Events
Lecture Series: Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Current Lecture Series: Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia. Conservation and Destruction
Where? Online and on Campus
When? 09.10.24-22.01.2025, Wednesdays, 5-6:30 pm
View the programm below or download here.
This lecture series, Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia: Conservation and Destruction, investigates the complex processes involved in producing, preserving, and, at times, destroying cultural heritage in the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa). Heritage is a living process—a space in the present and future for the material and ecological cultures of the past. The series delves into heritage practices in the Middle East and Central Asia, emphasizing the varied impacts of preservation efforts as well as the forces driving decay and erasure.
Distinguished speakers from Vienna and abroad will examine how heritage is celebrated, displayed, and sometimes erased, raising questions on the forces that shape heritage in museums and public spaces. From intellectual preservation and knowledge production to political acts of destruction, the lectures will consider both the constructive and destructive dimensions of heritage. What meanings do gaps and losses create, and how can we approach collections and preservation amidst contexts of protest, war, and revolution?
VO Take Over. Lecture by Mariama de Brito Henn
VO Take Over – Lecture on “Axé - Afrospirituelle Ikonographie in Brasilianischer Kunst” by Mariama de Brito Henn, M.A.
📅 Date: Monday, December 2, 2025
⏰ Time: 13:15 - 15:15
📍 Location: Hörsaal C1, UniCampus Hof 2, 2G-O1-03
We’re thrilled to invite you to a session in the "VO Take Over: Intersektionale Interventionen" series! Mariama de Brito Henn, M.A., will be presenting on “Axé - Afrospirituelle Ikonographie in Brasilianischer Kunst” as part of the StEOP Introduction to Iconography course.
With "VO Take Over," organized by Teresa Kamencek, Carola Korhummel, and Seda Pesen, the University of Vienna is fostering change by creating space for young scholars to share intersectional and canon-critical perspectives. Six emerging scholars from the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies have volunteered to pass the stage to new voices, addressing the need for diverse role models in academia and challenging traditional narratives.
Don’t miss this chance to engage with Afrospiritual iconography in Brazilian art and join the conversation on reimagining historical perspectives!
Workshop "lron Curtains or Artistic Gates?" by Anna-Marie Kroupová & Noémie Etienne
Workshop lron Curtains or Artistic Gates? Communism and Cultural Diplomacy in the Global South (1945-1991 and Beyond)
📅 19th – 20th September 2024
📍 Online / Hochzeitsoktogon, Upper Belvedere, Prinz-Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Vienna, Austria
Organizers: Anna-Marie Kroupová & Noémie Étienne (University of Vienna)
To register, please contact workshop.ironcurtains@gmail.com.
For the livestream of the workshop, you can register here.
This workshop challenges traditional East-West Cold War narratives by examining the cultural interactions between communist Europe and the Global South.
We will primarily focus on art, culture, and heritage as sources of new insights into historical narratives. We ask the following questions:
How can artistic expression contribute to the rethinking of historical narratives?
How have political circumstances shaped artistic and cultural production, and vice versa?
What were the underlying power dynamics? And what are the contemporary legacies of such interactions?
We will examine the role of various artistic media, personal actors, and cultural institutions as conduits for diplomacy and solidarity in the second half of the 20th century and investigate the multifaceted exchanges that shaped these relationships.
By discussing a variety of transcultural case studies alongside theoretical frameworks, the workshop shall identify the key actors who have been instrumental in fostering long-lasting camaraderie and cultural exchange with decolonized regions. In doing so, the workshop will ultimately address the significance of cultural diplomacy in shaping historical and contemporary global relations and the corresponding solidarity movements.
