1989’S LOOSE ENDS

Five panels and two keynote presentations will explore the impact of 1989 on art, history, literature, culture and philosophy, while simultaneously considering this momentous year’s relevance to many of the worrisome political processes taking place in the world today.

Programme

THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER

9.30 – 10.00                 Registration & Coffee

10.00 – 10.30               Opening Remarks from Diane P. Koenker and Peter Zusi

ENDS OF HISTORY

Session 1 – 10.30 – 13.00    

Chair: Tim Beasley-Murray

Maria Toropova, From Church Revival to Church Reboot: The Evolution of the Russian Orthodox Church in Post-Soviet Russia.

Ivan Medenica, The BITEF Paradox: From Representation to the Deconstruction of Cultural Paradigms.

András Lénart, The Caribbean ‘Orphans’ of the Soviet Union: Relations between Cuba and the United States of America after 1989.

Zainub Verjee, Uncovering the Ground: The Other Art Histories of 1989 and the Visibility of the Indigenous Renaissance.

13.00 – 14.30               Lunch Break

SPECTRES OF MARX

Session 2 – 14.30 – 16.30

Chair: Lina Džuverović

Narendra Pachkhédé, Inscribing Eqbal Ahmad as the Intellectual-Revolutionary of the Third World.

Joshua Simon, Post-Soviet Anti-Communism and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

Suzana Milevska, The Class Issue in the Arts Before and After the Berlin Wall.

16.30 – 17.00               Coffee Break

ARE WE HISTORY?

Keynote Presentation – 17.00 – 18.00

Anthony Gardner, Head of the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University.

Reception - 18.00 - 19.30

FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER

CURATING 1989

Session 3 – 10.00 – 12.30

Chair: Anya Smirnova

Sofia Jamal, Framing 1989 as a Critical Decolonial Moment: In Visible Colours – An Artefact of Third World Solidarity in Canada.

Mónika Dánél, Lost in Transition? 1989 from Hungarian and Romanian Perspectives.

Beáta Hock, The ‘Soros-Plan’ and the Stakes in Culture.

Dimitra Gkitsa, Collective Curating in the Post-Communist Space.

12.30 – 13.30               Lunch Break

SHIFTING SEXUALITIES

Session 4 ­– 13.30 – 15.00        

Chair: Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz

Anna Dobrowolska, A Forgotten Sexual Revolution? State-Socialist Sexualities and the 1990s ‘Sexual Liberation’ in Poland.

Nashuyuan Serenity Wang, Spatialising Forbidden Eastern Desires: Queer Identities within the Entangled Temporalities of the Post-1989 Chinese Queer Cinema.

15.00 – 15.30               Coffee Break

LOOSE ENDS

Session 5 – 15.30 – 17.30

Chair: Michał Murawski

Roberto De Vogli, Global Neoliberalism: The ‘End of History’ or the Beginning of a New Religion?

Niko Vicario, Seamlessness: The Surfaces of Art and Architecture since 1989.

Bingchun Meng, From Tiananmen to Victoria Park: Historicizing the 2019 Hong Kong Protests.

17.30 – 18.00               Coffee Break

AFTER THE FALL

Keynote Presentation – 18.00 – 19.00

Marina Gržinić, Artist, Philosopher, & Full Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna

Reception - 19.00 - 20.00

The conference is organised by Marko Ilić (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at UCL SSEES), and Katarína Lichvárová, (The Courtauld Institute of Art). It has been made possible through the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust, The FRINGE Centre for the Study of Social and Cultural Complexity, and UCL’s Octagon Small Grants Fund.