Übersicht / Our Guests
Much research has been done on monuments, on their original foundations, histories, designs, official attributions of meaning. In contrast, we focus on the subsequent everyday and festive practices at these places of remembrance, in all their recent and past forms and media designs. What happens(-ed) there in specific terms? What are they used for today – or were they used long after the original foundation situation had faded?
Es ist sehr viel zu Denkmälern geforscht worden, über ihre ursprünglichen Stiftungen, Geschichten, Gestaltungen, offiziellen Bedeutungszuschreibungen. Wir legen den Schwerpunkt dagegen auf die nachfolgenden Alltags- und Fest-Praktiken an diesen Erinnerungsorten, in all ihren rezenten und vergangenen Formen und medialen Gestaltungen. Was passiert(e) dort konkret? Wofür werden sie heute gebraucht – oder wurden sie gebraucht, nachdem die ursprüngliche Stiftungssituation längst verblasst war?
11. Dezember 2023, 18:30 Uhr
Veranstaltungsort: Wien, Universitätshauptgebäude, Hörsaal 41
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dietrich Erben (München)
Standortfaktor Denkmal. Kommerzielle Aspekte der Denkmalkultur seit dem 19. Jahrhundert
In der Auseinandersetzung mit Denkmälern des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts geht es üblicherweise um die Interessen, aus denen die einzelnen Monumente zustande kommen, und um die visuellen Mitteilungen, die sie machen. Denkmäler dienen jedoch nicht nur der Vermittlung von rationalem Wissen, sondern sind auch Generatoren von sinnlicher, über das Sehen hinausreichender Erfahrung und von affektivem Erleben. Der Dauerhaftigkeit des materiellen Bestandes steht die Flüchtigkeit des Erlebens gegenüber.
Dieses Erlebnisangebot, das Denkmäler machen, steht nicht nur im Dienst der Politik, sondern auch der kommerziellen Verwertbarkeit von politischer Ideologie. Beides schließt sich, so die Begründungen des Vortrags, zusammen im Begriff der Standortpolitik.
Zur Person
Dietrich Erben ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Theorie und Geschichte von Architektur, Kunst und Design an der Technischen Universität München. Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen in der politischen Ikonographie, der Architekturtheorie und der Geschichte der europäischen Kunstbeziehungen. Neuere Buchveröffentlichungen: als Hg. Das Buch als Entwurf. Textgattungen in der Geschichte der Architekturtheorie (2019); Kunst des Barock (32022); Humanität und gebaute Umwelt. Essays und Studien zur Architekturgeschichte (2023).
Website: https://www.arc.ed.tum.de/ltg/mitarbeiter/
22 May 2023, 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Wien, Universitätshauptgebäude, Hörsaal 41
Dr. Moira Pérez (Buenos Aires)
Monuments, vandalism, and colonial temporality
The most recent upsurge in interventions on contested monuments is characterized by giving center stage to Western European colonialism and its deadly consequences around the world. Apart from traditional debates around heritage and historical change, these tendencies opened other discussions (which in several contexts were long overdue) about coloniality and the participation of Western countries in the economy of slave trade and extractivism. Centering coloniality as a key element in the past and the present -and in the bridges between them, such as monuments- allows us to reassess our notions of temporality and how it is expressed in historical narratives and in the public space. In this conference, Dr. Perez will analyze the temporalities involved in monuments, particularly those expressing some form of Western European colonialism, and will consider what the recent wave of iconoclasm can teach us about colonial temporality.
Biography
Moira Pérez is Fellow at the Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie Hannover, Germany, and Assistant Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina. Her work focuses on the interplay between identity and violence (including epistemic violence), and brings together contributions of narrativist philosophies of history, queer theory, and decolonial and postcolonial studies, among others. In relation to the representation of the past, she has worked on narratives of progress in social movements, agency-building through historical representations of marginalized groups, and pinkwashing through official histories. Her current project addresses contested monuments, particularly those related to coloniality, and the debates surrounding how and who should deal with them.
Website: https://www.aacademica.org/moira.perez
15 May 2023, 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Wien, Universitätshauptgebäude, Hörsaal 41
Dr. Alex von Tunzelmann (London)
Fallen Idols: Statues, History and Memory
In 2020, hundreds of statues were pulled down around the world, from the USA, UK and Belgium to Bangladesh, Colombia and New Zealand. There had been dramatic waves of iconoclasm before – such as the French Revolution or during the fall of the Soviet Union – but never on a global scale. Alex von Tunzelmann considers iconoclasm both as a phenomenon within modern history, from the American Revolution to today, and as a response to that history and historiography. Unpicking the politics for and against putting up and pulling down statues, she shows how debates over the public representation of history are central to our identities and communities today.
Biography
Alex von Tunzelmann is a historian, broadcaster and screenwriter, who appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and Monocle 24. She has written for a huge range of international publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, and Prospect. Her most recent book, Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues that Made History (2021), was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022. Her previous books have included the international bestseller Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (2007). She made her international feature film debut as a screenwriter with Churchill (2017), starring Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson. She is based in London.
Website: https://www.headline.co.uk/titles/alex-von-tunzelmann/fallen-idols/9781472281890/
Credentials of featured image: Wiehen Hills, on the trail to Porta Westfalica, 25 Nov 2017 (c) M. Demantowsky