Bodies in, as, of, with, and ‘Identity and Heritage’ (8th Annual Conference)

Over the last thirty years, academic interest in conceptualising bodies has significantly risen. The focus has shifted from bodies as passive objects to subjects, instruments, arenas and sources of knowledge production, especially in studying identity and heritage constructions. Boosted by socialist-feminist scholars, bodies have found their way into various disciplines, including art and cultural studies, urban geography and architectural theory.
Bodies are thereby to be understood as socially constructed and politically charged concepts embedded in social power relations of knowledge production. Processes of attributing meaning to heritage and identity can also be re-examined through the lens of the human, non-human, built, digital, and imagined bodies.
The field of tension between the conceptualisation of bodies becomes apparent in the example of heritage conservation when, on the one hand, visitors to cultural heritage sites are primarily seen as a threat to the preservation of built heritage and, at the same time, there is talk of the physicality, even corporeality, of the object. These and other ambivalences make it seem necessary to rethink the role of bodies and their relations to material and immaterial heritage by giving more significant consideration to aspects such as vulnerability, emotions, disciplining and control, (political) inclusion and exclusion, revitalisation, appropriation and/or decay.
The 8th annual conference will occur in Berlin on 7 and 8 November 2024. It will deal with the relations between body, identity, and heritage. The focus here is on more than just establishing definitions of the body in the respective disciplinary contexts but on bringing together different approaches, practices, and debates to a deeper understanding of bodies, bodily experience, and embodiment in heritage theories.

Berlin, 7.-8. November 2024
Venue: Silent Green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Registration:

We do not charge a fee for participation in our conference, but ask you to register in good time. Please send any questions about the programme to
anmeldung@identitaet-und-erbe.org

You will receive a confirmation email after completing your registration. 

Programm

07.11.2024

9:30

Changing the Factory Settings of Common Tourism: Encounters That Demand Response (ENG)

Entangled nonfiction and slow writing are fruitful approaches when thinking about tourist bodies – not only as entities stored in hotels and airplanes but also as participants in “encounters that demand response”, to use a phrase by Deborah Bird Rose. An incident took place last summer in a hamlet situated in eastern Finnish Lapland. An old farmhouse built right after war had been assessed as a sound building with solid timber, which unlike most buildings in Lapland remained intact – not surprising given the craftsmanship of the past. The cultural heritage as a building and dwelling technique, “an externalized memory of past generations” (Stiegler), was ready to be restored and learned from. However, a tourism company operating a hundred kilometres away bought the entire property from the local bank, and, without consulting the regional museum, quickly had a large section […]

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Soile Veijola

07.11.2024

9:30

Rave:Turnaround. The Process of Transformation and Rave Culture in East Germany (Performance, GER)

In her solo dance piece RAVE:TURNAROUND, choreographer and dancer Mandy Unger (alias M.over) explores the East German transformation process of the 1990s. The interplay of new beginnings and demise, losses and opportunities confronted people with particular challenges during the reunification period. Berlin underground raves preserved the early euphoria of reunification and helped to suppress fears of the future. The research for the dance solo RAVE:TURNAROUND began in 2022 as part of an interdisciplinary residency programme of the Thüringer Theaterverband. The solo performance juxtaposes the ambivalent mood of that time between intoxication and fear. It takes us through the experiences of the 1990s and explores interactive moments with the audience as well as the purely physical experience of a rave – raving, dancing, rushing, bouncing and letting go. The phenomenon of the turnaround is not only examined historically, but also interpreted […]

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Mandy Unger

07.11.2024

10:30

On Venus and Whale (GER)

Roughly one hundred years lie between two  events that have left lasting traces in Swedish cultural history. One of them still grants visitors access to its body, while the other was dismantled after three months of display. Using the example of «Malmska Hvalen», the world’s only prepared blue whale, from 1865 and the sculpture «Hon-en Katedral», which was designed and built in 1966 at the Moderna Museet by Niki de Saint-Phalle in Stockholm, this lecture compares and questions two narratives of immersive bodies in a museum environment.   Whilst the whale in Gothenburg opens its mouth to visitors every year and has become a symbol of the city, it also embodies a scientific tradition that bear witness to man’s presumed domination over nature. A tradition whose effects are increasingly being scrutinised and which can be illustrated in part by the presentation of […]

