Contested Histories, Shared Futures (Day 1)

Spread over two days, artists, writers, curators and policy makers will answer these and many other questions. The aim is to think about the shared future of Europe. The third conference of the European Alliance of Academies will take place on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 June. The European Alliance is committed to the freedom of the arts in Europe. 

Dealing with the past 

This year the conference focuses on dealing with the past, which appears to be problematic if not controversial for many institutions. How do cultural institutions deal with the widely expressed desire to examine their own history? What does this mean for the name of an art institute? And what are the consequences for collections? How do artists give controversial monuments in public space new meaning? What can we learn from this with regard to other social sectors?

Program

Welcome Welcome by Liesbeth Bik, chairman of the Academy of Arts & Jeanine Meerapfel, president of the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Panel 1: Contested Institutions: Making the Past Productive

In recent years, cultural institutions have started to look critically at their own history, partly under pressure from public opinion and partly on their own initiative. This may concern the history of a building, a location, but also of a collection or even the name of an institution. In this panel, three speakers explain how they try to make history productive from their practice:

• Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum
• Wendelien van Oldenborgh, visual artist and member of the Academy of Arts
• Paul Spies, director of the Stadtmuseum Berlin and chief curator at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin

Panel 2: Contested Monuments: How to Deal with Controversial Monuments in Public Space?

Not only cultural institutions are focal points for discussions about the past. Monuments in public spaces also often lead to heated debate. Sometimes this leads to a statue being pulled off its pedestal, sometimes a counter monument is erected and sometimes it leads to completely different interventions. The five artists in this panel provide examples from their own practice of how to deal with controversial monuments in public space:  

• Andreja Kulunčić, visual artist (Croatia)
• Amina Menia, visual artist (Algeria)
• RAAAF, experimental studio at the intersection of visual art, experimental architecture and academic philosophy (Netherlands)
• Joanna Rajkowska, visual artist (Poland)
• Fernando Sánchez Castillo, visual artist ( Spain)

Moderator

Bruno Alves de Almeida, curator and architect