Visual Memory and Oblivion: Monuments and Conflicts in Urban Spaces in Central and Eastern Europe from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day

Over the past three years, monuments have been toppled or re-coded around the world, the latest against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. The contributions in this volume address the complex network of relations between monuments - memory - city in Central- and South-Eastern Europe from a long-term perspective. Their focus is on the significance and use of (national) art from the nineteenth century onwards, especially during the Second World War and in the individual (socialist) countries. The critical examination of the different visual articulations of historical memory and of different complexes of "dissonant heritage" follows a multidisciplinary approach, including art history, cultural memory studies, historical visual studies, literary criticism, architectural history and heritage protection. The case studies on cities located today in Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Northern Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine were written by: Robert Born (Oldenburg), Daria Brasca (Milano & Zurich), Dragan Damjanovic (Zagreb), Irene Giviashvili (Tbilisi & Florence), Donata Levi (Udine), Nenad Makuljevic (Belgrade), Barbara Kristina Murovec (Florence & Munich), Patricia Pocanic (Zagreb), Milan Popadic (Belgrade), Helena Rozman (Krsko), Giovanni Rubino (Rome), Anke Schlecht (Nurnberg), Svetlana Smolcic (Belgrade), Dirk Suckow (Berlin), Iain B. Whyte (Edinburgh), and Tanja Zimmermann (Leipzig). Erscheint zugleich als Bd. 72 in der Reihe Veroffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts fur Kunstgeschichte in Munchen.

Barbara Kristina Murovec ist derzeit Gastwissenschaftlerin am Kunsthistorischen Institut in Florenz.

Nenad Makuljevic is Professor of Art History at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. His main areas of research are 19th-century Serbian art, Balkan visual culture, art historiography, the relationship between art and politics, and Ottoman-Christian-Jewish connections in visual culture.

Robert Born ist Kunsthistoriker und wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa.

Ada Raev ist Professorin für Kunstgeschichte an der Universität Bamberg.