Programme

23 September

Please arrive at 09:45. Coffee/tea available.

Find us

10:00	Welcome, practical details & short round of presentation.
10:30	Guest Lecture: Magnus Rodell (Södertörn University): Shifting memories: The (After-)Life of the Charles XII-Statue Magnus Rodell is Associate Professor in History of Ideas at Södertörn University. He has published widely on nationalism, national identity, monuments, commemorations, cultural memory, material culture, and place. Currently, he is finishing a book about monuments, media and cultural memory in Interwar Sweden. Q&A. Discussion on what we mean by “biography” and how it can be studied
11:40	Walk, talk, eat LUNCH (Gamla Orangeriet) (free for network members and a limited numbers for registered participants; possibility to join on own expenses)
14:00	Tanja Schult: How can we study the everyday reception and impact of monuments and the spaces they occupy? Methodological Reflections. If you have the time, please read: “Say it with a Flower? POLIN’s Daffodils Campaign” (2024) “Rewind, Relisten, Rethink: The Value of Audience Reception for Grasping Art’s Efficacy” (2022) Both articles deal with the value of audience reception studies for researching art in public space. Short Q&A Short 5-minutes-presentations on what methods/approaches to study monuments each of us used so far/which one we like to explore in future. Discussion
15:30	FIKA with One-to-One-brainstorming: People paired from the network discuss their possible inputs and outcomes to the project. Short presentation for the whole group.
16:30	EXCURSION I Kungsträdgården & Karl XII (Magnus). Monuments on and around Raoul Wallenberg torg (Tanja).
19:00	DINNER (for network members & invited guests)

24 September

Tim Cole and the statue of Edward Colston

Tim Cole: Who decides what to do with a contested monument? Engaging the City in a Conversation about the Statue of Edward Colston

After the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol in June 2020, the Mayor set up a History Commission to engage the city in a conversation about the future of this contested monument as well as the wider history of Bristol. The Commission – which Tim chaired – co-produced a temporary display of the statue with curators of the city’s social history M-Shed Museum and undertook a survey with visitors and people across the city. Around 14,000 responded and their thoughts informed the proposals for what to do next with the statue, as it enters into the permanent exhibition of the city’s museum. Throughout, the Commission sought to pay as much attention to process as the final outcome – seeing value in the process of engaging a city in a conversation about its past, present and future.

Tim Cole is Professor of Social History at the University of Bristol and was Chair of the ‘We are Bristol’ History Commission (2020-2023). He has published widely on the social, cultural, environmental and landscape history of contemporary Europe, with a particular interest in the Holocaust and its representation. Tim also has interests in applying digital humanities research methods to Holocaust studies. He is currently working with Tanja Schult (Stockholm) on a project on the role of monuments in contemporary democracies.

Annemarie de Wildt and public art / monument

Annemarie de Wildt: The Complexities of Curating and Commissioning Art in Public Space – The Role of Stadscuratorium Amsterdam
Since 2019 Stadscuratorium Amsterdam provides Amsterdam’s municipal executive with solicited and unsolicited advice on art in the public space. Collectively, its nine members cover a wide range of knowledge, from art and spatial planning to the management of works of art in the public space. Together, they form a network of expertise that constantly questions the meaning and definition of art in the public domain.

Annemarie de Wildt is a historian and emeritus curator of the Amsterdam Museum. She is committed to connecting the history and current affairs of Amsterdam, with a multivocal approach to history. She curated over 50 exhibitions and published many books and articles on Amsterdam’s (contested) histories, including migration, prostitution, colonialism, and graffiti. Annemarie de Wildt is a member of Stadscuratorium Amsterdam, of the Amsterdam committee on street names and vice-chair of CAMOC, the city museum committee of the International Council of Museums.

The network is supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark.