and 30 September 1941, SS and SD units, supported by local militia, massacred 33,771 Jews from Kyiv in the ravine of Babyn Jar on the outskirts of Kyiv. In the following months more than 100,000 people were murdered there, including Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Ukrainian activists.

Babyn Jar is a central place of remembrance of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe and the racially motivated policy of extermination pursued by the National Socialist regime. The German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), together with the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies and other partners, is organising the conference "Contested Memories of the Difficult Past. Eastern Europe and Its History of the 20th Century" in Kyiv to mark the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Jar massacre.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact of 23 August 1939, the occupation of Poland by German troops only a few weeks later, the annexation of the three Baltic States by the USSR in 1940, the Third Reich’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the terror of occupation, millions of dead soldiers and civilians, and the collaboration of local people with the Nazi regime – all of these represent contested, controversial and complex issues that continue to divide Central and Eastern European countries both politically and socially.

The conference addresses questions related to victimisation and responsibility, how art and culture are dealing with competing historical narratives, and the influence of the diaspora on practices of remembrance in post-socialist countries. It will also discuss how discourses of remembrance and political decisions influence each other at the local and international level, and how transnational remembrance and genocide research can contribute to a critical view of the past in Eastern Europe.The conference also aims to develop adequate strategies for making younger generations more aware of this topic.

Programm

Friday, 30 September 2016

16.00 Registration, coffee and snacks

17.00 Welcome by the organisers

17.30 Keynote and discussion

19.00 Reception

20.00 Concert

Saturday, 1 October 2016

09.00-09.30 Introduction by the facilitator

09.30-12.00 Exkursions to Kyiv

12.00-13.30 Lunch

13.30-15.00
Panel 1: Concepts of remembrance
What contemporary theoretical concepts and terms characterise the scientific discourse on remembrance? What are possible strategies of remembrance in “transition countries”? How are countries such as Ukraine dealing with the multi-layered and parallel memories of traumatic 20th century events all the way to the Euro Maidan protests? How can “transition societies” make their memory discourse productive for the future? Who are the holders of memory when public institutions have no legitimate authority in this discourse? How do constructs of memory influence societal inclusion and exclusion? How do younger generations remember the past and what does memory mean to them?

15.00-16.30 Panel 2 and 3 (parallel)
Panel 2: “Memory wars” in transition states
How are different concepts of memory manifesting themselves in spaces of transition? How can the difficult Soviet heritage be reappraised in a multi-ethnic environment without being glorified or criminalised? Who are the providers and actors of memory in the post-socialist sphere? How do competing actors of memory negotiate their narratives, and how does this affect the public? Is it possible to consolidate diverging narratives?

Panel 3: Memory in the digital age
What forms of digital memory currently exist? Can the digital media and web-based instruments of visualisation contribute to greater awareness of historical events among younger generations? Given the rapid and far-reaching spread of the digital media, is there a danger of creating spaces of remembrance that support propaganda and transport unreflected, one-sided images of history? What pedagogic and interactive material usefully promotes a “European culture of remembrance” and humanistic values?

16.30-17.00 Coffee

17.00-18.30 Panel 4 and 5 (parallel)
Panel 4: The topicality of the Holocaust
What is the significance of the Holocaust in the memorial cultures of Eastern Europe today? In times of growing globalisation, does the Holocaust act as a universal code of remembrance or an imperative for memory? How is the Holocaust commemorated in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries today, and how is this to be interpreted? Is the national setting still a frame of reference for commemorating the Holocaust?

Panel 5: Memory in film and literature
How is memory manifesting itself in cultural practices such as film and literature? How are fictional forms of memory different from non-fictional forms? What role do they play in the various Central and Eastern European countries? Do they have the potential to act as transcultural facilitators of memory? What is their impact on societies?

18.30-20.00 Dinner

20.30 “Visited by ghosts”. Vernissage and discussion with artists
Exhibition at the Centre for Visual Culture (Kyiv)
The exhibition aims to locate forms of remembrance in urban space and at the same time contextualise them in present-day Ukraine. The city of Kyiv is understood as a canvas or texture for the contemporary design of remembrance, allowing a clash of contradictory concepts and a range of consequences. The exhibition critically examines the re-interpretations and changes that occur in urban space when it is abandoned for political, economic or social reasons. How does the city change after practices of extermination such as the massacre at Babyn Jar? How are such practices remembered, and what is their impact on urban space? How do they communicate with the discriminatory practices and traumata that contemporary Ukrainian society is attempting to deal with? And what happens when ideologies abandon urban space? Is the forced removal of memorials a way of coping with trauma, or rather a gesture of political iconoclasm?

Sunday, 2 October 2016

09.00 Brief presentation of the previous day’s results by the facilitator

9.15-10.30 Project market: Presentation of different projects and institutes active in the field of remembrance work

10.30-12.00 Panel 6 and 7 (parallel)
Panel 6: Memory and forced migration
Forced migration in the form of ethnic cleansing, expulsion, flight, resettlement or population exchange has influenced Eastern Europe throughout the 20th century. How are memories of migration and individual, family-based and collective experiences manifesting themselves in different media? How are the memories of migrants represented and who are their actors? What constitutes the memory of the diaspora, and what is its significance to and influence on a “receiving country” and society “back home”?

Panel 7: Spaces and protagonists of memory
Who are the shapers and actors of memory in Central and Eastern Europe? How does memory manifest itself institutionally in different countries? What spaces are available for collective remembrance and who is participating in them? How is memory manifesting itself in public spaces? What alternative forms of cultural production also create landscapes of memory? What is the relationship between official and informal actors of remembrance in Central and Eastern Europe?

12.00-13.30 Concluding discussion.
Transcultural memory in Europe – challenges for the future.
Is a transboundary culture of remembrance possible in Europe? How can diverging national interpretations be included in a European policy of remembrance in the future? What transnational frameworks are available, and what is the relationship of pan-European organisations such as the Council of Europe, OSCE and EU with the politics of memory?

Kontakt

Marion Bacher

Adenauerallee 86
53113 Bonn
+49 (0)228 99515-568
+49 (0)228 99515-405
marion.bacher@bpb.de

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/format/kongress-tagung/229908/contested-memories-of-the-difficult-past-
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Englisch, Deutsch, Ukrainian
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