Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Cornelia Dlabaja
(FHWien der WKW)
Simone Egger (Saarland University)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel invites discussions and explorations of how urban history and memory are inscribed in the context of temporariness and transience. We seek to question the types of historiographies that emerge when artistic interventions in the city disappear as swiftly as they appear.
Long Abstract:
In this panel we will discuss how urban history and memory are inscribed, constructed and deconstructed in the context of temporariness and transience. We seek to question the types of historiographies that emerge when artistic interventions in the city — be they performances, festivals, or other temporary uses of space — disappear as swiftly as they appear. How do these fleeting phenomena contribute to or disrupt the city's collective memory? Who is writing and rewriting history in the public space and how do we memorize temporary interventions and art projects as society as well as artists and researchers.
Key Themes:
Ephemeral Urban Narratives: How does the transient nature of festivals, artistic interventions, and temporary uses of space contribute to urban narratives? How does unwriting afford new formations, transformations, and narrations of multivalent cultural knowledge and heritage?
Art and Urban Transformation: In what ways does art create the city? How do art interventions set in unconventional spaces, temporarily rewritting urban landscapes?
Documenting the Transitory: What strategies exist to capture these fleeting urban moments? How do we ensure that these temporary events are remembered as part of the city’s historical fabric?
Sites and Actors: From the infrastructural hot spots to hidden places within the city, how do specific locations and their temporary uses shape urban memory? Who are the key actors in these narratives, and what roles do they play?
Archiving the Transitory: What do institutions, such as city museums or temporary cultural spaces do in preserving these transient urban phenomena?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
This paper examines Siniša Labrović’s politically engaged street art performance in Zagreb (2022) and its subsequent ethnographic representations, exploring how they unwrite dominant narratives of the 2020 earthquakes and potentially contribute to urban transformation, recovery and justice.
Paper Abstract:
In the aftermath of the 2020 earthquakes that struck the cities of Zagreb and Petrinja, as well as the surrounding regions, questions of recovery, justice, and urban transformation have become central to social, political, and media narratives in Croatia. This case study, based on long-term ethnographic research, examines the conceptual artist Siniša Labrović's politically engaged performance, held in Zagreb's streets in July 2022. At the time, Zagreb was in a "waiting phase," identified in the research as a period of anticipation for systematic state-led reconstruction efforts. The artistic intervention, created during this time of great uncertainty, addressed the socio-political responses and consequences of the earthquakes.
The paper explores the potential of performance art and ethnographic representations to disrupt dominant political narratives of the city's reconstruction. It considers how this performance can foster transformation and envision more just urban spaces, temporalities, and narratives. Additionally, it reflects on my dual role as a city resident and ethnographer, observing and participating in the event, while reengaging with the urban past (but also futures) through various academic representations of the performance later on.
The leading premise is that the event’s re-emergence in different temporal and spatial locations—through both the performance itself and subsequent representations—disrupts conventional relationships between past, present, and future. At the same time, it challenges the divide between the “written” and the tacit. These disruptions open pathways to addressing evolving questions about recovery by examining the complex entanglements and contestations of urban life in the post-earthquake period from diverse perspectives.
Paper Short Abstract:
Developed at the request of community members, this project not only creates a new archive- but asks our neighbours what an archive can do for them. We ask how an archive could be better shaped to serve our community and follow the communities lead in reshaping it, offering a model for public folklore in a British context.
Paper Abstract:
In a partnership between We Live Here, the Working Class Movement Library, Greater Manchester Tenants Union and the residents of Hulme, Manchester, this project aims to capture, preserve, and provide community access to heritage around the Hulme Tenants Alliance. This heritage is at risk due to the age of those currently holding it and the condition of social housing in Hulme, where much of the material heritage is stored.
The Hulme Tenants Alliance (HTA) were active from the 1970s to early 2000s, organised around the precarity of renting in Hulme. Despite their enduring impact on the physical geography of Hulme, there is little collected record of their activity and scant awareness of their work among present residents of Hulme.
This work offers a model for public folklore in a British context. Developed at the request of community members, this project not only creates a new archive- but asks our neighbours what an archive can do for them. Using a range of artistic and ethnographic interventions we identify how an archive could be better shaped to serve our community and follow the communities lead in reshaping it.