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Nadja Bournonville

07.11.2024

10:30

The Hall of Anthropogenesis. An exhibition history at the Phyletisches Museum Jena (GER)

Natural history museums tell the story of human evolution. The findings and errors of evolutionary biology have left their mark on the former exhibitions of these museums, as well as the attempts to appropriate knowledge about anthropogenesis for certain (political) purposes.Using the example of the Phyletic Museum in Jena, I will show in my lecture how the exhibition display of anthropogenesis has changed since the museum was built in 1912. The rearrangements and commentaries on the museum’s objects show how the gestures of declaring supposedly certain knowledge are increasingly dissolving into the vagueness of uncertainty. The creators placed a genealogical tree above the entrance to the museum – an image that today must be seen as a disproved concept of evolutionary developments and a legitimation of racist ideas. Today, human evolution is depicted in the museum as an intertwined web […]

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Wolfram Höhne

07.11.2024

11:30

Vere, the Waterbody of Tbilisi (GER)

Water is the true origin of life on Earth. Its diverse, liquid and circulating nature shapes bodies. In this context, the term “body water” refers to the water content within a body, and “waterbody” or “body of water” means the accumulation of water on the Earth’s surface. Rivers are also waterbodies and are considered as symbols of movement and vitality. They have a life cycle and often a distinct character, which is being personified as temperamental or deliberate one. In many cultures rivers are seen as sacred and mystical entities, and in various countries, they have achieved the status of legal persons. However, the Anthropocene idea–that humans define nature–has led to a hierarchical structure of nature-culture and subject-object dichotomy, which in urban contexts, is represented as the taming of ‘wild nature’. Accordingly, since the 20th century, urban rivers have mainly […]

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Mariam Gegidze

07.11.2024

11:30

Immersive heritage as embodied politics: Physical perception and historical perspective at Puy du Fou´s hyperreal environments (ENG)

The proliferation of disembodied forms of cultural consumption and social engagement, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to the popularization of immersive, experience-oriented activities. Within the field of public history, embodied representations of the past, such as historical reenactments, living history museums, and immersive walk-in spectacles, have increased in popularity and raised questions about their relevance as tools for constructing historical knowledge. The most prominent example of this trend is the international success of the theme park Puy du Fou, which incorporates all these forms of historical embodiment to depict the historical perspective of its founder, right-wing politician Philippe de Villiers. By analyzing the various methods of audience immersion utilized in the park, this contribution explores how the park’s emphasis on sensory engagement and bodily experience politically alienates the audience within the historical narratives presented. Key aspects of the discussion are […]

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Pablo Santacana López

07.11.2024

14:00

Bodies made of corn and the stones that grind it. The Museum for National Identity of Honduras as a site of legitimisation of constructed collective memories: inclusion and exclusion, national myths and heritage storytelling through objects in the museum (ENG)

The Popol Vuh is heralded as a literary masterpiece of the ancient Maya, providing a window into their rich mythology as conceived by the 16th-century Quiché Maya of Guatemala. Many Maya books were lost to the fires of Christian missionaries, but the stories in the Popol Vuh survived, hidden until discovered by a Spanish priest in the early 18th century. The book describes the creation of the world by the gods, including the creation of humans by moulding their bodies out of maize paste. This myth, originating from the Quiché Maya, is now considered foundational throughout the entire Mesoamerican region. In Honduras, the Popol Vuh has been used as an element to the national narrative. At the Museum for National Identity in Honduras, the creation myth of the Popol Vuh is a key part of the storytelling by museum guides. […]

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Juan Carlos Barrientos García

07.11.2024

14:00

Sámi instrumentalisation of body violence: a site of colonial practices of othering (GER)

