Prof. Matthew Rampley (University of Birmingham)
Blood Swept Lands: on the Difficulties of Remembering in Art
Presentation (45 min.)

Manca Bajec (Royal College of Art and Design)
Monuments as Artworks, Monuments as Writers of History
Presentation (45 min.)

Discussion: Matthew Rampley and Manca Bajec with Prof. Giedrė Mickūnaitė (Vilnius Academy of Arts) (30 min.).

Art historian Matthew Rampley from the University of Birmingham, editor of Heritage, Ideology and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Contested Pasts, Contested Presents (Boydell & Brewer, 2012), researcher of contemporary art and 20th century central European art and architecture, will look at the difficulties commemorative art faces in a fractured society where there is no longer any consensus about the appropriate language of visual representation and memory.

PhD student at the Royal College of Art and Design, artist and curator Manca Bajec, who researches the history of monument revisionism in the former Yugoslavia and artistic practice as a method of reconciliation, will share her thoughts on how/if art can not only comment on the current situation but also stimulate real social change. The speaker will ask if contemporary art can only offer new ideas to like-minded audiences or whether it can inspire new dialogues between people who generally are not considered to be contemporary art audiences?

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvfB422FGQ