ReaderWriting Central European Art History

8/13/2019 ReaderWriting Central European Art History

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Writing CentralEuropean Art HistoryPATTERNS_Travelling Lecture Set2008/2009

A project initiated by ERSTE Foundationorganised by World University Service (WUS) Austria

ERSTE Stiftung Reader # 01


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PATTERNS_Travelling Lecture Set 2008/2009Writing Central European Art HistoryWriting Central European Art Historyet 2008/09The lectures will focus on theoretical and methodological questions in order to confront verydifferent approaches proposed by scholars coming from different experiences, with the centralfocus remaining on Central and South Eastern European art. The main and common point ofdeparture will be a relationship between East and West in which the East would not berecognized as the (real) Other (as for example Asian culture), but rather as the close-Other ornot-the-real- Other. It applies both to the art production (ie. The subject of art historicalanalysis)since Central and Southern East European art has been done in the light of theWestern oneas well as analytical language, considering our methods have also beenborrowed from the Western theories.

For scholars who are working on Central and Southern East European art history, particularlythat of modern and contemporary, it is quite obvious that this sort of writing should differ

from art history of other regions, particularly from a Western art historical narrative. On theother hand, to construct Central and South Eastern European art history without Westernreferences seems to be impossible. Thus, this sort of scholarship is somehow hanging between Western models, understood both as historical influences over regional art and asmethods coming from the master narrative, which is of course Western by origins.Piotr Piotrowski

PATTERNS_Researching and understanding recent cultural history

PATTERNS is a transnational programme that aims to research and understand recent culturalhistory. PATTERNS initiates, commissions and supports contemporary culture projects in avariety of formats and media. The programme focuses on the visual arts and culture of the1960s until today.

PATTERNS_Travelling Lecture Set: Writing Central European Art HistoryThe series of lectures aims at bringing and connecting eminent authors to the Universities inCentral and South Eastern Europe. Noteworthy research and methods will be brought to theuniversities and innovative approaches with regard to content and methodology will beapplied to existing courses.

PATTERNS_Travelling Lecture Set is an initiative by ERSTE Foundation. The themeand list of participants has been compiled by Piotr Piotrowski in agreement with the culture programme of ERSTE Foundation and the PATTERNS Advisory Panel.

PATTERNS_Advisory Panel: Cosmin Costinas(author and curator, Bucharest/Vienna) ,Veronica Kaup-Hasler(director of steirischer herbst, Graz) , Piotr Piotrowski(art historian,

Poznan) and Georg Schllhammer(editor of springerin and documenta 12 magazines,Vienna) .

ERSTE Foundation: Christine Bhler, Christiane Erharter


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PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITIES 2008/2009

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland

Art History Department

Host: Prof. Piotr Piotrowski (Chair)Scheduled for Sat, 5th and Sun, 6th of April 2008, 11:30 amand Sat, 19th of April 2008, 10:00 amAdam Mickiewicz University, Collegium Novum,Al. Niepodleglosci 4, Poznan, Room C 3www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~arthist/ihs_uam.html

University of Belgrade, Serbia

Faculty of Philosophy, Art History Department

Host: Associate Prof. Lidija Merenik,Head of DepartmentScheduled for Fri, 7th to Sun, 9th of November 2008www.f.bg.ac.yu

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria Institute for Fine Arts, Department for Conceptual Art

Host: Prof. Dr. Marina Gr !ini" Assistants organization and readings: Ivan Jurica and Ivana Marjanovi" Scheduled for Mon, 24th November 2008, 3:30 pm and Tue, 25th November 2008, 9:30 amand Thu, 8th January 2009, 3:30pmwww.akbild.ac.at

Babe !-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Faculty of History and Philosophy, Chair of Art History

Host: Dr. Vlad Toca, Teaching AssistantScheduled for Fri, 5th, Sat, 6th, Sun, 7th and Fri, 12th, Sat, 13th,and Sun, 14th of December 2008http://hiphi.ubbcluj.ro/hiphi/index.htm


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CONTENT

Piotr Piotrowski: Towards A Horizontal History of Modern Art... 4

Edit Andrs: An Agent that is still at Work. The Trauma of Collective Memory of theSocialist Past ...5

Jn Bako ": Vienna School Methodological Doctrine: Visions and Revisions. Summary ora Foreshadowing Revision of Orthodoxy.................................................................................22

Ljiljana Blagojevi #: Postsocialist Cities: Contested Modernism............................................37

Mart Kalm: What is Estonian Architecture?...........................................................................44

Vojtech Lahoda: Regional Cubism? How to Write on Cubism in Central and EasternEurope...52

Mi "ko $uvakovi #: Politics and Art: A Controversy After the Fall of the Berlin Wall............63

Authors......................................................................................................................................73

Imprint.......................................................................................................................................77


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TOWARDS A HORIZONTAL HISTORY OF MODERN ART

Piotr Piotrowski

The fundamental assumptions of the so-called universal (i.e. Western) history of modern artare the following: (1) the hierarchically defined art geography (center-periphery relations); (2)the canon of works (exclusive empirical material); (3) the model of historical description interms of the succession of styles (historical narration). The persistence of this paradigm has been confirmed by the latest studies written in the so-called revisionist perspective, such as Art History since 1900. Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism (2004) by prominentscholars associated with theOctober quarterly.

The application of this model to the art produced beyond the Western art centers (e.g., inSouth America, Japan, China or Eastern Europe) typically results in oversimplification and

above all fails to recognize the historically real significance of the local art production. Infact, such an art-historical paradigm resembles more what Edward Said called orientalismthan a reliable program of the analysis of art anywhere in the world. Thus, a scholarattempting an analysis of specific developments, who wants to realize historically determinedmeanings of art produced outside the Western centers of modern culture, must face thechallenge of proposing an alternative model of interpretation. A crucial problem in thiscontext, however, is the double reference of modern art: on the one hand, it belongs to globalmodernism and then postmodernism, while on the other, to local cultural frames of reference,and the latter very often happen to be state/ nation-specific (Argentina, Russia, Japan, etc.).Adopting state perspective it would be very useful to take into account Louis Althussersnotion of the State Ideological Apparatus in order to create a context of a particular meaningof art production in every country, differs from the universal one. Adopting a national perspective, though, does not have to imply a nationalist, essentialist, and limited point ofview. According to Arjun Appadurais definition, locality should be approached in openterms crossing mono-ethnic identity; as a theoretical construction open to exchange with other(e.g., neighboring) localities, as well as cultural centers.

Hence, an alternative model of interpreting art-historical processes should be rooted in a belief that the local modern art has been inspired by the Western centers of modern culture, but on the other hand, its meanings must not be reduced to the range available in the West. Inconsequence, one should apply the following procedures: 1. deconstruction of the Westerninspirations, i.e. their analysis not in hierarchical (center-periphery influence), but infunctional terms aiming to determine what a given influence meant in a specific localcontext.; 2. rejection of the idea of stylistic homogeneity in favor of heterogeneity combining styles into local, unique stylistic mutations; 3. recognition of the local canons andvalue systems, often contradicting those of the Western art centers. The next step would be tonegotiate such different local images of modern art, however, not in order to produce one,single meta-narrative, rather to compare them. As a result, then, in contrast to the West-centric, universal, and, as it were,vertical model of art history, one ought to move toward ahorizontal , polyphonic, and dynamic paradigm of critical art-historical analysis. A questionthat should be asked in conclusion is to what extent taking such a perspective would modifythe analyses of Western art produced in the center.