In 1875, a Sámi family and their herd of reindeer were exhibited as a ‘Lapland family’ and ‘People from the Far North’ at the first Hagenbeck ‘Peoples’ Exhibition’ in Hamburg. Until the 1950s, at least 30 Sámi groups travelled through Europe as part of these exhibitions. The staging of supposedly primitive and exotic living conditions of certain marginalised ethnic groups as ‘authentic and natural’ as possible confirmed and expanded existing clichés and stereotypes based on a racist sense of superiority. In addition, Scandinavian and German scientists developed ‘racial theories’ at the beginning of the 20th century and categorised and measured living Sámi and Sámi human remains. This meant that the Sámi were subjected to two types of mental and physical violence: On the one hand, by having their bodies reduced and instrumentalised to a certain European image in order to […]

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Nicola Groß

07.11.2024

15:00

German bodies in Finnish ground: whose difficult heritage? (ENG)

What makes a cemetery an authentic place of remembrance is the presence of the bodies buried beneath it. These concrete material remains connect the present with past generations and their memory. In the case of German war cemeteries in Finland, the buried bodies are by no means neutral or unproblematic. On the contrary, their nationality and affiliation with the Nazi German Wehrmacht frames them as the wrong bodies to be remembered. While the Finnish war dead are treated as heroes, the German dead buried in Finnish ground are an uncomfortable reminder of a controversial past alliance. It is the Germanness of the dead that makes these cemeteries a difficult heritage.  This paper investigates German war cemeteries in Finland through the lens of bodies. The focus is on the two designated German war cemeteries in Finland, Honkanummi in Vantaa and Norvajärvi […]

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Olga Juutistenaho

07.11.2024

15:00

Zuhause in Umm Qays. Eine Erzählung über Körper und Raum (GER)

Hara Foqa – das obere Dorf von Umm Qays – entstand im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert auf den Ruinen der antiken Stadt Gadara und befindet sich im äußersten Nordwesten Jordaniens. 1974 wurde Gadara zur archäologischen Schutzzone erklärt und das Wohnen am Ort verboten. In der Konsequenz mussten die Menschen ihre Häuser verlassen und das Dorf blieb für lange Zeit ungenutzt. Mittlerweile hat sich das Erscheinungsbild des Ortes massiv verändert: einige der insgesamt rund 40 Hofanlagen wurden für die touristische Erschließung Gadaras saniert. Andere wurden abgerissen oder blieben ihrem Schicksal überlassen und stehen weiterhin leer.  Die Häuser Hara Foqas sind aus lokalen Materialien wie Basalt und Kalkstein errichtet und allein durch handwerkliche Planungs- bzw. manuelle Bauprozesse entstanden. Sie wurden stetig weiter und umgebaut und verändern sich bis heute aufgrund von Umnutzung, Leerstand und Vandalismus. Die Aktivitäten der Menschen haben sich dabei in das Material und den […]

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Olga Zenker

07.11.2024

16:00

Corporal Iconoclasm. Nationalist Narratives of Heritage and the Case of Gyanvapi in Varanasi (ENG)

In January 2024, a report published by the Archaeological Survey of India on the subject of the 17th century Gyanvapi Mosque located in the north-Indian temple town of Varanasi swiftly became the focus of national debate. The report stated that “there existed a large Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure”, based on an analysis of excavated sculptures, defaced idols and architectural ruins. Religious nationalist discourse in contemporary India – which presently dominates the political landscape – describes the Gyanvapi Mosque as a symbol of identitarian exclusion. Ideologues compare the act of iconoclasm to literal corporal violence. Such anthropomorphism may be rooted in the foundational practices of ancient Indic animistic religions, according to which temple-land is seen as sacred corporeal space, and the idols housed therein as ‘living deities’ often given the legal status of a person. Therefore, […]

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Karan Saharya

07.11.2024

16:00

The touristic appeal of the abject:Tourism, displacement, and visibility in Cusco, Peru (ENG)