Program
View the Abstracts Folder here (PDF)
Day 1: Thursday, 19. 9. 2024
9.00 | Early Coffee
9.30 | Welcome Words: Anna-Marie Kroupová & Noémie Étienne (University of Vienna)
Museum Encounters. Chair: Eva Kernbauer (University of Applied Arts Vienna)
9.45 | Jakub Gawkowski (Central European University, Vienna): Art Museum as a Cold War Space of Encounter. Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź in Dialogue with Mexico, Cuba and Chile in the long 1960s
10.25 | Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez (Saint Louis University, Madrid): Cultural Diplomacy and Revolutionary Art. FNAP’s Travelling Exhibition of Mexican Art
11.05 | Marcin Lewicki (University of Warsaw): From Poland through the São Paulo Biennial to the International Art World
11.45 | Lunch Break
Representations. Chair: Oksana Sarkisova (Central European University)
13.15 | Domnica Gorovei (University of Bucharest): Romania’s Cultural Relations with Western Francophone African Countries in the 60s and 70s. Case studies: Cote d’Ivoire and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso)
13.55 | Maria Silina (Ruhr University Bochum & Université du Québec à Montréal) & Yi Gu (University of Toronto Scarborough): The East in Moscow. Chinese-Soviet Art Exchanges at the Oriental Museum
14.35 | Christine Varga-Harris (Illinois State University): Cultural Outreach and Soviet Representations of Decolonizing Africa through the Lens of Gender, 1956–1964
15.15 | Coffee Break
Education. Chair: Katalin Cseh-Varga (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
15.45 | Sasha Artamonova (Northwestern University): Photographic Training of African Students at “Schule der Solidarität” in East Berlin
16.25 | Anna-Marie Kroupová (University of Vienna): Art Students from the Decolonized World in Czechoslovakia after 1968
17.05 | Coffee Break
17.30 | Keynote Lecture: Beáta Hock (Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe and Humboldt University of Berlin): Vectors and Dynamics of Cold War Cultural Exchanges. A Triangulation
Day 2: Friday, 20. 9. 2024
9.00 | Early Coffee
Camaraderie. Chair: Christiane Erharter (Belvedere, Vienna)
9.30 | Jovanka Popova (Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje): Collection of Solidarity. The Legacy and Future of the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje
10.10 | Olja Triaška Stefanović (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava): The Elephant in Tito’s Menagerie. Animal Diplomacy and the Non-Aligned Movement
10.50 | Rado Ištok (National Gallery Prague and Charles University, Prague): Modern African Art of the 1960s between Paris, Vienna and Prague
11.30| Lunch Break
Formations. Chair: Noit Banai (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna)
13.00 | Marcelo Mari (University of Brasília): Modern Art Museums in Brazil as Fortresses of Freedom (1948–1951)
13.40 | Maroš Timko (Czech Academy of Sciences): Between Prague and Bogotá. Czechoslovak Cultural Diplomacy and Colombian Communism in the 1960s
14.20 | Louise Thurin (Independent Researcher): Modernist Mosaics in Sub-Saharan Africa
15.00 | Coffee Break
Circulations Chair: Noémie Étienne (University of Vienna)
15.30 | Gaelle Prodhon (National Institute for Art History, Paris): Official and Non-official Photographic Trajectories Between Algeria and the Brother Countries of Eastern Europe. Between Realities and the Imaginary
16.10 | Christopher Williams-Wynn (4A_Lab, Berlin and Florence): Diplomacy of the Cell. The Formal Traces of Solidarity Between Argentina and East Germany, c. 1979
16.50 | Closing Remarks
Workshop Partners: Faculty Center for Transdisciplinary Historical and Cultural Studies (University of Vienna); Belvedere, Vienna; FSP Global History (University of Vienna); Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War; New Cold War Studies Research Group (University of Vienna); Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies (University of Vienna).
Lecture by Dr. Matilde Cartolari - Ambassadors of Beauty?
Evening Lecture by Dr. Matilde Cartolari titled Ambassadors of Beauty”? Eine deutsch-italienische Perspektive auf die Ausstellungsforschung
at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich and online.
The event will be transmitted live via Zoom at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85659345839?pwd=UmFZYU0xN1NxMGJ1MjlQM054NXgvZz09. Meeting ID: 856 5934 5839 | Password: 148258.
Workshop “Der Brand im Münchener Glaspalast 1931” by Dr. Matilde Cartolari
The workshop Der Brand im Münchener Glaspalast 1931. Folgen und Narrative des Verlusts
co-organized by Dr. Matilde Cartolari (University of Vienna), Prof. Christian Fuhrmeister and Dr. Franziska Lampe (ZI, Munich) will take place at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich on July 24th.
Full programme available here.
The event will be transmitted live via Zoom at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85659345839?pwd=UmFZYU0xN1NxMGJ1MjlQM054NXgvZz09. Meeting ID: 856 5934 5839 | Password: 148258.
Lecture by Dr. Sophie Schasiepen - Mourning the Dead
Lecture Mourning the Dead: Addressing Legacies of Colonialism, Slavery, Racial Science, and Resistance in an Art Context by Dr. Sophie Schasiepen (University of the Western Cape, Cape Town) as part of the lecture series Art and Anthropology organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Zoom link on request - please contact fridolin.goebel@univie.ac.at
Presentation by Dr. Matilde Cartolari - The Power of Loans
Presentation on The Power of Loans: Museums and exhibition diplomacy in the interwar period by Dr. Matilde Cartolari
at the workshop Making museum professionals: Transnational forces at the Technische Universität of Berlin. The workshop is co-organised by Kate Hill, Andrea Meyer, Tamsin Russell, Nushelle de Silva and Claire Wintle, with support from the University of Brighton’s Centre for Design History, as part of the AHRC research network Making Museum Professionals, 1850-the present.