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AN AGENT THAT IS STILL AT WORKTHE TRAUMA OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF THE SOCIALIST PAST

Edit Andrs

I. Theorizing the transition

Among the cutting edge theories at hand for theorizing the transition in the ex-Socialistcountries, we have to take into consideration the ideas, such as the construction of identities, post-colonialism, Balkanism, memory discourse, trauma discourse, etc. Some of them weresuccessfully applied to the new conditions of the region, but others were blindly ignored orhatefully rejected. I have chosen one concept with respect to transition for elaboration, namelythe theory of trauma which I intend to apply to Post-Socialist conditions, and especially tosome phenomena of Post-Socialist art.My paper considers the uses of cultural trauma as a concept for understanding art and itsreception. The term trauma, as well as cultural trauma, usually bears negative connotations, but for certain artists and critics, such as myself, it is a very effective tool for accessing andexamining what are the mental difficulties of the period of transition in the ex-Socialistcountries, and shedding light upon the shifts between the Western and Eastern positions. I believe that the artworks discussed in my paper offer us a field for the projection of ourtroubled feelings and a healing methods to overcome the negative and painful affects oftrauma.

I/1. Post-communist Trauma of Victory. Western Concept of the Cultural Trauma

The Western concept of the trauma we can rely on is outlined in Piotr Sztompka's essayentitled "The Trauma of Social Change. A Case of Postcommunist Societies", which appliesthe concept of cultural trauma to the post-socialist countries.

Sztompka's starting point is the change "which brings shocks and wounds to the social andcultural tissue" (Sztompka 2004, 157), and as he argues, even those changes that are beneficial, welcomed and dreamed about, may turn out to be painful. Considering that sociallife is a constant change, he defines a change tramatogenic only if it is sudden, comprehensive(that is, touches many aspects of life), fundamental (that is, radical and deep) and unexpected,(shocking).

Within the domains touched by the traumatogenic change he enlists culture, the"axionormative and symbolic belief-system of society". (Sztompka 2004, 161) According tohim, the shocks of change may affect "the areas of affirmed values, patterns, and rules,expectation, roles, accepted ideas, and beliefs, narrative forms, symbolic meanings,definitions and frames of discourse." Emphasizing the significance of cultural trauma, he addsthat the wounds inflicted to culture are most difficult to heal and that the cultural traumas maylast over several generations.

Sztompka constructs typography

of sources of cultural trauma naming intercultural contact inthe first place, that is, the confrontation of diverse cultures: in our case, Socialism and


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Capitalism. From our viewpoint of art and art theory, we could name as a traumatizing sourcethe clash of opposing paradigms and discourses also, as I will illustrate it later.

According to Sztompka, "The most traumatising situations occur when the imposition anddomination of one culture are secured by force . " That would apply perfectly to the trauma of

the Eastern Block of the Socialist period, as its culture was imposed more or less successfullyon the satellite countries by the host-country, the Soviet Union. However, Sztompka ignoresthat earlier trauma and concentrates exclusively on the very moment of the political change,and on the clash of the two different cultures.

He further admits, that "even when the spreading of alien culture is more peaceful, by virtueof economic strength, technological superiority or the psychological attractiveness of cultural products, flowing from the core toward the periphery, the result is often the break of culturalstability, continuity, and identity of indigenous groups, a milder and yet resented form ofcultural trauma." Regarding our region, that kind of trauma could be relevant also, as the process of western type globalization runs parallel to de-globalization, namely de-sovietization of the Eastern Bloc. The reflections on that kind of trauma coming from art arestill quite rare and pale and able to attract wilder attention still only occasionally. The reasonfor this phenomenon could have been found in the "belatedness" of the impact of thetraumatic event, which lies in the very heart of the trauma. Caruth's theory suggests us asufficient explanation, that the pathology consists "in the structure of its experience orreception: the event is not assimilated, or experienced fully at the time, but only belatedly...".(Caruth 1995, 4)

In the eyes of a sociologist, contrary to the notion of psychological trauma, cultural traumaaffects a society and not an individual, and is not a cause, not a result, but a process, a kind of process of constant negotiation. "The carriers of cultural legacy and traditions that clash withthe new cultural imperatives imposed by traumatogenic change are generations who weresocialized, indoctrinated, or habituated in an earlier cultural milieu". As he draws theconsequences, "the powerful impact of a culture derived from earlier history, and internalized by the generations ... may become much weaker as the new generations emerge raised underdifferent conditions. ... This process running parallel to the trauma sequence becomes veryhelpful at the stage of overcoming trauma and achieving final reconciliation of a culture".(Sztompka 2004, 169)

However, from the standpoint of post-socialist experiences,one can not share this neat visionof the linear and smooth relay of generations, as it is not justified by the much more

complicated local context. The obvious presupposition of this idea is that the trauma of thatearlier generation fades away with the help of a coping mechanism, which is not the case inHungary. Furthermore, this overly idealistic view does not count on the secondary trauma ofthe next generation which does not have a blank page for starting over either.

"There cannot be any doubt that the collapse of Communism was a traumatogenic change parexcellence." states Sztompka in the introduction of his topic, which he names post-communist"trauma of victory". In this case, we have to consider the historically inherited repertoire ofcultural roles, and habitus, which were regarded obsolete after the political changes, and wascreated either as an affect of prolonged indoctrination (which means the official culture) or asa defensive reaction against indoctrination and autocratic control (which means the

counterculture, or unofficial culture). (Sztompka 2004, 172) It is very helpful forunderstanding the quite specific post-socialist condition that he counts equally on official and


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unofficial culture, as the two sides of the same coin. However, in his further analyses, heassumes a clear cut vision of a clash of two incompatible cultures, the old Socialist and thenew Capitalist culture, as if they would constitute binary opposition. Maybe it is true in principal, or from a sociological point of view, but this opposing position, and theincompatibility is definitely not relevant regarding art and its institution in Hungary. The

discrete charm of the Post-Socialist condition is precisely that it nurtures hybrid phenomenon,hardly known and recognizable from the outside, that is the post-communist hangovers couldgreatly have been interwoven with the elements of predatory capitalism. So, instead of clash,we do find fusion in a lot of cases, providing strange mixtures of elements of both cultures,whether we speak about the art institutions, or whether we speak about the theory and art practice and even reception of art.

For him the proof of existence of trauma lies in the scope and intensity of the debate over howto remember the past, a clear indication of the existence of a trauma of collective memory.This statement, regarding the artistic legacy of the Socialist past fits Hungary also, and could be good starting point for us.

