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?

This Panel has so far received 1 paper proposal(s).
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