The community identity and cultural heritage of Hulme relies upon its residents’ ability to tell stories about themselves. More broadly this project serves the need to create historical context, continuity and access to the cultural heritage of renters in Hulme.
Paper Short Abstract:
Hip Hop culture has a close relationship with urban space and place. My research concentrates on those themes in Finnish rap music in Espoo. The presentation examines music videos and lyrics from different generations and demonstrates how artists rewrite their city’s collective perceptions and memory.
Paper Abstract:
Hip Hop culture has always had a tight connection with urban environments. Starting from the streets of New York, it was first globalized through cities. Each place has its own stories, and the most relevant topics are often portrayed in different forms of Hip Hip culture: graffiti visualizes them, music makes you hear different sides to them and dance lets you feel it in your body. Hip Hop, to many, is a form of knowledge and knowing. Local identities, discussions and changes are being portrayed through Hip Hop culture.
My PhD research concentrates on Finnish Hip Hop, specially rap music. Hip Hop came to Finland in the 1980s and has since shaped urban environments across the country. In its over 40-year history Finnish Hip Hop have secured its place as part of Finland’s national music and art scenes. Rap music shapes the imagined landscapes of cities and neighborhoods, particularly in the greater metropolitan area of our capital, Helsinki.
I’ve conducted research on the second largest city in Finland, Espoo, through place-making, locality and sense of home. In this presentation I examine artists’ music videos and lyrics as part of their local knowledge production and history. The research material consists of videos and lyrics from different decades from the 2000s and interviews with the artists. How have they narrated their sense of place, the temporality of their city and themselves in those moments? How are they rewriting their city’s collective memory and the overall perception of Espoo?
Paper Short Abstract:
This study explores ephemeral memory of the city through the concept of space’, derived from Lacan's autre. It examines how temporary spatial practices and desires shape urban identity, challenging permanent spaces and questioning how fleeting traces influence urban narration and archiving.
Paper Abstract:
The relationship between urban dwellers and the city, and the formation of identity within it, is strongly influenced by memory sites. These sites are shaped not only by the physical space but also by the emotional engagement—feelings and memories—associated with it. Temporary urban interventions, walks, performances, and practices guided by desire create encounter spaces, meeting places, and areas of chance that disrupt the space’s ordinary form, even if briefly. Urban spaces, subject to emotional effects and desires, undergo détournement and alterations, transforming into space’ (other space). These momentary changes alter the space’s relationship with its context and the experiencer, embedding a different memory.
This study explores the connection between urban memory and temporary spatial practices through the concept of space’, derived from Jacques Lacan’s autre (the other). It investigates how urban space is not only a physical area but a narrative shaped by desires, otherness, and transient experiences.When temporary spatial practices fade, how are their traces preserved in urban memory? Space’ serves as a tool to describe these fleeting traces, embodying ambiguous spatial formations that challenge fixed, permanent representations. Desire here is not only an individual impulse but also a collective means for urban narration.
In conclusion, space’ contributes a theoretical perspective to urban memory and temporality, suggesting that memory can emerge not only from permanent spaces but also through ephemeral spatial practices and desires, questioning traditional archiving and the traces of the temporary.
Paper Short Abstract:
The period of independence in the public spaces of Vilnius can be divided into two stages: a passive one, characterized by the decay and neglect of central squares and parks (1990-2010) and an active one, marked by discussions and controversies surrounding urban transformation (from 2010 onwards). The transition between these stages is defined by the start of actual physical changes in public spaces, prompting action towards revitalization. This study analyzes the transformation processes of five representative squares and parks in central Vilnius, exploring the challenges of defining collective identity and the struggles over the public space. Current outcomes of this transformation include stagnating renovation projects, the demolition of old monuments, and the emergence of local activist communities advocating for authentic, untouched spaces. The ongoing state of transition of public space is mostly characterized by emptiness, temporariness and indecision in the search for consensus amidst controversies.
Paper Abstract:
This study examines the transformation processes of five representative public spaces in central Vilnius: from the relatively smooth conversion of Sereikiškės Park into the baroque-style Bernardine Garden to four other cases mired in endless debates and controversies.
