Iniciado en febrero de 2018, el proyecto de investigación Genealogía de la amnesia: repensar el pasado para un nuevo futuro de convivencia (Genealogy of Amnesia: Rethinking the Past for a New Future of Conviviality) se centra en la amnesia y las políticas de silencio y olvido que han dado forma a la constitución de los Estados-nación, identidades y comunidades en Europa y el mundo globalizado. Se trata de exponer los mecanismos políticos, sociales, ideológicos y culturales que producen amnesia colectiva, analizando la racialización, el despojo político y económico, la discriminación heteropatriarcal y el nacionalismo hegemónico. El proyecto se desarrolla en el Studio de arte post-conceptual, Instituto de Bellas Artes, Facultad de Bellas Artes de Viena, y está dirigido por Marina Gržinić en colaboración con Christina Jauernik, Tjaša Kancler, Jovita Pristovšek, Šefik Tatlić, Sophie Uitz y Valerija Zabret. Más info: https://archiveofamnesia.akbild.ac.at/
En estos enlaces están accesibles las entrevistas con Esther (Mayoko) Ortega, Diego Falconí Trávez y María Ruido sobre la política de memoria, negación y borrado en el reino de España en relación con la situación actual, imaginarios, prácticas artísticas y activistas de resistencia.
El archivo de videos se actualiza continuamente mientras se desarrolla la investigación: https://archiveofamnesia.akbild.ac.at/?page_id=17
Fall Newsletter 2019
“Genealogy of Amnesia: Rethinking the Past for a New Future of Conviviality” is the title of an interdisciplinary, arts and theory based research project. It is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through its Programme for Arts-based Research (PEEK). The project is developed at the Studio of Conceptual Art (Post-Conceptual Art Practices), Institute for Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. The project is led by Marina Gržinić in collaboration with Christina Jauernik, Tjaša Kancler, Jovita Pristovšek, Šefik Tatlić, Sophie Uitz and Valerija Zabret.
Launched in February 2018, the three-years project concentrates on amnesia and politics of silence and oblivion that have shaped the constitution of nation-states, identities and communities in Europe and the globalized world. We address colonialism (Belgium), anti-Semitism (Austria), and turbo-nationalism (“Serb Republic”/the Srebrenica genocide), all of which are central but not the sole factors for the construction of the past and the present in these territories.
This newsletter provides you with:
– The development of the digital archive of the project and the list of names and institutions included in it
– The overview of the book that is to be published at the end of 2019. The book is the central project for the second year of the art-research
– The announcement of the exhibition (2020) that is the central project in the third year of the art-research, after the symposium (2018) and the book (2019)
– The overview of all the partners or sites of research.
The digital archive of the project and the list of names and institutions included in it.
The aim of the research project “Genealogy of Amnesia: Rethinking the Past for a New Future of Conviviality” focuses on political, social, ideological, and cultural mechanisms that produce collective amnesia—such as racialization, political and economic dispossession, gender discrimination,LGBTQI discrimination, racial profiling or hegemonic nationalism.
The digital archive “Countering the Genealogy of Amnesia” is a collection of digital and digitized materials that address the subjects and objects, the territories and events of oblivion and amnesia. The collection consists of different topics in order to make the documentation of events and interviews accessible.
The digital archive on 1st October 2019 consists of 60 positions/sites/events.
The LIST (alphabetical order) to browse:
Gerhard Baumgartner, Joachim Ben Yakoub, Nejra Nuna Čengić, Centre for Women’s Studies Zagreb, Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations, Dražen Crnomat, Matthias De Groof, Diego Falconí Trávez, Ivo Goldstein, Marina Gržinić, Selma Hadžihalilović, Boris Hajdinjak, Srđan Hercigonja, Mario Hibert, Elma Hodžić, Georg Hoffmann, Gert Huskens, Ana Isaković, Rob Jacobs, Tvrtko Jakovina, Jasenovac Memorial Center, Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, Adela Jušić, Geneviève Kaninda, Hikmet Karčić, Hrvoje Klasić, Éva Kovács, Vjollca Krasniqi, Aleksander Kraus, Laurent Licata, Sophie Lillie, Besa Luci, Shkëlzen Maliqi, Dušan Maljković, Tanja Marković, Monique Mbeka Phoba, Tomislav Medak, Nebojša Milikić, Pedro Monaville, Laura Nsengiyumva, Dragomir Olujić Oluja, Esther (Mayoko) Ortega, Ivo Pejaković, Anton Pelinka, Katarina Peović, Marija Perković, Prijedor White Armband Day, Anne Reijniers, Markus Rheindorf, Karin Riegler, María Ruido, Birgit Sauer, Aleksandra Sekulić, Leila Šeper, Max Silverman, Kalvin Soiresse Njall, Irena Šumi, Shirley Anne Tate, Šefik Tatlić, Nevenka Tromp, Heidemarie Uhl, Sophie Uitz, Gloria Wekker, Ruth Wodak, Womba Konga / Pitcho.
