Genealogy of Amnesia

This project is from its very start conceived as an artistic-based research project in order to present the analyses and findings key to our main research questions. Why is this so? Because the central topic of the project deals with very sensitive issues that are historically connected to traumatic spaces, regarding the constitution of European history and memory, in the context of the prevailing discourses of discrimination, differentiation, i.e. racism and anti-Semitism being two of the most evident and palpable. Moreover, the team that proposes the project is qualified on both lines of contemporary research, theoretical and artistically based research. The team is aware that for exposing traumatic issues from our not so far European history is important to artistic platforms on which we will present the outcomes of the research in an accessible and communicable way that involves, engages and invites very different audiences. The aim of this project is to set up an interdisciplinary platform called Genealogy of Collective Amnesia for the study of the current politics of oblivion concerning three traumatic pasts of the twentieth century in the European context. First, the negation of war crimes after the dissolution of Yugoslavia (1990 - present) and the construction of a new national identity in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Second, the construction of a national identity in Austria after the Anschluss (1938), and third, the construction of a Belgian identity in the aftermath of its colonial past (1885). Articulating the politics of oblivion in relation to the construction of a homogeneous national identity, this research project examines the political and ideological conditions of the re/production of history, memory, art and culture in the present moment of neo-liberal global capitalism. As M. Grzinic clearly exposes that knowledge is situated in power mechanisms and geopolitics structures, the outcomes of our artistic research on the Genealogy of Amnesia will be developed along the following three lines: i.memory and history - as contested and complementary practices; ii. archives - as establishing of the Archives of Amnesia; iii. the power of knowledge - as M. Grzinic clearly exposes that knowledge is situated in power mechanisms and geopolitics structures. We find it important to emphasize that our method and format - which is the interdisciplinary research - is organically connected to the topic of historization. Through theoretical researches and artistic practices, a realm for the production of knowledge is created, raising questions on the epistemology of history. In this regard it is of the utmost importance to understand how the processes of empowerment and strategies against politics of forgetting can be addressed, initiated and facilitated through artistic practices and research.

The main goal of this project was to explore the genealogy of amnesia, by which we mean different politics of forgetting and of silencing the past, in relation to three European territories and their traumatic pasts: Belgium (colonialism), Austria (antisemitism), and Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia and "Republika Srpska" or "Serb Republic" (turbo-nationalism). We developed a two-lines approach to arts-based research: First, we entered into theoretical research, second, in conjunction with new media technologies, we created platforms that not only show, but also allow for a deep research travelogue into the subject matter of amnesia, silencing and forgetting. The transdisciplinary aspect was not only to bring theory and practice together, but also to include new formats of theoretical input: curatorial studies, new studies of memory and trauma, and research developed with trans* theories, Jewish studies, decolonial theories and Black thought. We chose a mix of artistic and scientific methods to create a counter-archive, that has multiple components, to counter the dominant politics of forgetting of these violent and genocidal histories with an important goal, to think about the present and future forms of conviviality, of living together. One central component of this counter-archive is the international group exhibition "Stories of Traumatic Pasts: Counter-Archives for Future Memories" (curated by Gržinić, Jauernik, and Uitz), that took place from October 8, 2020 to April 3, 2021 at the Weltmuseum Wien. It included ten artistic positions and parallel projects: the digital archive, the digital mapping, and the activation of art students through a workshop that resulted in the production of a poster exhibition. The exhibition was conceived as stations, chapters based on the project's central lines of research: the genealogy of amnesia in Belgium, Austria, and former Yugoslavia. Therefore, the exhibited works served as a double index, footnote and hypertext in relation to the main theme of the project. The goal was to create a network of profound discursive and visual cross-references through photography, performance, multi-media installation, text-based works, and video screenings to initiate the involvement of diverse communities. The other elements of the counter-archive that we built during the research remain accessible beyond the project's duration: An online tagged archive of 82 multilingual videos: interviews, performances, lectures, recorded between 2018 and 2020 in the three research territories; an edited volume titled Opposing Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Turbo-Nationalism: Rethinking the Past for New Conviviality (edited by Gržinić, Pristovšek, and Uitz. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020); and the exhibition catalogue Stories of Traumatic Pasts: Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Turbo-Nationalism (edited by Gržinić, Pristovšek, Uitz, and Jauernik. Hatje Cantz, 2020), published on the occasion of the exhibition.