Over the last four decades, the urban revitalisation of Cusco’s historical centre has been displacing popular subjectivities and rendering them abject. Simultaneously, the tourism industry re-signifies and re-introduces some practices associated with abject subjectivities to the touristic sphere, presenting them as mystical multi-sensorial experiences; both processes are inextricably entangled. The increasing depopulation of the historical centre (Villegas & Estrada, 1990; Estrada & Nieto, 1998) is generally associated with the physical eviction and material dispossession of lower-income residents in favour of tourist facilities. However, geographer Michael Janoschka’s analyses of gentrification in other Latin American cities show how displacement is also bound to the dispossession of symbolic, social, and cultural capital.  The urban revitalisation of Cusco’s Historical Center specifically targeted the sanitation of the San Pedro market and the eviction of street sellers. These policies hit female racialised street and market vendors […]

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Martín Cornejo Presbítero

07.11.2024

17:45

With a raised fist. Architecture between instrumentalization and subjectivation (GER)

A building standing on two black legs, with a raised fist on one side and a hand on the hip on the other. The symbol of the “Hermannplatz Initiative”, drawn by illustrator Nele Brönner in 2019, depicts the listed department store building on Hermannplatz as a protester. Although the status of the building as a protected monument, which was to be demolished as part of the construction plans of a real estate group, is mentioned in civil society statements and demonstrations, the criticism of the demolition is not based on identification with or appreciation of the “official heritage” (Harrison 2013), but on the development of agency in the context of an instrumentalization of the “unofficial heritage” (ibid.) constructed by Signa: The demolition of the existing building is to be followed by a façade reconstruction of the 1929 department store building. […]

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Niloufar Tajeri

07.11.2024

9:30

Presence and Absence of Bodies in the Negotiation of the National Theater in Tirana, Albania (GER)

Das 1938/1939 von Giulio Bertè während der albanischen Monarchie und italienischen Besatzungszeit im rationalistischen Stil entworfene Gebäude ist Teil der monumentalen Stadtachse Tiranas. Städtische, nationale und europäische Identitätskonstruktionen begegnen sich an diesem Ort, der seit 2018 zum Gegenstadt eines politisierten Konflikts geriet, als die Pläne zum Abriss des Gebäudes und für einen modernen Ersatzbau von Bjarke Ingels Group bekannt wurden.  Im Zuge des zweijährigen Protests für den Erhalt des Nationaltheaters, der allen voran von der ›Allianz zum Schutz des Nationaltheaters‹ geführt wurde, entstand ein Banner mit der Aufschrift »Kulturdenkmäler werden von der Bevölkerung geschützt«. Das Banner gilt als Reaktion der Allianz auf den mangelnden politischen Willen für den Erhalt des Gebäudes. Gleichzeitig betont es körperliche Präsenz als Protestform für den Erhalt des Gebäudes. Nicht nur das Banner, sondern auch die Besetzung des Gebäudes von Juli 2019 bis zum Abriss am 17. Mai 2020 zeigen, welche bedeutende […]

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Arnisa Halili

08.11.2024

9:30

Practical heritage conservation 1975. An approach (GER)

The conservation of an architectural monument is a physical activity, as the terms like handywork literally indicate. Does the human body have a place in texts intended to inspire, guide, direct or limit this activity? Let’s follow this question into the year 1975 to one of the pilot project cities of the Council of Europe and let’s approach an answer through international and national writings, through the guidelines of the federal state of Hesse as well as the municipal level of the city of Alsfeld.  Does the visibility of physical care activities change if the starting point is not architecture but Erbe, patrimoine or heritage, i.e. a people-oriented concept? 