Currently the results of this ongoing transformation are stagnating public space renovation projects, old monuments being demolished, new monuments failing to be erected, local and ecological activist communities fighting for spaces "as they are" – simple, untouched, authentic, without any baroque elements, flowerbeds, fences, or any more external control features. This illustrates a certain transformation fatigue with endless discussions and identity searches during this period.
Meanwhile semi-renovated "de-monumentalized" squares that are still searching for their identity become sites for improvisation – temporary, ephemeral installations and performances filling the void left by the indecision and absence of stable structures. For example, in Cvirka Square, improvisations revolve around the removal of a monument; in Lukiškės Square, improvisations fill the gap left by the lack of a central dominant feature.
Graffiti also works as a temporary way of giving meaning to public spaces, filling them with subcultural signs. During the passive transition period, subcultures actively occupied neglected public spaces. During the active renovations, subcultures were "cleaned out," their traces in public spaces replaced by municipality-approved murals or kitschy decorative elements. However, the absence of graffiti ultimately highlights Vilnius's "in transition" state – a condition defined by emptiness, indecision, and prolonged yet unproductive searches for consensus amidst controversies.
Paper Short Abstract:
Unofficial street art can appear seemingly anywhere/anytime, acting as ephemeral memory markers and makers. This paper will consider the art of Scotland’s streets, discussing documentary/archival methodologies, shifting popular narratives, and why some particular loci are hotspots.
Paper Abstract:
To passers-by, unofficial street art (including murals, graffiti, tags, stickers, and other public-facing interventions) can appear seemingly anywhere/anytime, becoming ephemeral memory markers and makers pointing to community and global tensions or individual and regional pride, and acting as political calls to action, aesthetic expressions, or humorous reminders of our humanity. While graffiti from the ancient world does exist, most street art seems to disappear days, weeks, or months after its creation. Though largely ephemeral, street art can and does contribute to collective historiographies, presenting in multi-sized formats condensed reflections of representations of contemporary society. This paper will consider the art of Scotland’s streets, discussing methodologies of documenting/archiving such ephemeral materials, as well as considering shifting official and unofficial narratives on street art, and why some areas may be particularly popular locations for street-level interventions.
Paper Short Abstract:
The “Miracle Sukkah” is a temporary ritual hut revered as sacred place among Bene Israel Indian-Israeli immigrants. This paper explores how transience of place invites a minority, fringe immigrant community to surmount the complex transition from home to homeland by reinterpreting space, offering promise in an alternative to Jerusalem’s axis mundi.
Paper Abstract:
The “Miracle Sukkah” of Ashdod, Israel is an extraordinary iteration of the temporary Jewish ritual hut, revered by members of the immigrant community of Indian Jews known as the Bene Israel. Throughout the Sukkot festival, devotees arrive from the far corners of the country and beyond to the modest sukkah built within a void space among the urban landscape, in the tiny garden of a dilapidated immigrant housing project, to engage in a singular vernacular cult deeply rooted in the Bene Israel Indian-Israeli experience. Miracle tales spread by word of mouth among Bene Israelis draw them on a sojourn to the sukkah in search of salvation, a life partner and fertility blessing promised by the numerous tales that circulate. The rich literary folk tradition alongside the extraordinary ritual performance peculiar to the “Miracle Sukkah’s” pilgrim community together define the sukkah as a Tuanian place - a pause in time and a space endowed with value. The “Miracle Sukkah” as a cosmic axis, at once challenges the hegemony represented in Jerusalem whilst essentially establishing itself as a holy site along a pilgrimage route peculiar to the Bene Israelis who, from a distant development town, may embark upon a journey to the sukkah, and then continue to other mainstream holy sites. This paper explores the very transience of the “Miracle Sukkah” as it facilitates return to Bachelard’s oneiric house of birth whilst establishing an Arendtian “space of appearance”, creating hope, dream and possibility for a quiet community along Israel’s minority fringe.
Paper Short Abstract:
Monuments and memorials are often associated with durability and even eternity, yet in practice they are often moved around the city, altered and destroyed. These monuments, even if lost for decades, still continue to play a part in urban vernacular memory narratives and local identity. We shall discuss the ruptures between the concept of materiality and virtuality of monuments and the controversies in social media around the monuments' fragility.
