[spectre] (fwd) CFP: Radical Culture in Eastern Europe (online, 27 Sep-4 Oct 21)

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: David Crowley
Date: Jun 4, 2021
Subject: CFP: Radical Culture in Eastern Europe (online, 27 Sep-4 Oct 21)

Online, Sep 27–Oct 4, 2021
Deadline: Jun 30, 2021

To the Left of Power? Radical Culture in Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 
1970s

New research has put attention on the different faces of the 
Counterculture that emerged and spread in Eastern Europe under communist 
rule in the late 1960s and 1970s. Communes, psychedelics and other 
aspects of the hippie lifestyle were embraced as alternatives both to 
conservative 'bourgeois' life and the hollow revolutionary rhetoric of 
Soviet power. Some took a more ideological approach by aligning 
themselves to the Civil Rights and the Anti-Vietnam War movements in the 
West, or by drawing inspiration from the liberation movements in Cuba 
and Africa or even the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China. Sexuality and 
gender also formed new fronts of political action and thinking.

In this workshop, contributors will explore the ways in which 
Counter-Cultural affinities and New Left politics - defined broadly - 
were channeled by artists, theatre, film-makers, writers, musicians and 
others in Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, we are 
interested in proposals of contributions exploring local adoptions and 
adaptations of countercultural ideas: how, for instance, was the 
expression of anti-imperialism or communalism shaped by the experience 
of living as a citizen of the 'Soviet empire'? What were the effects of 
esoteric ideas on counter-cultural production? How was Marxist thinking 
used to shape new critiques of power in societies where Marxism-Leninism 
was a matter of doctrine? What was taken from local marxist traditions - 
like the work of György Lukács and Moisei Kagan - and what was imported? 
How were ideas and practices 'refracted' by their mediation in 
translation, or by exchange in liminal settings like Yugoslavia, East 
Germany and Finland?

We invite short, speculative papers for a workshop over two afternoons - 
12.30-16.30 EEST (13.30-17.30 CEST) on Monday 27th September and Monday 
4th October 2021 (same times). Presentations should be c. 20 mins long. 
Both events will take place via Zoom and will be open to members of the 
public, fellow researchers. We hope that participants will be available 
to join both events.

Keynote speaker to be announced.

This workshop will be the first step in the production of an edited 
volume or a theme-issue of a scholarly journal.

This event is organised under the auspices of Nep4Dissent scheme, an 
EU-funded COST Action and the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Proposals should take the form of an abstract of c. 200 words plus a 
short biographical statement. Please send them to lcca at lcca.lv by 30th 
June 2021. Proposers will hear back by 7th July 2021.

Ieva Astahovska, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art;
Mari Laanemets, Estonian Academy of Arts;
David Crowley, NCAD, Dublin.

Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Radical Culture in Eastern Europe (online, 27 Sep-4 Oct 21). In: 
ArtHist.net, Jun 4, 2021. <https://arthist.net/archive/34264>.