In his case study focusing on Poland, he has a clear-cut view of the perspective of totalrecovery from the trauma by countering its narrative with successful coping strategies.Finally, he envisions the disappearance of the cultural split, characteristic of the traumaticstage, the key of which is the generational turnover. "Only if this legacy fades away ordisappears may we expect healing of the post-communist trauma." I am hesitant to accept thislinear view to apply it to Hungary as it hardly fits to the local situation, where the legacy ofSocialism (the attitude, the discourse, the habitus, people in authority etc.) are interwovenwith the new entrepreneur culture from top to bottom.

I/2. Home-made, Local Theory: a Reflection on the Theory-invasion after the Fall of theWall. Eastern Concept of Trauma

Alexander Kiossev's infamous theory of self-colonization was published ten years after thecollapse of the Eastern Block and well before the heyday of Western cultural traumadiscourse. As he explains the metaphor in use: "...self-colonizing cultures import alien valuesand models of civilization by themselves and that they lovingly colonize their ownauthenticity through these foreign models". He defines the regions to which the theory could be applied. "From the point of view of the modern globalization of the world, there arecultures which are not central enough, not timely and big enough in comparison to the 'Great Nations'. At the same time they are insufficiently distant, and insufficiently backward, in

contrast to the African tribes, for example. That's why, in their own troubled embryo,somewhere in the periphery of Civilization, they arise in the space of a generative doubt: Weare Europeans, although perhaps not to a real extent". (Kiossev 1999, 114) He outlines aregion which doesn't fit properly in the framework of the postcolonial discourse, being neithercolonizer, nor colonized in the strict meaning of the words, but navigating somewhere in between.

The theory of "self-colonization," emerging from the framework of post colonial theory, soon became quite popular as a catchphrase, especially among those few for whom the new theorywas not alien. This theory is frequently attributed to symptoms of postcolonial nationalism,which claims to be "good nationalism". (Imre 2001) I myself wouldn't simplify the

phenomenon to be a mere new appearance of nationalism, claiming that the position andimplication of it is much trickier.


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The theory is home-made and is a self-exposure, it clearly was not forced from the outside, but however, some hidden traps are built into it. Kiossev sees the origins of the symptoms ofself-colonization in a trauma . "This is the precondition for a quite peculiar identity and a quite peculiar modernization. They arise through the constitutive trauma that: We are not Others

(seeing in the Others the representatives of the Universal), and this trauma is also connectedwith the awareness that they have appeared too late and that their life is a reservoir of theshortcomings of civilization". (Kiossev 1999, 114) With this self-identification of theevaluation of the region as full of shortcomings and backwardness he takes for granted the packaged, ready made view provided by the dominant, so-called "universal" narrative aboutus. As the result, the oft-repeated vision has been internalized by the population of thatculture. The process is followed by a lowering of self-esteem and the development of acultural inferiority complex. And, as is the nature of trauma, one must pay twice for thesuffering, first with the traumatic event and then second with the equally painful symptoms of post-traumatic disorder. In our case, with respect to the cultural trauma, one can detect someside effects related to the interpretation and theoretization of the trauma.

In post-colonial studies and even in every day psychology, it is a basic tenet that people whoexperience colonization or violence suffer from what is known as "mental colonization."When an ideology or behavior is used to oppress or weaken an ethnic or national group or afamily member, the behavior is internalized by the victims of that ideology or behavior, and isaccepted as valid. The transfer of the aggression could be even turned backwards, becoming atool of further self-torturing. Clinical evidence reveals, and victimology and rape-studiesdemonstrate through different statistical polls, that one can encounter the "blame the victim"attitude even if the victim is male, let alone if the victim is a woman. As a furtherconsequence of psychological and even cultural trauma, this attitude shakes the very trustingfoundations of the subject, including trust in the self and trust in others. The shadow ofsuspicion transcends all relations afterwards.

In the early phase of the predatory capitalism after the political changes in Hungary, there wasa great willingness to attribute blame to the losers of the financial and positional restructuringof the scene. Much of this blame came from those who were able to fish successfully introubled water and became nouveau rich and powerful overnight. Appetite comes with eating,so, they eagerly wanted to possess even moral superiority. The effective psychological tool of"blame the victim" served well for covering moral dilemmas and guilty feelings. If the system blames the victim, there is no need for further questioning or analyses. And this is not eventhe end. Self-blaming strategy as a coping process for sexual assault victims in the aftermath

of rapes is well known by psychologists. In my view, precisely this process is imitating itselfin the theory of self-colonization. The victim of trauma cannot shake the limits of self-blameand goes so far as to accept responsibility for the situation.

Colonialism, or any kind of control position, consciously or not, depends structurally and politically on the assertion of clear differences between the controller and the controlled. Thetheory of self-colonialism serves exactly this differentiation on a silver platter, and could bethe best-fit fantasy of dominant theory-makers of today. This theoretical framework offers a policy of burying one's head in the sand, and cuts off any possibility for entering into theglobal discourse and subverting it. Self-colonization theory actually doubles and deepens thetrauma by essentialising and fixing the binary opposition, closing the door to the more

nuanced critique and analyses. At the same time, it reinforces the old stereotypes of the


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region, cultures being self-destructive and masochistic in getting pleasure from pain andsufferings.

What I propose is that this essentialising dual system should be altered along with eliminationof old stereotypes based on close readings of the context of transition in the Ex-Eastern Block.

I/3. The Haunting Memory of Socialism. The Trauma of Collective Memory of SocialistPast

As opposed to the theory of a western observer, "trauma of victory", and as opposed to theself-colonization theory, I would propose the phenomenon of accumulated traumas, as a moreappropriate term to define the post-socialist condition, that is, a kind of turbulence ofunassimilated, unmourned earlier traumas of the Socialist past, buried under new traumas ofchanges, originating in the odd, hybrid transition of the region.

Smelser's adaptation of the psychological trauma into the cultural trauma, as a theoreticalframework is a much closer fit to the art scene of the post-socialist reality. His proposition of"acute stress" seems to be more appropriate to describe the leftover trauma of the localsituation, then the sudden change as an exclusive trigger. His definition of trauma as anegotiated process, which could be blocked by repression and expressed in symptoms, seemsto quite relevant to the situation of our region. He is very inclusive regarding the sources of potential traumas, also. As he states "No discrete historical event or situation automatically ornecessarily qualifies itself as a cultural trauma, and the range of events or situation that may become traumas is enormous." (Smelser 2004, 35) The trauma could even be context, in hisclassification. His observations apply perfectly to the post-socialist condition in that thetraumatizing memory must be culturally relevant, represented as threatening, it must beremembered, it should be damaging, problematic, or sacred, and it has to have a strong,negative affect, or a feeling of shame or guilt which comes with it. (Smelser 2004, 36)

According to Smelser, "It is possible to describe social dislocations and catastrophes as socialtrauma if they massively disrupt organized social life." (Smelser 2004, 37) No doubt, that theimposition of Soviet dominated communist rule and culture could be regarded as such, andthat the socialist rewriting of national cultures, and restructuring of institutions would be a perfect fit to the more nuanced category. His presupposition of the existence of a generalconsensus about culture, about the values, norms, beliefs, and ideologies, includingsubcultures and countercultures, applies also to the region with its inherited divided culturalstructure.

