Forgotten Dreams in Foreign Lands: Legacy of '68

FORGOTTEN DREAMS IN FOREIGN LANDS: LEGACY OF ‘68 — ART PRACTICES AND PRESENT-DAY UTOPIAS

The turbulent political and social situation of Europe today gives rise to the question on how do we assume the future of the European Union and its humanistic postulates.
Some points in history had crucial importance in the development of our societies, but are those times just a forgotten dream of once traversed lands, or an embedded potential inherited by each succeeding generation?

The year of 1968 truly rocked the planet, calling political elites on the West and East for accountability. The fight for human rights, freedom of speech and mobility were spreading across the borders and political systems, uniting critical masses and finding common ground for a Transeuropean movement. The history and heritage of the Second World War had still been present in the memory of its social actors.

It could be argued that this struggle continued and had an important role in the attempts of political liberalisation from the Soviet Union’s domination in the East and had a kind of the climax in the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. It marked an end of one totalitarian regime and should have signalised the beginning of united Europe.

To say that Europe looks different 50 years after 1968 would be an understatement. Yet, although many Europeans live to some extent in a similar reality (in alienation from the politics and institutions, under the threat of growing radicalism, scared of terrorism, connected by social media and exposed to post-truths, in ongoing refugee crisis that is being utilized as a fuel for right-wing movements and xenophobia, supporting #MeToo movement or #BalanceTonPorc, etc.), it would still be hard to imagine such vigorous international solidarity, let alone a global movement that could emerge today and would be comparable to the one in 1968.

For centuries now, art has acted not only as a reflection, but also as an effecter of social change. It could be argued that the underlying mission of contemporary art is to act as an ever more incisive element in social changes and a generator of new ideas. Contemporary art as a field is constantly in the process of critical re- examination of the world around us, where artists and curators are reminding us about different aspects of the society we are living in and enabling us to reflect on the same through the mediation of the works of art.

A two-day symposium program consisting of 2 panels each day will host speakers (historians, witnesses and active participants of the upheaval in ‘68, artist, curators, theoreticians, writers, researchers, art students) with a mission to tackle the impact of 1968 heritage on the cultural and artistic life of Austria and former Yugoslav countries today.

Furthermore, the symposium aims to review the avant-garde movement of that time and also to discuss present-day examples of innovative, experimental and engaged art, which in the future might be perceived as “ahead of its time” in regard to its critical influence on the larger audience.

Symposium speakers and moderators:

Anamarija Batista (Austria), Vedran Džihić (Austria), Darko Fritz (Croatia), Kathrin Heinrich (Austria), Hrvoje Klasić, (Croatia), Dalibor Martinis (Croatia), Milica Pekić (Serbia), Hedwig Saxenhuber (Austria), Svetlana Slapšak (Serbia/Slovenia), etc.

Friday, 2nd November

16:00 – 17:30 Panel I

“Political Reality and Democratic Dreams of 1968 in Europe”

Youth rebellion, anti-establishment activity and conformism in the Eastern Block, struggle for power in the communist states, collective identities and solidarity, relation to the current political situation in Austria and former Yugoslav countries (the upheaval of the right-wing political options).

Panellists:
Hrvoje Klasić – historian (Croatia)
Robert Misik – journalist and non-fiction author, (Austria)
Svetlana Slapšak – retired Professor of anthropology of Ancient worlds, anthropology of gender and Balkanology, former dean of Ljubljana Graduate School of Humanities, writer, translator, activist (Serbia/Slovenia)
Moderator: Vedran Džihić – political scientist (Austria)

17:30 – 18:00 Coffee break

18:00 – 19:30 Panel II

“Critical Discourse of ‘68 and its Influence on Art Practices (Austria and Yugoslavia)”

Actionism — Avant-garde movements and art groups (Austria). A rethinking of classical Marxism and its update to the socio-historical context — seminal for the fields of sociology, cultural studies, and media studies. Influential philosophical circles — the neo-Marxist theory of “Frankfurt school of critical theory” and ”Praxis summer school” (Yugoslavia); artistic reactions to the socio-political transformations.

Panellists:
Nathan Stobaugh – Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University
Dalibor Martinis – artist (Croatia)
Milica Pekić – art historian, curator (Serbia)
Moderator: Ana Hoffner, artist (Serbia/Austria)

20:00 – 21:30 Reception