It is possible to search the archive in regard to territories, topics and names (see drop-down menu).
The archive is continually updated on our website as our research unfolds.
2019 Book Launch
Marina Gržinić, Jovita Pristovšek and Sophie Uitz (eds.):
Rethinking the Past for a New Conviviality: Opposing Colonialism, Anti-Semitism, Turbo-Nationalism
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, forthcoming)
Contributions by
Jamika Ajalon, Ruth Beckermann, Elisabeth Brainin, Véronique Clette-Gakuba, CMCLD/Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations (The Collective Colonial Memory and Fight against Discrimination), Nejra Nuna Čengić, Matthias De Groof, Nicole Grégoire, Marina Gržinić, Adla Isanović, Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, Geneviève Kaninda, Hikmet Karčić, Kasereka Kavwahirehi, Tony Kokou Sampson, Sophie Lillie, Michael Loebenstein, Nikita Mazurov, Berthold Molden, Pedro Monaville, Sir Geoffrey Nice, Jovita Pristovšek, Markus Rheindorf, Drehli Robnik, Birgit Sauer, Max Silverman, Kalvin Soiresse Njall, Shirley Anne Tate, Šefik Tatlić, Claudia Tazreiter, Nevenka Tromp, Hedvig Turai, Sophie Uitz, Tanya Ury, Gloria Wekker, Renée Winter, Ruth Wodak
This volume gathers together reflections on racism and nationalism, empowerment and futurity. It focuses on collective amnesia in regards to traumatic events of the European past and the ways in which memory and history are presented for the future. The essays cover and oppose the seemingly disparate genocides committed during Belgian colonialism, Austrian anti-Semitism and turbo-nationalism in “Republika Srpska” (Bosnia and Herzegovina), implying by no means a homogenization of the experiences. What connects these historical situations is the fact that, despite available documents, to this very day, nation-states are built on practices of oblivion regarding their past. This volume is indispensable for theoreticians, philosophers, and historians, as well as the general public. It expresses the demand to critically question our inherited knowledge and to rethink the past for a new future of conviviality.
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2020 Exhibition
Title: Counter-Archives of Amnesia (Gegenarchive der Amnesie)
Weltmuseum Wien, 7 Oktober 2020 – 03 April 2021
Address of the exhibition space:
M-Museumsverband
Weltmuseum Wien (WMW)
Burgring 5, Vienna
OPENING: 7.10.2020
SYMPOSIUM with ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION: 8–9.10.2020 (Weltmuseum)
LAST DAY EXHIBITION: 03.04.2021
Artists/positions (alphabetical order):
· Lana Čmajčanin and Adela Jušić (Bosnia and Herzegovina / turbo-nationalism)
· Dani Gal (Berlin/Jerusalem / history)
· Siniša Ilić and Bojan Djordjev (Serbia / artistic maps connecting the territories)
· Jelena Jureša (Belgium/Serbia / anti-Semitism, colonialism, turbo-nationalism)
· Martin Krenn (Austria / anti-Semitism)
· Monique Mbeka (Belgium / colonialism)
· Joëlle Sambi Nzeba (Belgium / colonialism/LGBT)
· Marika Schmiedt (Austria / anti-Semitism)
· Arye Wachsmuth (Austria / anti-Semitism, refugees in today’s Europe)
· Valerie Wolf Gang (Slovenia / Balkan Project)
PARALLEL RESEARCH SITES TO THE EXHIBITION:
Displaying the Multimedia research archive (produced by PEEK-research project 2018–2020) “Genealogy of Amnesia: Rethinking the Past for a New Future of Conviviality” // the display will be devised by Valerija Zabret
Students’ engagement, poster production/PCAP/AkBild Vienna
RESUME
The exhibition “Counter-Archives of Amnesia” is an outcome of a research project “Genealogy of Amnesia: Rethinking the Past for a New Future of Conviviality,” that is the title of an interdisciplinary, art and theory based research project. It is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through its Programme for Arts-based Research (PEEK). The research is being developed at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 2018 to 2020. The research focuses on three sites and their specific histories and experiences of collective amnesia in regards to traumatic events of the past. It departs from genocides and the politics of silence that has shaped the constitution of identities, communities and last but least the global world. Yet, this research project does not stop at the exposure of silence and oblivion, but aims at countering the disclosed “genealogy of amnesia,” with displaying the “Counter-Archives of Amnesia.”