In his concept, "a cultural trauma refers to an invasive and overwhelming event that is believed to undermine or overwhelm one or several essential ingredients of a culture or theculture as a whole." (Smelser 2004, 38) It has to be assumed as a fundamental threat posed tothe integrity and dominance of different elements of the society. In our case it could have posed to a generation being indoctrinated and habituated in the time of Socialism, to a culturalinstitution associated with a group's identity, or to an attitude, to a way of thinking, or even toan operating art paradigm. We are speaking about a threat, which violates cultural presuppositions, generates negative effects, leaves behind wounds, and is represented asindelible. As Smelser puts it: "A cultural trauma is, above all, a threat to a culture with whichindividuals in that society presumably have identification." (Smelser 2004, 40)


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In his comparison, and in culture, it is generally a social agent who stirs up troublingmemories. They are, in many cases, artists with subversive ideas and social awareness, thosewho go against the grain and are ready to interrupt the collective denial and collectiveamnesia regarding Socialist history and art. As a quite effective coping method, they mayreverse the trauma into its opposite, providing healing potential, or they may insulate the

trauma from its associative negative connection. The art works I will analyse could be easilyinterpreted as "acting out of trauma", or they function as a call for collective memory work,which is, following Smelser's argument, a constant negotiation, an argument over the meaningof memories, and over the question of what to remember, and how to remember it.

According to his adaptation of psychological trauma on the cultural level, the majormanifestation of an existing trauma is "a conflict among different groups, some orientedtoward playing down the trauma, and others in keeping it alive". In respect to post-socialistconditions the presence of "the trauma of the collective memory" is justified by scandalous art projects targeting the lost memory of the past on one hand, and the very emotional receptions,and loud protest flared up by such projects on the other hand. Those are the cases on which Iintend to focus. Furthermore, I wish to shed light upon the discrepancies, shifts between thememory discourses in the Ex-East and Ex-West regarding the Socialist past.

For the diagnoses of the very existence of the trauma related to the Socialist past in the ex-Eastern Block, we can greatly utilize Cathy Caruth's attempt to expand the notion ofindividual trauma to communities and to historical events. She puts an emphasis on thetemporal delay of the apparences of the symptoms of the trauma, suggesting that "the impactof the traumatic event lies precisely in its belatedness". (Caruth 1995, 9) Her interpretation provides us with a convincing explanation for the phenomenon of the total amnesia regardingthe Socialist past occuring in the first 15 years after the political changes in the region. "Thehistorical power of the trauma is not just that the experience is repeated after its forgetting, butthat it is only in and through its inherent forgetting that is first experienced at all." (Caruth1995, 8)

II. Coping with the Trauma through Art

II/1. Coping with the Trauma of the Collective Memory of the Socialist Past

Cultural globalization, which became world-wide in the nineties, reached the Central-EasternEuropean region right after the collapse of the Soviet satellite system, that is, the globalizationcoincided with a counter-process in this part of Europe, namely with the de-globalization of

the former dominant cultural force, a process of de-sovietization.In the period of transition, this double process resulted in cultural turbulence in thedisintegrated region, that is, a special mixture of the remnants of the Socialist era combinedwith a lot of new phenomena of the newly globalized, that is, westernized world. The onlysimilarity still remaining among the countries of the Ex-Eastern block was the more or lessmutual past and being squeezed between two expansive globalizing paradigms, the Western-type liberal and the anti-liberal, Socialist Soviet-type.

In the beginning of the nineties the satellite countries became free from the colonizing foreign power, the Soviet-type Socialism. The new democratic countries tried to clean up the

ideologically polluted public sphere of the powerful images, by demolishing statues,removing icons of the former Socialist culture and renaming streets and squares, that is,


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giving them back their old names after a half-century period, during which they were namedafter the events of Soviet history. In Hungary, most of the Socialist statues were placed intothe Statue Park outside of Budapest, which became a strange memorial park of the Socialist past, an Eastern variation of the Madame Tussauds wax museums, attracting a lot of Westerntourists wishing to experience the chilling feeling of the once so scary Socialism. In the same

way, Soviet memorials, monuments and statues of cult figures were collected into an isolatedfield, Grutas Park in Vilnius, Lithuania, in a very nice natural area.

Meanwhile, memorial museums, the official sites of memory, were established in severalcountries of the region, long before the related trauma would have been healed. In Budapest,it was named the House of Terror, dedicated to the victims of Nazism and Communism. InPrague, the Museum of Communism functions as a special commemorative space.

In general, elements of the Socialist past were collected, put together in isolated statue parksor memorial museums in the Ex-Soviet-block countries, fueled by the illusion that it would be possible to wipe off the dust of the Socialist past and put it aside in quarantine. This illusion,or better, desire, was usually accompanied by the intention of repressing the trauma of beingoppressed for a long time, namely with amnesia. In reality, as it usually happens after atrauma, the memory of the Soviet-type globalization is still with us, haunting us withflashbacks and nightmares, even if to a different extent in the affected countries.

In Russia, the ex-colonizer of the region, the situation is a bit different. Only the statue ofFelix Dzerzhinsky was removed in 1991, and was relegated to land behind the New TretyakovGallery. While one can not find statues of extremists of Socialist ideology, like Stalin, even inRussia, Lenin is still in places in Moscow: in squares, in the decoration of the metro system,and other public spaces. All the symbols of Socialist ideology, like the red star, the sickle andthe hammer, kept their places also in Moscow in public spheres. So, in Russia, the remnantsof Socialism are much more visible than in the satellite countries and are much more a part ofeveryday life. In Russia there is a rather strange mixture of the old Socialism and the newaggressive capitalism. One can find a strong desire for consumption and material culture,since it was repressed in the time of collectivist asceticism. Even Lenin and all the Socialistsymbols became consumerist products, mixed together with the icons of consumeristcapitalism, like Cola Cola. In a way, this phenomenon could be regarded as part of the psychological working-through-process.

This friendly symbiosis is not at all characteristic of the satellite countries, which felt that theSoviet-type Socialism was imposed on them and wasnt their own product. Therefore, the

exorcism of Socialism, at least in the first years of the transition, was much morecharacteristic of their attitude, in which art played a crucial role.

It could take the form of the domestication of the frightening symbols of the repressing powers, as in the work of the Czech artist David Cerny ( Pink tank, 1991). Reading the artwork from the trauma discourse, it uses the strategy of reversing the frightening, dangerousthreat into its opposite, insulating it from its negative associations as a coping mechanism ofthe trauma. A closely related defense against the trauma is to convert a negative message orimage into a positive one. That coping method was utilized by a Hungarian artist, TamsSzentjbi, who changed the message of the Liberation monuments in Budapest by coveringthe statue with white clothes leaving holes for the eyes. So, the statue went through

metamorphoses and became the Spirit of Freedom, as the meaning of the statue was reversed.Another Hungarian artist's, gnes Szabs neon variation of the statue, namedSilhouette of


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the Statue of Freedom (2000), mimicking a woman doing gymnastics, mocked not only the political message embodied by the original monument, but also the dead-serious male culturewhich created the allegory, and the heroic male obsession with politics and power. In the caseof the other artwork of the David Cerny, entitled ironically Hanging out (1996), theresemblance of the Socialist statues was played out.

