Workshop leaders: Karla Vanraepenbusch (UC Louvain) and Charlotte Rottiers
To process the horrors of the First World War, people needed to be able to make sense of it. They needed some kind of story that gave them a logical explanation for the huge war losses; a story that was straightforward and upon which most people agreed. These narratives interpreted the war for instance as a struggle of civilization against barbarians, as a just war against an evil aggressor or as a senseless butchery.
Such stories become even more powerful when they are told through monuments and other material representations. But these are never really neutral. They either support the dominant story or contest it. The IJzertoren in Diksmuide, for example, is a Flemish nationalist memorial that challenges the dominant Belgian war narrative. Memory is in fact closely linked with politics and identity. War memorials serve, as Reinhardt Koselleck famously observed, as “identity formations of the survivors”.
Certain war memorials become important memory sites attracting many tourists, such as the Menin Gate in Ypres, a memory site that reinforces British and Commonwealth identity. Others are or become contested. Especially after a regime change, monuments are destroyed, and street names are changed. Yet it is not only the State that intervenes. Even individuals might disagree with the narrative that is told and try to renegotiate its meaning.
In our workshop, we will examine the political dimension of war memorials and memory. We ask you to present a First World War memorial from your own city/country or a memorial that you find particularly interesting. The following questions might help you to prepare your presentation:
Such stories become even more powerful when they are told through monuments and other material representations. But these are never really neutral. They either support the dominant story or contest it. The IJzertoren in Diksmuide, for example, is a Flemish nationalist memorial that challenges the dominant Belgian war narrative. Memory is in fact closely linked with politics and identity. War memorials serve, as Reinhardt Koselleck famously observed, as “identity formations of the survivors”.
Certain war memorials become important memory sites attracting many tourists, such as the Menin Gate in Ypres, a memory site that reinforces British and Commonwealth identity. Others are or become contested. Especially after a regime change, monuments are destroyed, and street names are changed. Yet it is not only the State that intervenes. Even individuals might disagree with the narrative that is told and try to renegotiate its meaning.
In our workshop, we will examine the political dimension of war memorials and memory. We ask you to present a First World War memorial from your own city/country or a memorial that you find particularly interesting. The following questions might help you to prepare your presentation:
- What story does the memorial tell about the war? What is not told?
- Who is telling the story and why? How do these people represent themselves?
- Who has been left out of the narrative?
- How is the enemy represented?
- Has the memorial been contested? Has the story been challenged?
- Has it been designed in the ‘official’ style of the state?
- How does it occupy public space? How do people react to it?
Karla Vanraepenbusch got a Master's degree in History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and later got another Master's degree in Museum Studies at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland. She has been part of a World War 1 research project of the Cegesoma (Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society). Now she is a doctoral student at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Her research concerns the material representations of war in Belgian cities that were occupied during the First World War, in particular Antwerp and Liège. She currently also works at the Vredescentrum in Antwerp where she prepares an open air exhibition on the end of the First World War in Antwerp.
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Charlotte Rottiers is currently enrolled in the Master's programme of Art History, with a focus on architecture and heritage studies. Because she is so interested in different cultures and identity politics, she decided to also pursue a degree in Eastern-European languages and cultures. She is combining these interests in her Master's thesis, in which she is discussing Soviet Modernism and Expo ’58 (the World's fair in Brussels in 1958). She’s looking forward to gain more insight in the different mechanisms of propaganda, identity politics and the artistic production of memorials.
Charlotte is not an ISHA newbie, as she has already participated in the Regional Seminar 2017 in Maribor. |