Opis
➡️ Join us for two lectures accompanying the International Conference "Reframing the Museum. Decolonial Practices in the Context of Central and Eastern Europe"! 🗓 13 November 2025, 15:30-17:00 📍 The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw (Kredytowa 1) 🎟️ Free admission Key-note: Matthew Rampley | 15:30-16:00 ⚫️ Why is it still so difficult to talk about colonialism? Museums and identities in contemporary east-central Europe. In the summer of 2024, many representatives of the Czech artistic and cultural establishment, such as the artist Milan Knížák, the architect Josef Pleskot, the musician Milan Cajs and the novelist Jáchym Topol, signed an online petition demanding the resignation of Maria Topolčanská, rector of the Academy of Arts in Prague, and of Alicja Knast, director of the National Gallery. The causes of complaint were numerous, but their criticisms focused, in particular, on the Czech entry to the Venice Biennale in that year, The Heart of a Giraffe in Captivity Weighs 12 Kilos Lighter, by Eva Koťátková, and a seemingly innocuous comment by Knast, that ' … we shall have to find new ways of discussing and resolving the colonial past, and do it in the countries of central Europe, too.' In both cases, the signatories objected to the suggestion that questions of coloniality had anything to do with Czech culture. What makes it so difficult to talk about colonial legacies in Czech society? What lies behind this vehement denial? How widespread is it, and to what extent is the Czech example typical of a wider phenomenon, or are there specific features unique to the Czech case? Looking at recent as well as historical examples, the lecture address the difficult terrain of discussion of colonially in the Central European context. Matthew Rampley is extraordinary professor of art history at Masaryk University, Brno. His interests include the art and architecture of Central Europe from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and aesthetics, criticism and the historiography of art. Recent books include: Visions of the Future: Modern Architecture, Catholicism and the State in Central Europe, 1918-1939 (2025), The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary: Art and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century (2021, with Nóra Veszprémi and Markian Prokopovych), Liberalism, Nationalism and Design Reform in the Habsburg Empire: Museums of Design, Industry and the Applied Arts (2020, with Nóra Veszprémi and Markian Prokopovych) and The Vienna School of Art History (2013). He is currently the PI of a Czech Grant Agency-funded project Czechs and the Colonial World: Art, Design and Visual Culture since 1848. Key-note: Sumaya Kassim | 16:00-16:30 ⚫️ Love is the Familiar made Strange... Defamiliarising the Museum as a Doorway to Decolonising Sumaya Kassim is a writer and editor based in the UK. She writes fiction and essays. Her interests include heritage, memory, and how we might activate the past to better our present and our future. Her essay 'The museum will not be decolonised' continues to be read widely. @_sumayakassim Museums are usually where we encounter old, familiar narratives about the nation, history and our relationship with others (nature, other cultures, etc). What would happen if it was the place where we encountered strange, unfamiliar narratives? What would happen if we took the museum as a starting point for societal transformation rather than historical preservation? What happens when we encounter the other - or the stranger - with love and not fear? After the lectures, participants are invited to join the discussion. The event will be conducted in English. 🔗 More information about the conference: https://ethnomuseum.pl/blog/international-conference-reframing-the-museum/
➡️ Join us for two lectures accompanying the International Conference "Reframing the Museum. Decolonial Practices in the Context of Central and Eastern Europe"! 🗓 13 November 2025, 15:30-17:00 📍 The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw (Kredytowa 1) 🎟️ Free admission Key-note: Matthew Rampley | 15:30-16:00 ⚫️ Why is it still so difficult to talk about colonialism? Museums and identities in contemporary east-central Europe. In the summer of 2024, many representatives of the Czech artistic and cultural establishment, such as the artist Milan Knížák, the architect Josef Pleskot, the musician Milan Cajs and the novelist Jáchym Topol, signed an online petition demanding the resignation of Maria Topolčanská, rector of the Academy of Arts in Prague, and of Alicja Knast, director of the National Gallery. The causes of complaint were numerous, but their criticisms focused, in particular, on the Czech entry to the Venice Biennale in that year, The Heart of a Giraffe in Captivity Weighs 1...