Anri Salas famous and highly acknowledged work Intervista about recovering her mothersmemory about her involvement in "building Socialism" has provided a wonderful and honestway to cope with the trauma, but his work has remained isolated for a long time. After a fewyears, the Socialist past was forgotten in the Central-Eastern European region, at least inHungary, supported by the notion that the half-century period under the Soviet reign was justa minor accident that could easily be ignored. So, the coping mechanism of the trauma cameto a deadlock in the earliest phase of denial and rejection, and consequently the trauma process could not move further into a healing phase, which is the last sequence of overcomingof trauma, being able to integrate it to the collective identity. As an aftermath of the inabilityto carry through the "trauma process", the culture of the Socialist past became a taboo issue.Leaving the past as it is, and not bothering it with excavations and analyses, became a kind ofunwritten agreement. In the region, and surely in Hungary, only a few young artists felt itnecessary to analyze the past in the shadow of a new kind of globalization and of a new political formation, the deeply desired integration into the European Union.

Tams Kaszs, who is a citizen of one of the most representative Socialist cities in Hungary,Dunajvros, formerly named Stalingrad, bumps into the traces of the past every step of theway in the city, which was once a window-city, a model, with its iron factories, huge housingdevelopments and Socialist realist statues and monuments all around the city, overwhelmedwith the symbols and images of the communist ideology. For example, the Water tower, builtin 1952, had a red star on its faade until the very last moment, but, as the red star is aforbidden symbol in capitalist Hungary, the star is gone and there is a lighter patch in its place. The artist would have a lot of suggestions for the city concerning the transformation ofthe prohibited image, but as the Socialist period is too close, and there is a strong desire to getrid of even the memory of it, so he offers some images, more appropriate for the time oftransition, some global trademarks.

His other unrealized project is also connected to his home-town. The city is near the Danube,which divides Hungary into two economically and socially different regions: the hilly,industrial westbank is more developed and richer than the plain eastbank, which is mainlyagrarian, poor and has a high rate of unemployement. The artist wished to plant wheat onto

the heightened pedestal of the group-sculpture of Harvesters , made by a Hungarian sculptor,Jzsef Somogyi in 1979. The idea behind the project of Kaszas was to give work to theseasonal workers, to the unemployed harvesters and at the same time to provide a virtual bridge between different and separated regions of Hungary. As there is a big difference inlevel between the two banks of the river, if one would see the group of statues surrounded bythe chunk of wheat field, they would have the illusion of continuation to the wheat field onthe other bank. In this way the spectator would feel as if he were standing on a great plainwith the harvesters.

Ilona Nmeth, a Hungarian woman artist living in Slovakia, deals with personal memories,the mental traces of the Socialist past, in her sound-installation entitled27 meters (2004-

2007). She asked six people of her home-town to walk with her 27 meters from the townslandmark and meeting point, the BonBon Hotel, and to speak about their feelings and


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memories in relation to the site. The collaborators were of different ages, and thus of differentmemory spans and relations to the site and the town. They had very personal stories,indicating that personal memories and personal histories are equally important and true as thecanonized history written by professionals. A personal narrative is another element which wasrepressed in the time of Socialism, as it was regarded as subjective and as such, irrelevant for

history-writing and art making practices, and therefore should be kept in private. Public and private, greatly divided in the old Socialist times, were re-connected in this work. The visitorcould walk along the tracks, while listening and being involved in the personal stories. Whileone becomes a voyager, she/he is provoked to think about public space to which it is possibleto relate personally.

Ilona Nmeth, 27 metres, 2004-2007, Interactive Sound Installation, Sound engineer: Roman Lasciak, City Art Museum, Gyr, Photo: Tibor

Somogyi

Little Warsaw, a Hungarian artist-duo (Blint Havas and Andrs Glik) is also interested inour public spaces, in our visual environment with its leftovers from different historical periods.

They started their studies right after the political changes, facing the insignificance of art andculture as active agents of the social sphere and the ineffectiveness of the rigid institutionalstructure, and were unable to reflect on the changes. They felt a strong need to extend theiractivity into the public realm and to communicate with a much wider audience than that ofBohemia. As they found themselves in an art scene which was fascinated by the Western

world, the global discourse, and the art market, they were interested in all of the opposites, inthe Eastern countries, once united in brotherhood (so they traveled extensively in Romania,and in Poland) in local and particular discourse, and in public spaces with heavy loadedcontext.

In 1996 they had an exhibition entitled Little Warsaw in the Polish Cultural Institute inBudapest. They made models from painted plaster of the reconstructed part of the city. Forthem, the Palace of Culture represented utopia, but for their teachers it was the icon ofCommunist terror. They kept the name due to it layered meanings, as it could mean a CentralEuropean city, or could be the name of an ethnic community outside of the home country, likeLittle Italy. They kept it also because two of them worked, and still work in collaboration.


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Their Deserted memorial (2004) project draw attention on the abandoned, forgotten, neglectedmemorials losing their specific context. They wanted to collect abandoned memorials, or pedestals, and to build a collage from them, a kind of memorial dedicated to memorials. Theycould not realize this idea, but developed it further considering the public memorial as a readymade object. (Fowkes 2005) They took the damaged memorial dedicated to the son of Horthy,

the governor of Hungary in the thirties and forties. His young heir died in the Second WorldWar, shot down as a pilot. In Socialism, Horthy was a regrettable figure, and his memory waserased. The damaged memorial was forgotten and left on its place with its purpose obscured.The shadow, the ghost, if you like, of the memorial was taken to Holland, where it wasexhibited alongside of Pavel Althammer's bench, which was his signature art-piece. Hisartwork was converted back into a functional object, while the leftover of the public memorialentered into contemporary art context commemorating the lost memory and of the forgotten,rewritten history. In this subversive project, everything was taken upside down: the political public memorial appeared in private artistic context, while the museum, being historicallydistinct from the public art arena, became host to a public art work. And, finally, a memorydiscourse was launched from the position of art.

Left: Little Warsaw (Blint Havas and Andrs Glik), Deserted Memorial, 2004. Right: Deserted Memorial exhibited in Arsenal Gallery,Poland. Photos: Courtesy of the artists.

In 2004 they took another, much bigger and more significant public monument, Jnos SzntKovcs, made in 1965 by Jzsef Somogyi, a Hungarian sculptor, from a small Hungariantown to Amsterdam, to the exhibition "Time and Again". They took a public statue from aSocialist public space, the context of which had evaporated, to a highly prestigious artisticspace. One of the aims of their operation was to test how the two totally distinctive contextswould come along, or, to put it otherwise, how the particular Eastern European art making practice of the public space of Socialism, with its heavy ideological agenda, would relate tothe ideas and environment of a trendsetting museum in a Western democracy. In other words,they wanted to test their compatibility.