Full programme available here.
Online participation: Please register in advance via this ticket source link.
Presentation by Anna-Marie Kroupová - Brushes Across Curtains
Presentation by Anna-Marie Kroupová (University of Vienna) Brushes Across Curtains: Foreign Art Students in Czechoslovakia as Diplomatic Ambassadors in the Long Sixties
at the workshop Cold War Internationalisms of/in the Decolonizing World by The Geneva Graduate Institute, Chemin Eugene-Rigot 2, rooms S7 in the Interpetal area.
Full programme available here.
Lecture by Dr. Dominika Czarnecka and Prof. Dagnoslaw Demski – The Legacy of Ethnographic Shows in Central and Eastern Europe
Guest lecture by Dr. Dominika Czarnecka and Prof. Dagnoslaw Demski (Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) in the lecture Art and Anthropology by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the University of Vienna in the summer semester 2024.
Location: online via Zoom (to join please contact fridolin.goebel@univie.ac.at)
Lecture by Dr. Ayesha Fuentes – When do we take our Shoes off in the Museum?
Guest lecture by Dr. Ayesha Fuentes (University of Cambridge) in the lecture Art and Anthropology by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the University of Vienna in the summer semester 2024.
Location: online via Zoom (to join please contact fridolin.goebel@univie.ac.at)
Lecture by Mariama de Brito Henn – Understanding Textiles: an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Guest lecture by Mariama de Brito Henn (University of Vienna) in the lecture Art and Anthropology by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the University of Vienna in the summer semester 2024.
Location: online via Zoom (to join please contact fridolin.goebel@univie.ac.at)
Lecture by Dr. Alisa Santikarn – The Anthropocene in the Museum
Guest lecture by Dr. Alisa Santikarn (University of Cambridge) in the lecture Art and Anthropology by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the University of Vienna in the summer semester 2024.
Location: online via Zoom (to join please contact fridolin.goebel@univie.ac.at)
Presentation by Prof. Noémie Etienne and Ruby Satele Asiata – What is Conservation, and for whom is it done?
Presentation of the ERC-funded project “Global Conservation: Histories and Theories” (GloCo)
by Noémie Etienne and Ruby Satele Asiata at the Collections and Collecting Lunchtime Seminar organised by Dr. Brooke Penaloza-Patzak and Dr. Jaanika Vider at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna.
Round Table with Prof. Noémie Etienne and Dr. Honoré Tchatchouang Ngoupeyou – Collections: Rethinking our Narratives and Practices
Round Table Collections: Rethinking our Narratives and Practices
with Prof. Noémie Etienne and Dr. Honoré Tchatchouang Ngoupeyou at the AURORA workshop at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille.
Lecture by Dr. Chonja Lee – Vegetable and Artificial Intelligence: Conceptions of the Non-Human Other in 20th and 21st Century Art
Guest Lecture: Vegetable and Artificial Intelligence: Conceptions of the Non-Human Other in 20th and 21st Century Art
by Dr. Chonja Lee (LMU, Munich) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Location: online via Zoom
Panel Discussion with Prof. Noémie Etienne – Corpses, Casts, and Copyrights. Displaying Human Remains
Panel discussion: Corpses, Casts, and Copyrights. Displaying Human Remains
with Profs. Noémie Etienne, Maarten Delbeke (ETH Zurich), Bärbel Küster (University of Zurich) and Urte Krass (University of Bern & Collegium Helveticum), organised by Urte Krass and Maarten Delbeke at the Collegium Helveticum in Zurich.
Lecture by Prof. Birgit Nemec – The New and the Dead Man: Fit Workers and Reactionary Cadavers in Vienna, ca. 1920
Guest Lecture: The New and the Dead Man: Fit Workers and Reactionary Cadavers in Vienna, ca. 1920
by Prof. Birgit Nemec (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Location: online via Zoom
Lecture by Prof. Carolin Bohlmann – Conservation and the Transformations of Museum Collections
Guest Lecture: Conservation and the Transformations of Museum Collections
by Prof. Carolin Bohlmann (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Location: online via Zoom
Lecture by Dr. Margit Berner – Casts in the Anthropological Collection of the Natural History Museum in Vienna
Guest Lecture: Casts in the Anthropological Collection of the Natural History Museum in Vienna
by Dr. Margit Berner (Natural History Museum Vienna) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Location: online via Zoom
Lecture by Dr. Gladys Kalichini – Talking with the Dead: Engaging with Narratives of Women Inside National Archives
Guest Lecture: Talking with the Dead: Engaging with Narratives of Women Inside National Archives
by Dr. Gladys Kalichini (Zambia) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Location: online via Zoom
Book launch with panel moderation by Anna-Maria Kroupová – Deserved. Economic Memories After the Fall of The Iron Curtain
Book Launch: Deserved. Economic Memories After the Fall of The Iron Curtain (Columbia University Press, 2023)
by Till Hilmar with a panel discussion by researchers from the University of Vienna, CEU and IWM. The event was moderated by Anna-Marie Kroupová (University of Vienna), with contributions by Anna Durnová, Dorit Geva, Misha Glenny and Philipp Ther.
