Critical Revealing of Communist Heritage in the V4 region, Ukraine and Georgia
Implementation period of project:
July 2023 — December 2024
Description:
The project is based on a common interest of the partners in the vanishing cultural heritage of the second half of the 20th century. The project countries are united by a common communist past, even though the situation in each of them was different, as it is reflected in the diverse topics of the pilot activities.
Traditional cultural and memory institutions do not pay enough attention to this period and, in many cases, they do not deal with that at all. Moreover, now we are in a situation where the last witnesses of this history are passing away, and with them their memories and narratives. On top of that, the tangible cultural heritage, especially the architecture, is endangered by the current urban development or, in the case of Ukraine, by the war. We wanted to point out that with a bigger involvement of independent cultural organisations in mapping, researching, and critical reflection, we will be able to partially overcome these problems.
The project initiated sharing of knowledge and experiences on the creative presentation of communist history among independent cultural centers or similar actors in Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Ukraine and Georgia. Each of the partners identified a disappearing complex of cultural heritage that was specific to the communist period in their territory: forced evictions of the Roma minority (SK), industrial bread making as an essential mission in the Soviet Union (GE), Soviet industrial heritage of the Donbas region (UA), the internment of the nuns in the Broumov monastery (CZ) and colleges for advanced studies as boosters of freedom in communism (HU).
Outcomes of the project
Echoes of the Bloc: Working with Communist Heritage is an online publication, a result of the international project Critical Revealing of Communist Heritage in the V4 Region, Ukraine and Georgia.
The publication contains expert article on working with cultural heritage, pilot actions of the involved partners, their experiences and recommendations for working with cultural heritage that could help other cultural centres in designing and organising their own activities, and finally a catalogue of projects from different countries offering best practices in working with communist heritage.
From the Periphery to the Centre and Back is a historical research pilot action by cultural centre Malý Berlín, which aimed to reconstruct the local cultural and social history of the city of Trnava within the period between 1945 and 1989 and partly with the post-socialist transformation around the themes of the physical and social mobility of Roma between the ‚periphery‘ and the ‚centre‘.
Culture, Creativity and Innovation conference dealt with creative approaches to preserving cultural heritage at risk.
The aim of the conference is to open a debate on innovative and creative approaches to the presentation and preservation of cultural heritage. We will focus on the links between cultural heritage, the creative sector and community collaboration. The event will provide a space for the exchange of knowledge and experience between professionals from different fields – from architecture to art to activism.
Illustrative photo: Azovstal iron and steel factory © Chad Nagle, Licence CC