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Left: Moving the public monumnet of Jnos Sznt Kovcs from Hdmezvsrhely to Amsterdam;Right: Jnos Sznt Kovcs at the exhibition of Time and Again, 2004, Amsterdam. Photos: Courtesy of the artists

The project could be understood as taking the issue of competing ideologies to theinternational scene. The question for them was how the competition ended, and whether it hadended at all, and, if so, what happened with Eastern European art and with its distinct utopia.Was it simply left out, or in terms of art, was it melted into global art, without generatingspecial interest? Concerning the different art making traditions, the question was whether allof them are viable, or do some of them have to be driven out from the collective memory ofhumanity? Further questions arise; what about postmodern culture, so hungry for selectionand diversity; would it embrace the socialist reality, or strongly dislike the gray, monotonous,uninspiring look of Communism, as Boris Groys believes in his newest book. (Groys 2008,150)

In respect to the local context, the project targeted the artistic heritage of the Socialist past,whether it is a valid or invalid tool for socially committed contemporary artists. A lot of keyissues came to play in Little Warsaw's very clever and complex project.

Within the international context it became obvious, that Socialist Realism, the region'scultural heritage is in an "out of context" position, and that it lost its relevance. It is not part ofthe discussion of Western intellectuals anymore, and it is not marketable either on the

otherwise colorful, diverse cultural market.As for the local discourse of modernism, which has greatly outlived itself in the region, the project opposed its still valid illusion, that art is something out of space, out of time, or betterto say, above it all. In relation to the reception of the project, a hidden controversy of the localscene of the transition came to light, namely that Socialist Realism did get into a critical position in the hands of socially concerned young artists, while the avant-garde masters,heroes of the counterculture of Socialism, acted as the controlling establishment.

The virtual and literal dislocation of the statue proved to be scandalous in the eyes of the localart community. The vehement local reflection clearly showed that the issue of the art of the

Socialist past was still untouchable in 2004. Leading artists signed a petition against the art project. Strangely enough, the petition was signed by the representatives of political wings,


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the rightist, national one, and the leftist liberal one, which does not otherwise happennowadays. So, as it seems, the common enemy, a politically conscious, question-raising art project could reunite the otherwise oppositional intellectuals. The rhetoric of the open letterwas quite authoritarian, speaking in the name of the professional field, the art life as such andthe audience. The signers stood up as the saviours of "good taste and cultural values", for

which categories Little Warsaw's project, clearly does not qualify (Er #ss 2004). Until this point one could say that the modernist set of values did not match with the post-conceptualist project, and the petitioners expressed freely their artistic opinion. But this is not the end! Theyasked for investigation of the case, and for the appointment of someone who would be heldresponsible by those authorities, who were not specified, but with our background one canmake a good guess.

At the time of the original unveiling of the statue, it stirred a harsh debate. At that time thenature of Socialist realism was at stake, and the artist should have defended his statue publiclyat the time of the veiling ceremony, as it did not fulfill the rigid obligations of Socialistrealism, but stood for freedom of artistic expression, at least in the terms of the time. The verynegotiation of power of different artistic ideas between the state dictated art conception andthe artist's ideas could be detected in that very moment when artists tried to push theenvelope, among them Somogyi, but the space within which they were allowed to navigatewas defined by the state's cultural policy. In the turbulence of political changes, the stormystory of the monument sunk into oblivion, and the statue itself also became almost invisible.

This sensitive position of the statue was totally obscured in the international scene, where its presentation and interpretation demonstrated that the region was treated by the use of the goodold stereotypes and clichs resembling Cold War rhetoric. Sznt Kovcs was labeled aworker figure instead of a peasant leader, who he really was, while Hdmez#vsrhely, theoriginal place of the statue, was named small village instead of a town, which it really was,for the sake of giving to it more dramatic overtone.

Looking for an explanation for such harsh and rude reactions coming from both sides, onesuspects that the message of Socialist Realism and even its conceptual recycling is that theavant-garde and modernist tradition is handicapped in the Eastern part of Europe, namely thatits lineage is discontinuous, as it was rudely disrupted. When the West applies old stereotypeson Eastern art making practices, it is a kind of reminder of its own privileged position, havinga smooth artistic lineage without breakages and interruptions. The lack of Socialist Realism inPost-Socialist art museum is a correction of this defect, or pathology, a kind of face-lifting.

Little Warsaw went against the unwritten law of the region which force their compromised public statues into exile, into quarantine, named Statue Parks. Behind the unified hystericaloutcry from the left and right wing of the former opposition and the former official state critic,is a symptom of the anxiety disorder, the repressed social fear and shame of being exposed.

In the ex-official press organ of the state party, named Npszabadsg, the ex-official criticwrote a review of the project sharing the indignation of the former enemies, the present petitioners (Er #ss 2005). In his rhetoric the main accusation of the project is its beinguncivilized and barbaric. The use of these categories does not take into consideration that thedichotomy of civilization versus barbarism was constructed for the sake of colonizersoriginating back in the time of the enlightenment. In this concept the barbarian savage is

measured differently than the civilized human, and is not subject to the same law as theothers, and their suppression is justified in the name of civilization. As 19th century


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ethnography and anthropology were byproducts of colonialism, and the political and militaryoppression of colonies went hand in hand with, put nicely, intense acquisitions of famousWestern museums. Today, in the time of hot debates of art restitution, it is quite unreflectiveand obsolete to refer to the concept of civilization.

One of the bizarre counter positions of the transition is that while the main trend after the political changes was to demolish Socialist statues without qualifying the process asvandalism, those artists, who relied on the denied and forgotten tradition and pulled one statueout of oblivion by taking it into a contemporary exhibition, were accused of vandalism.(Gamboni 2007, Andrs 2006)

Although Little Warsaw was further accused of humiliating the statue, the statue remainedunharmed and got back to its place fully intact. The gesture, of course, was not against the artobject or the artist. On the contrary, it lifted up the veil of ignorance covering the statue. LittleWarsaw had dug it up from the past, and along with it, the wounds and scars of the past,which had never healed properly, and have not even been discussed or negotiated. Rather,they could be regarded as social agents opening up the repressed trauma discourse, as theyinitiated a defense mechanism for overcoming the suffocating effects of the trauma. Their project went against the grain of the collective amnesia in respect to the Socialist art making practice, as they mobilized an effective coping method, converting the forgotten public statueinto a contemporary art project. By the recontextualization of the statue they intended to untieit from its negative connotation and to give to the Socialist public statue, stepchild of the timeof transition, a second chance to live, being revitalized and to be seen in a different perspective.

From the side of the petitioners, the issue at stake was: Who has the right to dig up the past,and break apart the well preserved ideas of Socialism and the related art practice?Furthermore, how should we remember the Socialist past, or should we remember it at all? Inthe case of the petitioners, mostly ex-representatives of counterculture in the time ofSocialism, one can diagnose the repetition of trauma, the transfer of aggression, as a well-known after-effect of trauma, which means that they tried to police and control fellow artistsin the same way as they themselves had been controlled by the state's cultural policy. So, forthem, the issue at stake was indeed gate-keeping regarding the dominance of the art discourse,represented by themselves.