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Annika Sellmann

08.11.2024

10:30

Mensch und Maschine? Zu den »Denkmalen der Produktivkräfte« in der ehemaligen DDR (GER)

Die anerkannten Konzepte industriellen Erbes – unter dem Begriff der Industriekultur subsumiert – werden maßgeblich über den Verlust der aktiven Produktion konstruiert. Sie entstanden als Reaktion auf Deindustrialisierung und dienten zunächst der Erhaltung baulich-räumlicher Zeugnisse, wie im Ruhrgebiet der 1970er Jahre. Die darauffolgenden Transformationsprozesse werden zumeist von neuen Akteur*innen gestaltet und die hinterlassenen Zeugnisse entlang neuer Wertzuschreibungen grundsätzlich hinterfragt. Unabhängig vom daraus folgenden Umgang wird auch die Deutungsposition der Arbeiter*innen hinsichtlich ihres Erbes neu gesetzt: von aktiv Beteiligten zu passiven »Ehemaligen«. Teilweise werden die zentralen Perspektiven zwischen »Mensch und Maschine« in späteren Konzepten wieder aufgegriffen und dienen als Rückschau in die Vergangenheit – vielfach geraten sie aber auch gänzlich in Vergessenheit. In der vom Weltmarkt isolierten und planwirtschaftlich organisierten DDR nahm die Industrie einen konstituierenden Faktor ein. Das industrielle Erbe wurde daher nicht über einen Niedergang der Produktion, sondern als […]

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Fridtjof Florian Dossin

08.11.2024

10:30

»Verkörpertheit« in der Kunst in Polen (GER)

Körper werden seit jeher in der Bildenden Kunst dargestellt. In der Performancekunst werden sie gar Medium und Objekt. Mit der Dar- und Zurschaustellung menschlicher Körper in der Kunst als »Materialisierung« gewisser Normen, Konventionen oder Ideale werden spezifische Machtinteressen evident. Es nimmt daher kaum Wunder, dass die sogenannte »Kritische Kunst« in Polen angesichts des gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftspolitischen Wandel nach 1989 sich u.a. sehr auf den menschlichen Körper konzentriert. Dabei erscheint die Beziehung zwischen Körper und Kunst nahezu einseitig. Stets wird der Körper zum Gegenstand der Kunst. Denkbar erscheint jedoch auch eine Perspektive, die den Körper nicht bloß als Gegenstand und Medium der bildenden Kunst, sondern die Kunst als Gegenstand der sich formierenden (politischen) Körper versteht.  2019 formiert sich ein Protest bestehend aus etwa 1000 »Körpern« vor dem Nationalmuseum in Warschau, als der von der damaligen rechtskonservativen Regierung ernannte Direktor Jerzy Miziołek […]

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Beate Piela

08.11.2024

11:30

Indocile Bodies: Soviet and post-Soviet corporeality in the exhibition project at the Kmytiv Museum (ENG)

One of the methods used by contemporary Ukrainian artists and curators to actualize and preserve the cultural heritage of the Soviet period is to build a dialogue between the art of two eras. One example of this approach is the thematic exhibition “Indocile Bodies” at the Kmytiv Art Museum in 2019, curated by Nikita Kadan. The exhibition is based on Soviet art from the museum’s collection, which contains almost no depictions of the naked body. Instead, it features numerous images of the body at work, the athletic body, the military body, and the body that demonstrates self-control and obedience. These works are placed in a polemical dialogue with those of contemporary Ukrainian artists, where the body becomes an instrument of transgression and the overcoming of disciplinary order. The curator Nikita Kadan refers to the image of ‘obedient bodies’, which appeared […]

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Yevheniia Moliar

08.11.2024

14:00

Homelessness, violence and the role of the state. The story of an eviction (GER)

In 2023, a series of homicides and attempted homicides of homeless individuals in the city of Vienna received considerable media coverage. Furthermore, attacks are frequently reported in Berlin, and the number of violent incidents against homeless individuals continues to increase. These incidents are not isolated occurrences. The figures are alarming, and the reports on the circumstances of the individual acts are deeply distressing. The fact that the perpetrators are not only right-wing radicals, but also young people from the “middle of society”, illustrates the structural nature of the problem. Historically evolved ideologies result in violence perpetrated by individuals or groups against homeless people and also influence the manner in which the state and its authorities treat those affected. The question arises how it is to be explained that such a vulnerable group is not only exposed to the direct hatred […]

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Martha Ingund Wegewitz