The Fresh Eye Platform for Visual Culture Studies invites the public, students and experts to participate in a two-day workshop series dedicated to the reflection of visual cultures of totalitarian pasts in the region of Central Europe under the guidance of inspiring personalities.
The totalitarian past plays a variety of roles in the Central European region today. It constitutes a complicated trauma whose individual parts are approached differently. While some topics are gradually opened, others remain buried deep in the collective imagination. In this respect, visual culture represents a significant field within which the totalitarian past of Central Europe is dynamically negotiated. Artworks and other creative manifestations from the totalitarian era acquire new meanings in this field, being updated and mobilized for miscellaneous social and political agendas. At the same time, visual and mental representations of the totalitarian past serve as a rich source for contemporary art projects, becoming creative gestures merging historical periods and interpretations.
The program will be held on April 27 and 28 in the afternoon hours at Display gallery in English. It offers four workshops for free. Participants can apply for one day or for two days.
To apply, please submit a short motivation letter and your bio via the interactive form by April 11, 2022.
Program
April 27, 3 – 5 pm
Natalija Majsova (Slovenia): Who Has Been Taken into the Future, and What Have They Brought Along? A Workshop on Soviet Futures and Their Legacies
April 27, 5.30 – 7.30 pm
Marija Katalinić (Croatia): Visual Narration of Kinship in Post-Yugoslav Cinema
April 28, 3 – 5 pm
Katarzyna Bojarska (Poland): To Take Care of the Past
April 28, 5.30 – 7.30 pm
Matěj Forejt (Czech Republic): Unwanted Heritage? East German Art and Its Story After the Reunification of Germany
Natalia Majsova is associate professor and scholar at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, an occasional film critic and essay writer. She focuses on the sociology of art and culture, memory studies, science fiction and aesthetics related to our notions of outer space. In 2021, she published her book Soviet Science Fiction Cinema and the Space Age: Memorable Futures (Lexington Books).
Marija Katalinić is co-director of the International Association for Visual Culture. She studied journalism and visual culture. In her research, she focuses on the application of cultural and critical approaches to memory, film and gender studies in relation to contemporary visual-cultural practices. She deals with the management of European culture projects, script editing, film production and curating.
Katarzyna Bojarska is associate professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at SWPS University in Warsaw and chief editor of WIDOK magazine. She studies the links between art, literature, history and psychoanalysis. She translated the works of Michael Rothberger and Ernst van Alphen into Polish and published her book Wydarzenia po Wydarzeniu: Biaľoszewski – Richter – Spiegelman (2012).
Matěj Forejt is a film and art theorist, critic and curator. Based on his scholarship at the University of Hamburg, he published the collective monograph Umění z NDR. Dědictví na obtíž? (Galerie Rudolfinum). As a curator, he contributed to the exhibitions Meda: Ambassador of Art (Museum Kampa, 2019) and ANIMATION 70 (Galerie UM, 2021). He curates online content at Czech Television and works as editor at Iluminace magazine.
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