II/ 2. The Secondary Trauma of the West and Coping with it through Art

The trauma of the West connected to the collapse of the Socialist Block is a blank spot in thememory and trauma discourse, as if the West had been immune to its malaise, or as if it had been constantly in the position of a therapist, not taking into consideration the clinicalevidence of the "therapist's secondary trauma".

Andreas Fogarasi, who was born and raised in Vienna but of Hungarian origin, made a poeticvideo about the decay and fading glamour of the Hungarian Socialist, so called Houses ofCulture, or Fun Palaces, the idea of which was originated in the Worker's Club. Herepresented Hungary in the 2007 Venice Biennial (Tmr 2007) where the Pavilion and hiswork won the Golden Lion Award. The Hungarian reception and the international one weregreatly divided.


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As the Hungarian public is still in the condition of deep repression of the painful andtroubling memories of the Socialist past and its institutions and culture, that is, still sufferingfrom amnesia, the art piece was not really loved and valued by the public, including artistsand art historians, for flaring up hateful memories. Its gut was resisted. The reaction showsthat the trauma is still in its "incubation period", using Freud's and Caruth's term (Caruth

1995, 7). On the local scene the rejection of the trauma, which is the first phase in the trauma process, overshadows the desire of some artists of acting out and working through. The project was rejected on account of its "quality" which was interpreted as "uninteresting and boring", not being able to call the attention of the Western curators and audiences. Thisdismissive attitude shows that it was stuffed into the modernist discourse, instead of utilizingthe discourse from which it could have been interpreted, namely the memory and traumadiscourse. The lack of the discourses goes hand in hand with avoiding the memory of the past.Caruth's explanation of this phenomenon could have been applied to the traumatic relation tothe Socialist past as well. She proposes that " trauma is not experienced as a mere repressionor defense, but as a temporal delay, that carries the individual beyond the shock of the firstmovement." (Caruth 1995, 10)

The oddly reversed positions regarding the Western and Post-Socialist conditions could beuncovered in the totally opposite attitude of the local and international scene. As opposed tothe local scene, the international one was starving for a memory discourse coming from theregion, as if not being able to find "food" to satisfy its craving, which means an art-piece inour case for curing its own trauma. The West had had its own loss as well, namely itsreferential point by which it could measure itself. Socialism and the Cold War were part of theidentification and socialization process of the Western baby-boomers, also, even if from theother side. The existential threat coming from the Socialist Camp led by the Soviet Union wasmediated by the rhetoric of the clash of civilization (capitalism versus socialism at that time)with the vision of a total nuclear war for which the Western societies should be prepared.Even if this threat was imaginary, and artificially generated, it was part of the mentalexperiences of the Westerners of the fifties and early sixties, with the side effects of fear andanxiety. So, the existence in the shadow of Socialism was mildly traumatic for the Westernworld as well. The collapse of Socialism and the Eastern Block buried under itself the very paradigm of modernism as well, with its utopian tenets and its beliefs in progress and a more beautiful, peaceful future, echoed by topic of the 2007 Documenta.

Fogarasi offered therapeutic sessions regarding traumas, the loss of Socialism and the loss ofthe modernist utopia to Western audiences. The later one was invoked by the architecturalinstallation. The installation and the video piece dealt both with the decay of Socialist culture

and with the fading away of modernism. Both painful losses were served and awardedaccordingly. Quite contrary, in Hungary, existing in a different phase of the trauma process,and suffering from the inability to carry through the trauma process, neither the work, nor theaward got proper media attention, including the art world.

Ilja Kabakov, one of the leading artists of the Russian unofficial art, was well aware of theexistence of the secondary trauma of the West: his installation in the Russian Pavilion of theVenice Biennial in 1992 (Wallach 1996, 204 $ 207) could be interpreted in the framework oftrauma discourse. His work and attitude coincided with the immediate after-affect of trauma,namely the collective repression "acting as if the trauma did not even exist". Kabakov's work"collaborates" in this denial and serves as insulation against the traumatic condition. It reflects

on the early phase of the "collective memory work", that is, on the ignorance of the traumaticexperience.


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Fogarasi's double sided work, on the contrary, demonstrates the inability to carry through the"trauma process" in Hungary, from which the analyzed painful debates stemmed. On the otherhand, it signals the end of the related trauma, the successful coping strategies of the West, andthe overcoming of its own trauma. The West could greatly benefit from its better skill in

coming to terms with the loss, and had greater tradition of lying on the couch, that is, oftherapy, than the East having an inherited suspicion towards psychology and psychoanalyses.

I suppose that Caruth's statement in terms of trauma on the individual level is relevant on thecultural level also. "Trauma is not locatable in the simple violent or original event in anindividual's past, but rather in the way it's very unassimilative nature [...] returns to haunt thesurvivor later on". (Caruth 1995, 3-4)

In conclusion, I believe, that art is one of the best tools for coming to terms with the hauntingghosts. It is the perfect tool for mourning, for expressing emotions of loss, regardless ofwhether the collective memory of Socialist past generates attraction or repulsion. Ignoring thegrief work or coping mechanism of traumas is not an advisable strategy, accepting Sztompka'sobservation that "cultural traumas may last over several generations" (Sztompka 2004, 162)Caruth's observation, that "In a catastrophic age, that is, trauma itself may provide the verylink between cultures" applies to those countries, that once were united in the Socialist camp,having shared historical past and common experiences, but disintegrated after the collapse ofSocialism.

I wish to express my gratitude to my good friend Barbara Dean for her generous help with the English version of the text.


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Alexander, Jeffrey C.% Eyerman, Ron% Giesen, Bernhard% Sztompka, Piotr 2004.Cultural Trauma andCollective Identity . University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London

Andrs, Edit 2005. Blind Spot of the New Critical Theory. Notes on the Theory of Self Colonization. In Babias

2005. (ed.) 98-112Andrs, Edit 2006. Transgressing Boundaries (Even those Marked out by the Predecessors) in the New GenreConceptual Art. In Alberro, Alexander% Buchman, Sabeth (eds.) 2006. Art after Conceptual Art. The MIT Press% Generali Foundation, Cambridge, Massachusetts% Vienna, 163-178

Andrsi Gbor Pataki Gbor Szcs Gyrgy Zwickl Andrs 1999. Hungarian Art in the 20th century. Corvina, Budapest

Babias, Marius (ed.) 2005. La Biennale di Venezia 51. Esposizione Internationale dArte. Romanian Pavilion.

Bal, Mieke% Crewe, Jonathan% Spitzer, Leo (eds.) 1998. Acts of Memory. Cultural Recall in the Present. Dartmouth College Press, University Press of New England

Bubnova, Iara 2000. From defects to effects. Self-colonization as an alternative concept to national isolationism.European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies. www.eipcp.net/diskurs/d01/text/ib01.htlm

Caruth, Cathy 1995.Trauma. Explorations in memory . The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore andLondonErjavec, Ale& (ed.) 2003. Postmodern ism and the Postsocialist Condition. Politized Art under Late Socialism .University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

Er #ss, Nikolette (ed.) 2004. Much traveled monument: Little Warsaw: Instauration.http://www.exindex.hu/index.php?l=en&t=tema&tf=12_en.php

Fowkes, Maya and Reuben 2005. Little Warsaw: Strategies of Removal and Deconstruction.Umelec:Contemporary Art and Culture (Prague), no. 3.