Paper Abstract:
Monuments and memorials are often associated with durability and even eternity, yet in practice they are often moved around the city, altered and destroyed. These monuments, even if lost for decades, still continue to play a part in urban vernacular memory narratives, local identity and remain the focal points of vernacular topology. In their turn, the monuments created of unstable material (for example, gypsum or even plastics, like the so-called "PolipropiLenin" monument in Ufa, Bashkiria) are often been objected to and rejected by the locals, but nevertheless also become key to local memory wars. Some of the fragile monuments become central to local urban narratives, and some, especially ones connected to 2 World War memory, are perceived as "inauthentic" and hence a violation of a "social agreement" with ancestors, which in turn is a risk for the whole community. Basing on material turn theories and the "biography of things" approach, we shall discuss the ruptures between the concept of materiality and virtuality of monuments and the controversies around the monuments' actual or potential fragility as they unfold in social media discussions.
Paper Short Abstract:
In this paper we will focus on the unwritten “history” of this open air market, that is a half century old. The paper is based on interviews and on archival ethnography in the association of rag and bone traders. Main topics: a) the beginning and the transformations of this “marginal” market, b) the unwritten history of the professional organization of this group. In fact, far from being a marginal group, migrants rag and bone traders make up what is clearly a professional body, with extensive commercial networks in Greece and in the Balkans that facilitate the transport of objects, in particular items of folk art, to many countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. c) also, we will examine the memory of the clients of the market: how much they estimate the value of the market and which are their emotions.
Paper Abstract:
Most people, on hearing of rag and bone traders, think of the socially and economically marginalized. This, however, is a highly distorted picture. Rag and bone men began their activities in Athens towards the end of the 1960s. In the early 1990s, they founded a professional association. With the onset of the financial crisis of 2010, many migrants and refugees became resorted to this taking up this occupation. As a means of dealing with the insecurity of employment that they faced, they turned to gathering iron items they found in the streets.
More specifically, in this paper we will focus on the unwritten “history” of this open air market, that is a half century old. The paper is based on interviews and on archival ethnography in the association of rag and bone traders. Main topics: a) the beginning and the transformations of this “marginal” market, b) the unwritten history of the professional organization of this group. In fact, far from being a marginal group, migrants rag and bone traders make up what is clearly a professional body, with extensive commercial networks in Greece and in the Balkans that facilitate the transport of objects, in particular items of folk art, to many countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. c) also, we will examine the memory of the clients of the market: how much they estimate the value of the market and which are their emotions.
Paper Short Abstract:
This presentation explores urban nightlife as nocturnal heritage, focusing on creative and culturally significant venues that shape urban memory despite their temporary existence. I examine how alternative nightlife spaces contribute to the city’s cultural identity through artistic expression and social engagement. The presentation looks at how these ephemeral sites influence urban heritage narratives, challenging traditional understandings of what constitutes cultural memory in the city.
Paper Abstract:
Abstract:
This presentation explores urban nightlife as a culturally significant yet often overlooked part of urban heritage. While many nightlife venues such as clubs, music spaces, and creative hubs are temporary by nature, their cultural impact often extends far beyond their physical existence. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, policy analysis, and curatorial research from my exhibition "Who Claims the Night?" at the Estonian National Museum, I examine how culturally driven nightlife spaces - those fostering artistic expression, creative experimentation, and social engagement - leave lasting impressions on urban memory even after their closure.
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the precariousness of these venues, leading to widespread closures and reinforcing their fragile place within the broader cultural landscape. However, the memories tied to such spaces persist, shaping how people remember and interpret the city’s past. Using examples from policy debates, media narratives, and personal recollections, I argue that these creative and community-driven spaces constitute nocturnal heritage - a cultural legacy rooted in the unique experiences of nighttime social life.
By focusing on alternative and culturally meaningful nightlife practices, this perspective broadens conventional heritage frameworks that typically prioritize permanent, tangible sites. I propose that urban heritage studies expand to include temporary and transient cultural practices, recognizing how cities are remembered not only through established landmarks but also through the fleeting yet meaningful experiences of their nocturnal environments.