International Seminar – Resonances/disonances of history and memory in global contemporaneity

Lola Lasurt, A visit to the CP Nel museum with Mo, 2015.

 

International Seminar
Resonances/disonances of history and memory in global contemporaneity

8 January 2020
Aula Magna
Facultat de Geografia i Història
Universitat de Barcelona

 

 

In recent years many creators have been interested in the historical processes that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century or in the consequences they continue to have today, sometimes due to the contradictions that were generated at that time or conflicts that remain unresolved. In these works, contemporaneity is addressed from a critical re-reading or through memory exercises that establish connections with the past in order to understand it or rescue it, as well as to influence the present. Some examples are projects that deal with the global situation from a post-colonial or horizontal re-reading that has dismantled the supposed centre/periphery division, projects that make the continuities between the Francoist period and the present visible, projects that reflect on östalgie, the nostalgia for the disappearance of block politics and its retro-modern imaginaries.In some of these projects the logic of facts and the logic of fiction are confused, temporalities overlap or modern myths are resignified.
This seminar aims to reflect on the various ways, themes and forms through which contemporary artists are representing the recent past and its effects. It will feature interventions by Jonathan Harris (Birmingham School of Arts), Miriam Basilio (New York University), David Moriente (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and conversations with various artists such as Antoni Muntadas, Lola Lasurt and Ignasi Prat.

Program

Wednesday 8 January

10.00-10.30 > Introduction (Paula Barreiro López and Olga Fernández López)

Frictions in representation: the Spanish State and its ghosts

Chair: Olga Fernández López (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

10.30-11.30 > Miriam Basilio (New York University), “En un lugar preferente y de honor”: la crisis de la monarquía y el retrato oficial

11.30-12.15 > Conversation with Ignasi Prat and Olga Fernández López

12.15-12.45 > Break

12.45-13.30 > Conversation with Antoni Muntadas and Pablo Santa Olalla

Scenarios of the (post-)Cold War

Chair: Paula Barreiro López (Université Grenoble Alpes)

15.30-16.30 > Jonathan Harris (Birmingham City University), “Negative Narratives”: Western Asian, Post-Cold War scenarios in five Middle Eastern artists

16.30-17.15 > Conversation with Lola Lasurt and María Íñigo

17.15-17.45 > Break

17.45-18.45 > David Moriente (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), El pasado es un pozo profundo: los mundos polarizados de Counterpart y Stranger Things

18.45-19.00 > Conclusions and closure of the seminar

Download the poster.

 
Direction:
Paula Barreiro López (Université Grenoble Alpes)
Olga Fernández López (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Coordination:
Juliane Debeusscher (Universitat de Barcelona / Université Grenoble Alpes)
Anita Orzes (Universitat de Barcelona)

Seminar organized in the framework of the project MoDe(s)2 – Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s): arte, política y contracultura en el eje transatlántico durante la Guerra Fría II (HAR2017-82755-P) in collaboration with the project Critical Cartography of Art and Visuality in The Global Age: New Methodologies, Concepts, and Analytic Scopes, Part III (I+D MICINN: HAR2016-75100-P) and the Research Group GRC: Art, Globalizaciò, Interculturalitat, AGI/ART II (2017 SGR 577). With the support of the Departament d’Història de l’Art de la Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona.

Image: Lola Lasurt, A visit to the CP Nel museum with Mo, 2015.