The three traumatic research sites we focus on share in common the impact on the construction of consecutively built nationalist identities:
— The construction of a Belgian identity in the aftermath of its colonial past in Congo. Initially called the Congo Free State, the colony remained a personal possession of King Leopold II from 1885 until 1908, when it was taken over by the Belgian government and renamed the Belgian Congo. Without reflection on past colonialism, of which the Case of Belgian Congo was of exemplary brutality, the long and important tradition of postcolonial subjectivities cannot be captured.
— The construction of a national identity in Austria after the Anschluss, “annexation,” of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, and the consecutive establishment of the myth, that Austria was Hitler’s “first victim.” It was as only decades after the foundation of the Second Republic, due to the Waldheim Affair (1986)—during which the military activity of the future Austrian president Kurt Waldheim in the Wehrmacht was acknowledged—that a de-tabooisation of the Austrian position with regard to the Second World War finally began.
— The construction of a new national identity in Serbia and Republika Srpska (“Serb Republic”), along with the negation of war crimes after the dissolution of Yugoslavia (1990‒present). It is important to state immediately that in contrast with Austria and Belgium, Republika Srpska is not a state, but a self-proclaimed extra territorial entity that declares its “full-autonomy,” though being part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Exhibition
The exhibition “Counter-Archives of Amnesia” will host an international group of artists, exhibiting multiple formats across a variety of media. The goal is to create a network of deeply discursive and visual cross-references via photography, performance, text-based works, and video screenings, in order to initiate the involvement of different communities.
Working teams
Curatorial team FWF-PEEK Projekt AR439
· Prof. Marina Gržinić, Institut für bildende Kunst, philosopher, video artist
· Mag. Christina Jauernik, Architect, Artist, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, FWF-PEEK AR439
· Dr. Sophie Uitz, political scientist, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, FWF-PEEK AR439
Organizational team FWF-PEEK AR439.
· Urša Bonelli Potokar, main technical producer of the exhibition
· Christina Jauernik, space architectural concept
· Valerija Zabret, MA, artist and developer
· Jovita Pristovšek, PhD., assistant editor of the catalogue, leaflet, poster
Welt Museum Wien (WMW)
Consultation: Dr. Claudia Augustat, curator
Affiliations / Research Sites:
Austria
· Austrian Science Fund FWF
· Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
· mumok Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna
· The Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW)
· Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies
· University of Vienna
· House of Austrian History (Haus der Geschichte Österreich)
· World Museum Vienna (Weltmuseum Wien)
· Slovenian Consensus on Constitutional Rights (Slovenski konsenz za ustavne pravice ‒ SKUP)
· Autonomous Centre of and for Migrants – MAIZ
· The Mauthausen Memorial
Belgium
· leSpace (Brussels)
· ARGOS centre for art and media (Brussels)
· Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations (Brussels)
· OUT OF SIGHT_A venue for contemporary art (Antwerp)
· Free University of Brussels (Université libre de Bruxelles)
· Royal Museum for Central Africa
Bosnia and Herzegovina
· Association for Culture and Art CRVENA (Sarajevo)
· Banja Luka Social Center BASOC
· Because it Concerns Me Initiative
Croatia
· Multimedia Institute / MI2 – MAMA
· Centre for Women’s Studies Zagreb
· Jasenovac Memorial Site
Kosovo
· The Kosovo National Art Gallery (Pristina)
Serbia
· Centre for Cultural Decontamination (Belgrade)
Slovenia
· The City of Women Ljubljana
· Sinagoga Maribor
Spain
· t.i.c.t.a.c. Barcelona