Performative Holocaust commemoration in the 21st century

Popescu, Diana I.; Schult, Tanja

doi:10.1080/17504902.2019.1578452

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The role of performance in the practices of memory includes marches and protests, civic ceremonies, rituals, and “the memorial landscape is constituted, shaped, and made important through the bodily performance and display of collective memories’ as the example of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina shows” (Alderman, Brasher, and Dwyer 2020, 44). In other cases – for example, for the remembrance of the Holocaust – performative memory has included mainly two aspects: the performance implicit in memorial actions and the performance of visitors (Popescu and Schult 2020, 137). The performative and participatory practices see the “embodiment of memory in a shared experience, as opposed to the simple artistic representations of a past event which is materialized in monolithic monuments cast in marble, stone, steel or bronze” (Asavei 2015, 214).…”

Section: The Art and Politics Of Memory: Socialist Monuments Performa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach reunites several analytical foci that have been discussed separately, such as the interest in monuments in the socialist afterworld by art historians (Belcheva 2017), historians (Williams 2008;Kuczyńska-Zonik 2018), geographers (Alderman, Brasher, and Dwyer 2020;Light and Young 2011) or political scientists (Forest and Johnson 2011); and the analysis of performance practices by art history (Jones and Stephenson 2005;Widrich 2014) or performance studies (Taylor 2003;Edkins 2003;Del Campo 2004;Popescu and Schult 2020). At the same time, cultural memory studies (Etkind 2010;Erll and Nunning 2008;Jelin 2001;Bull and Hansen 2020) and the examination of the role of art in transitional processes (Garnsey 2016;Barat 2014;Simic 2015) have not dedicated a lot of attention to the case of monuments (Buckley-Zistel and Schäfer 2014;Drinot 2009;Hite 2007;Milton 2011), and scarcely so in Eastern Europe (Light and Young 2011;Light and Young 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

“Living Statues” and Nonuments as “Performative Monument Events” in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe

Preda

2022

Nationalities Papers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

After the fall of the socialist regimes in South and Eastern Europe socialist statues and monuments were either removed, dislocated, or resignified. Several performance practices have been employed to engage with these statues and monuments. Focusing on the role played by artistic memorialization in the processes of dealing with the communist past, this article uses the concepts of “performative monuments” (Widrich) and “memory events” (Etkind) to analyze several examples of what can be called “performative monuments events.” As many statues were removed, the statues witnessed performative practices in the process of their elimination. The monuments that were conserved were dislocated and exhibited as part of “sculpture park museums” and observed nostalgic, ironic practices of tourists that perform the memory of communism by interacting with the monuments. This article analyzes several examples in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania of socialist monuments that have remained in place or that have been dislocated and resignified by contemporary artists using performative practices of memory events that engage monuments. This exploratory research argues that artists, through their “performative monuments events,” try to bring the people back to replace the statues with “living statues” and to question the absurd megalomaniac monuments using metaphorical, material instruments.

show abstract

Section: The Art and Politics Of Memory: Socialist Monuments Performa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Living Statues” and Nonuments as “Performative Monument Events” in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe

Preda

2022

Nationalities Papers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, -memory as an action-not as a mental process… is performed through discourse: It is constructed verbally or materially through the use of signs and symbols‖ (de Saint-Laurent, 2017, p. 10). Memory acts necessitate memory agents (Popescu & Schult, 2020) or mnemonic actors (Bernhard & Kubik, 2014), who are active organisers of memory projects and producers of memory regimes. These social actions are enacted for a certain audience (de Saint-Laurent, 2017), often making memory acts performative.…”

Section: Collective Memory Performativity and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our case, it will be important to highlight that ‗knowledge about the past' is stored in non-written formats often narrated in various performative manners. For a certain action to qualify as performance it would need to centre on and describe a certain memory and impact the audience and their future action (see Popescu & Schult, 2020). The descriptions, or memory acts, will not be made out of thin air though.…”

Section: Collective Memory Performativity and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Performing Guzo Adwa: Power, Politics and Contestations

Gebresenbet¹,

Ashine²

2022

Eth. J. Soc. Sci. Hum.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper documents a history and politics of memory project called Guzo Adwa. It highlights how, over the last eight years, Guzo Adwa emerged as a popular, performative commemoration of the battle of Adwa. Organised spontaneously by ambitious young men, who are passionate about history and adventure, culture and national politics, art and memory, Guzo Adwa emerged as a political performative, poetic and symbolic pilgrimage of the victory of Adwa. In its multiplicity, Guzo Adwa, which could be roughly interpreted as ‘Journey Adwa’, added to the already contested memory landscape pertaining to Adwa. The particularity of the project is that it has been organised neither as a mode of rule nor as an instrument of resistance. Moreover, the paper highlights how even this annual ritualized journey, as the memory project, embraced official and marginal political narratives, serving as a stage where varied economic interests and political issues surrounding national history were transpired. The paper is based on both primary and secondary sources. A total of ten formal interviews were conducted with key informants participating in Guzo Adwa in addition to informal discussions with others who have played some role in in the event , and other related memory projects. Newspaper archival research was conducted considering Addis Zemen reporting of Adwa commemoration as an ethnographic site. An attempt is made to attend events organised by the Guzo Adwa, especially the farewell ceremony of the eighth journey to Adwa. Finally, we try to locate the particular history of this memory project into national politics of memory and theoretical and conceptual debates in memory studies.

show abstract

“… 3. So far there has been little research on the perception of memorials, a gap this contribution does not aim to fill. One notable exception is the special issue ‘Performative Holocaust Commemoration in the 21st Century’ by Popescu and Schult (2020) in Holocaust Studies. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the politics of aesthetics: From imposing, via counter to affirmative memorials to violence

Buckley-Zistel

2021

Memory Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Memorials have become increasingly relevant in societies seeking to come to terms with the past of mass violence and there is a growing body of academic scholarship that scrutinises the politics of memory in divided societies. This article takes a different approach to the politics of memorials: it does not focus on what is remembered, that is, to what a memorial testifies, but how memory at a memorial (supposedly) takes place through the aesthetic strategies put to work. It contributes to emerging literature which explores aspects of performativity and the politics of affect. The objective is, however, to take it one step further by not only shifting attention to studying the engagement with, experience and performance at these sites but also to the politics of the aesthetics choice that promote this engagement. To do so, it differentiates between three aesthetic styles of memorials: imposing, counter and affirmative memorials that were all developed at a particular time in order to pursue particular political and social objectives. The current phenomenon, affirmative memorials, holds that there is a duty to remember and is firmly embedded in efforts to build peace, advance liberal norms and contribute to transitional justice. Pursuing this strategy is however at odds with the aesthetic style of these affirmative memorials that is derived from counter memorials and celebrates plurality and openness rather than wanting to affirm one message.

show abstract

Performative Holocaust commemoration in the 21st century

Cited by 18 publications

References 22 publications

“Living Statues” and Nonuments as “Performative Monument Events” in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe

“Living Statues” and Nonuments as “Performative Monument Events” in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe

Performing Guzo Adwa: Power, Politics and Contestations

Tracing the politics of aesthetics: From imposing, via counter to affirmative memorials to violence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About