Panel Talk with Mariama de Brito Henn – Kultur. Nachhaltig. Leben
Panel Discussion: Kultur. Nachhaltig. Leben as part of the Kultur. Nachhaltig. Leben – Konferenz zur ganzheitlichen Entwicklung von Kultur(Erbe)
organized by Edu.Cult and UNESCO Austria.
Presentation by Mariama de Brito Henn - Diaspora Aesthetics: Ritual dress in the Afro-Religions of the Americas as Alternative Archive
Mariama de Brito Henn presents her research project Diaspora Aesthetics: Ritual dress in the Afro-Religions of the Americas as Alternative Archive at the Collections and Collecting Lunchtime Seminar organised by Dr. Brooke Penaloza-Patzak and Dr. Jaanika Vider at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna..
Lecture by Dr. Niko Vicario - The Logic of Distribution and the Lives of Contemporary Art
Guest-lecture The Logic of Distribution and the Lives of Contemporary Art by Dr. Niko Vicario (Amherst College, USA) as part of the lecture series Life and Death in Art and Cultural Heritage organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Lecture by Noémie Etienne - The Elephant in the Fondue: A Swiss (Re)naissance and the Entanglement of Spaces
Lecture The Elephant in the Fondue: A Swiss (Re)naissance and the Entanglement of Spaces by Prof. Noémie Etienne as part of the 53th Basler Renaissancekolloquium «meta-renaissance(s)» at the Departement Geschichte und Kunsthistorisches Seminar, Universität Basel.
Presentation by Anna-Maria Kroupová - Arts, Politics, Exhibitions: The Role of the Mánes Association of Fine Artists in Nation-Building in post-WW1 Czechoslovakia
Anna-Maria Kroupová presents her work about Arts, Politics, Exhibitions: The Role of the Mánes Association of Fine Artists in Nation-Building in post-WW1 Czechoslovakia at the international conference for the Centennial of the state purchase of French Art (1923-2023) at the Convent of Saint Agnes of Bohemia, National Gallery in Prague.
Lecture by Prof. Noémie Etienne - Global Conservation: Missing Histories of Care
Lecture on Global Conservation: Missing Histories of Care by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the Brill Nuncius Seminar Histories of Conservation Science and Scientific Conservation after World War II organised by Sven Dupré and Esther van Duijn at the University of Utrecht. Full programme available here.
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Noémie Etienne - Dioramas, Life-Casts, and the Lives of Sensitive Images: When was this? And did it ever happen?
Lecture by Prof. Noémie Etienne at the Visual Studies Research Institute of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (Los Angeles, USA).
Broadcast Talk with Mariama de Brito Henn - Ö1 Punkt Eins Radio: Restitution und die Glaubwürdigkeit von Museen
Mariama de Brito Henn discuss the topic of Raubkunst und die Glaubwürdigkeit von Museen. Koloniale Kunst zwischen Konservierung und Rückgabe at the Ö1 Punkt Eins Radio, moderated by Marlene Nowotny.
Lecture by Erin L. Thompson and Alisha Sijapati - Heritage Rapatriations to Nepal
Guest-lecture Heritage Rapatriations to Nepal by Erin L. Thompson and Alisha Sijapati as part of the lecture series Heritage & Hybridity organised by Prof. Noémie Etienne.
Lecture by Mabafokeng Hoeane - Conserving African Artefacts: What can we do?
Guest-lecture by Mabafokeng Hoeane as part of the lecture series Heritage & Hybridity
Lecture by Prof. Noémie Etienne and Dr. Lotte Arndt - Contested Conservation
Guest-lecture Contested Conservation by Prof. Noémie Etienne (University of Vienna) and Dr. Lotte Arndt (TU Berlin)
as part of the digital colloquium The Politics of Conservation organised by the department Humanities of Nature, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (project Museums and Society – Mapping the Social).
The video recording of the lecture is available here.