(In)visible traces. Artistic memories of the cold war
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our project, (In)Visible Traces: Artistic Memories of the Cold War, in partnership with Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past (Croatia), Erkenntnis durch Erinnerung e.V. (Bautzner Straße Dresden), ARAC – Association for Contemporary Art in Bucharest (Romania), Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (Croatia) and the artist Andrea Kulunčić, within the framework of the Creative Europe program.
The primary aim of this project is to involve artists, art professionals, cultural heritage researchers, youth, educators, policymakers, and other European citizens in a reflection and discussion about European cultural heritage, particularly focusing on the preservation of historical buildings or now-vacant sites that testify to or illustrate the political history of the Cold War.
The project aims to contribute to raising awareness and finding solutions to the following questions: how to protect neglected cultural heritage sites, how to make them more visible, how to use the potential of heritage locations for art, education, culture, and tourism, and how to conserve and protect these heritage locations. The innovative dimension of the project lies in the systematic combination of art and research work with heritage protection, while utilizing the consortium’s decades of experience in advocating for and organizing public heritage protection institutions.
The project’s impact surpasses the four countries involved (Croatia, Romania, Austria, and Germany) by engaging artists from all European countries and from Ukraine, addressing unprotected sites in other signatories of the European Cultural Convention through the combined lenses of art and heritage protection. The project is relevant to the scope of the call because it will contribute to safeguarding and promoting European cultural heritage, focusing on heritage at risk, in need of legal and physical protection or rebuilding after war, highlighting similarities and differences across Europe.
By tackling the topics of shared European history during the Cold War period, and at the same time recognizing the differences and particularities of each country involved, the consortium will increase knowledge about the chosen places, their stories, and their visibility across Europe.
Through various activities such as workshops, study visits, artistic interventions, exhibitions, and residencies, the project will engage artists and art professionals, with a special focus on younger generations and lesser-known professionals. It will provide them with opportunities for visibility, exchanges, mobility, and the creation of works inspired by diverse cultural heritage locations and historical events related to the Cold War.
Links to the open calls for the activities taking place in the framework of the the project:
- TRAINING IN PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUTH – HYBRID WORKSHOPS
- CALL FOR ARTISTS – STUDY VISIT IN ROMANIA AND ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS
(In)Visible Traces. Artistic memories of the Cold War and financed by the European Union through the Creative Europe program.
