International Symposium, June 1-2, 2012 in Berlin
The Romanian Revolution of December 1989, which culminated in the execution of the dictatorial Ceausescu couple, still represents a challenge for historiography, cultural studies, social policy debates and artistic interventions.
The gradual accessibility of the film, sound and image documentation of the Ceausescu era and its eruptive end, give us a particularly clear reminder of the precarious nature of media documentation. The inherent potential of the medial document to break up every semantic determination – which plays out in the historical memory, in individual experience and in the official culture of remembrance – has not only been emphasized by prominent media theorist immediately following the events, but has also been utilized in various forms of artistic practice. Contrary to various standardizing or normalizing claims that impose already available orders upon the medial transmission of Socialism and its end these interventions bring out possibilities that enrich the discussion by productively valuing the disruptive power of images and breaking up the extant semantic overlays of historical events and processes.
The productive dimension of the medial archive, which takes us beyond questions of interpretation and reception, is in the focus of interest in this conference. Thus the symposium takes the Romanian Revolution and the media-theoretical discourse and artistic practices that developed in immediate response as the paradigmatic occasion to discuss the connection of pictorial media and historiography.
June 1, 2012 | 7.30 pm
Kino Arsenal, Potsdamer Str. 2, Berlin
AUTOBIOGRAFIA LUI NICOLAE CEAUSESCU (THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, Romania 2010, 180 min., Romanian with English subtitles); in presence of director Andrei Ujica
»From a formal point of view, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU proves that it is possible to only use existing images to yield films focused on recent history, yet with an epic vein similar to that of the historical fiction cinema. This is an eminently syntactic endeavor, where montage plays a twofold part: mise-en-scene, as it builds scenes that do not exist as such in the rushes, and classical editing, connecting scenes together.« (Andrei Ujica)
June 2, 2012 | 10 am
Galeria Plan B, Potsdamer Str. 77-87, Berlin
10 am
Introductory Note
Konrad Petrovszky (Berlin) & Tobias Ebbrecht (Weimar)
Two Regimes of Visibility after the Televised Revolution
Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (Cluj/Chisinau)
11.30 am
Coffee Break
12 am
Engendered Histories. A Comment on VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION and THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU.
Susanne Wagner (Weimar)
The Revolutions of ’89 in Romania and Poland. Comparing Intersections of Media and History
Przemyslaw Suwart (Weimar-Jena-Erfurt)
1.30 pm
Lunch Break
2.30 pm
Piata Universitatii – The Site of Perpetual Re-enactment. Self-mirroring and Difference
Raluca Voinea (Bucharest) & Bogdan Ghiu (Bucharest)
To Enact and Re-enact. Some Critical Remarks on a Current Artistic Practice
Maria Muhle (Stuttgart/ Berlin)
4 pm
Coffee Break
4.30 pm
Excerpts from: The Last Hour of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu (Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus) by Milo Rau
Panel Discussion: Re-Visions and Recreations of Romanian History in Film, Theatre, Video & Performance Art
Andrei Ujica; (Karlsruhe), Milo Rau (Cologne), Raluca Voinea (Bucharest)
Chair: Bert Rebhandl (Berlin)
Organized by the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg “Mediale Historiographien” at the Universities of Weimar, Erfurt and Jena with generous support by GALERIA PLAN B, Berlin.
The symposium is based on the recently published volume: Romanian Revolution Televised – Contributions to the Cultural History of Media edited by Konrad Petrovszky and Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (Cluj: Idea 2011).
Concept & Organization:
Tobias Ebbrecht & Konrad Petrovszky
Contact & Information:
DFG-Graduiertenkolleg “Mediale Historiographien”
tobias.ebbrecht@uni-weimar.de | www.mediale-historiographien.de
Locations:
Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst
Potsdamer Str. 2
10785 Berlin
www.arsenal-berlin.de
Galeria Plan B
Potsdamer Str. 77 – 87 (Tagesspiegel Geb.)
Building G, Second Backyard
10785 Berlin
www.plan-b.ro