31st Conference of the German-Polish Working Group for Art History and Monument Preservation

Every war was supposed to be the last one. None of them actually was. All of them brought not only suffering and destruction, but also changes unimaginable ahead. Efforts have been made to tame them through new narratives and interpretations, such as historiographical accounts, and to articulate them through various forms of art, including architecture, urban planning, painting, drawing, and graphics.

The following 31st conference of the Polish-German Working Group for Art History and Monument Preservation builds on last year’s discussion on ‘Art and War’. The conference addresses the role of art and architecture in post-war realities, a topic that remains relevant in face of depopulation, loss of heritage, economic crises, changes in social relations, and individual and collective traumas resulting from armed conflicts throughout history. The situation of art is undoubtedly challenging under such circumstances. However, history proves that artistic activity does not come to a complete standstill during or immediately after wars. On the contrary, it often flourishes as a result of wars.

The conference will discuss artistic phenomena that arise in the aftermath of war conflicts in different historical periods, political situations, and geographical contexts. The aim is to consider both the uniqueness and the shared features of these phenomena.

We encourage submissions that address the following topics:

TRAUMA

  • Between reappraisal and repression – artists and their commissioners in the face of the past war
  • The impact of war experience on the means of artistic expression
  • Reception of works of art in post-war reality

NEW WORLD

  • Architecture and art as tools for the creation and transmission of new religious, political or philosophical narratives
  • New territories – appropriation of culturally distinct areas in the wake of shifts of national or social boundaries
  • The social role of artists and their works in the post-war reality – interaction with the public
  • The reorganisation of the art system – new configurations, theoretical concepts, audiences, political and institutional conditions, reconstituted and new networks
  • Between reconstruction and creation – strategies for rebuilding from war damage

MEMORY

  • Operations on memory – individual and institutional reinterpretations of the past in order to place it into a new context
  • Paradise lost – nostalgic visions of bygone times and territories lost in the geopolitical changes of the post-war period, attempts to transfer pre-war ideas into the new realities
  • Apotheosis of war and peace – instrumentalisation of war in art and architecture

The German-Polish Working Group for Art History and Monument Preservation serves as a forum for bilateral contacts and research in the fields of art history, visual culture, and heritage protection in Eastern and Central Europe. The conference focuses on these regions, but also welcomes contributions with comparative and cross-regional perspectives.

Proposals for unpublished papers may be submitted in Polish, German or English. The maximum length for the proposal is 1,800 characters including spaces, the maximum length for the short bio is 900 characters. Please send your submission to: [email protected]

Deadline for submissions: 15 May 2024. The organisers reserve the right to select only some of the submitted papers.

Accepted proposals will be presented as 20-minute papers. Additionally, there will be an information exchange section in the form of short 10-minute talks, providing a forum for the presentation of current research projects related to art history and preservation of common Polish-German heritage.

The papers presented at the conference will be published in a peer-reviewed and scored publication.

Conference organized by the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw in cooperation with the University of Wroclaw and Wroclaw University of Science and Technology