Gamboni, Dario 2007.The Destruction of Art. Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution . ReaktionBooks, London

Groys, Boris 2008. Art Power . MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London

Hughes, Henry Meyric 2005. When East was East and West was West: Art Attitudes in the Cold War. InVanderlinden, Barbara Filipovic, Elena (eds.) 2005. 133%152.

Imre, Anik 2001. Gender, Literature and Film in Contemporary East Central European Culture. Ch. 3. CLCWeb: CLC Comparative Literature and Culture. http://www.clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu

King, Elaine A.% Levin, Gail (eds.) 2006. Ethics and the Visual Arts. Allworth Press, New York

Kiossev, Alexander 1999. Notes on Self-Colonizing Cultures. In Peji" % Elliott (eds.) 1999. 114%177

Michalski, Sergiusz 1998: Public Monuments. Art in Political Bondage 1870 ! 1997 . Reaction Books, London

Neumann, Iver B. 1998."The East" in European Identity Formation . University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota

Nora, Pierre 2002. The reasons for the Current Upsurge in Memory.Transit Europaische Revue. Tr@nsit-Virtuelles Forum , no. 22.

Peji", Bojana% Elliott, David (eds.) 1999. After the Wall. Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe .[katalgus] Moderna Museet, Stockholm


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Piotrowski, Piotr 2006. On Two Voices of Art History. In Bernhardt, Katja% Piotrowski, Piotr (eds.) 2006 Grenzen berwindend...-zu Ehren Adam S. Labudas . Lukas Verlag

Smelser, Neil J. 2004. Psychological trauma and Cultural Trauma . In Alexander% Eyerman % Giesen% Sztompka 2004, 31%59.

Sztompka, Piotr 2004. The Trauma of Social Change. A Case of Postcommunist Societies. In Alexander% Eyerman % Giesen% Sztompka 2004, 155%195.

Tmr, Katalin (ed.) 2007. Andreas Fogarasi Kultur und Freizeit. Hungarian Pavilion. Giardini di Castello,Venice. 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia . Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Knig,Kln

Vanderlinden, Barbara Filipovic, Elena (eds.) 2005.The Manifesta Decade. Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe . MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London

Wallach, Amei 1996. Ilya Kabakov. The Man Who Never Trew Anything Away. Harry N. Abrams Inc.,Publishers, New York

Wolff, Larry 1994. Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment. Stanford University Press, Standford


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VIENNA SCHOOL METHODOLOGICAL DOCTRINE:VISIONS AND REVISIONS

SUMMARY OR A FORESHADOWING REVISION OF ORTHODOXY ?

Jn Bako " Jede geschichtliche Bildung ist en Glied einer bestimmten geschichtlichen Entwicklungsketteund bedingt durch die vorangehenden Bildungen derselben Materie.(Max Dvo' k, Das Rtsel der Kunst der Brder van Eyck, 1903.)

Gruppierung in den genetischen Zusammenhang.../ist/ eine wissenschaftlicheRationalisierung.(H.Tietze, Methode der Kunstgeschichte, 1913.)

Reduzierung ...auf eine immanente Entwicklung.../ist/ eine Abstraktion.(H.Tietze, Methode der Kunstgeschichte, 1913.)

Hans Tietze, in his Methode der Kunstgeschichte published in 1913, attempted to summarize basic principles of the evolutionist methodological project developed by Franz Wickhoff andAlois Riegl and articulated explicitly by Max Dvo' k. In Das Rtsel der Kunst der Brudervan Eyck (published in 1904) Dvo' k expressed the credo of genetic approach as follows:

die moderne Wissenschaft hat uns gelehrt...die Tatsachen in einzelne...Kausalverbindungzwingende Entwicklungsketten umzusetzen. Unter dem Einflusse der exaktenForschungsmethoden haben wir...gelernt...eine Tatsache nie als eine vereinzelte Erscheinung,sondern stets als ein Glied in einer bestimmten Aufeinanderfolge von Tatsachen derselbenoder verwandten Art zu betrachten.

Nevertheless, within Tietzes reconstruction the first rifts in genetic doctrine occured.Contrary to the idea of a work of art as a part of an immanent evolution, and anticipatingSchlossers nominalism, Tietze admitted that a work of art is something isolated. Moreover,inspired by neo-Kantian philosophy he even started to conceive of the evolution as a merescientific construct. His characterization of the key idea of Viennese orthodoxy (i.e. the beliefin the immanent evolution of art as a reduction and abstraction) can be regarded as aforeshadowing of the revision of the formalist-evolutionist model and the first step towards anew heteronomous and expressionist notion of art history. Despite that, the idea of art historyas the history of ideas or world views called Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte not byDvo' k but his pupils K.M.Swoboda and Johannes Wilde, had not been explicitly and fullyarticulated by Hans Tietze, but by Max Dvo' k.


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Hans Tietze realized, very early on, the dangers implied in Geistesgeschichte as follows: thedanger of turning art history into history without works of art and neglecting active nature ofart as a consequence of transforming works of art into mere documents of intellectual history.

Anticipating Individuality Turn

Dvo' k hat in letzter Zeit den tiefsten Grund alles geistigen Fortschrittes in denschpferischen Wirken einzelner grosser Geister gesehen. Geschichte ist ... das schpferischeResultat des Wirkens jener Grossen, die zum Schicksal ihrs Zeitalters geworden sind.(O.Benesch, Max Dvo' k, 1922.)

But Dvo' k himself escaped both perils mentioned above in his later lectures and papers.Leaning upon neo-Kantian belief in the unique nature of historical phenomena combined withthe idea of the irrational nature of historical process Dvo' k abandoned his old belief inhistorical causality. Instead he replaced it with the idea of great artists as the initiators of thehistory of art and creators of the world views of their ages. As a consequence, radical

historical relativism started to be transformed into transhistorism. Dvo' k articulated the belief that the history of art has produced eternal artistic values. Consequently, art historicalresearch itself transformed its character: It was no longer mere reconstruction andinterpretation of the past. It took on rather a new role of moralisation of the present and prophesying the future. Exempted from the retrospective and nostalgic nature of Dvo' ksmodell (glorifying medieval or manierist spiritualism) Hans Tietze took over the idea andtransformed it into an avant-gard project of art history as an active and socialy engagedactivity (s.c. Lebendige Kunstwissenschaft). In harmony with the new avant-garde notion ofart, Tietze reinterpreted geistesgeschichtliche Kunstgeschichte in terms of a sociologicaltheory of art. The notion of the work of art as an automatic expression of an idea wasconceived by Tietze as an active social function.

Thus, Dvo' ks late essays about great masters like Tintoretto, el Greco, Durer or PieterBrueghel d.A. can be regarded as an anticipation of the explicit critical revision of ViennaSchool orthodoxy carried out and declared by Julius Schlosser in 1924. Riegls and Dvo' ksrealism was replaced with extreme nominalism by Schlosser. In the place of evolution orworld view the singular work of art and the artist were put and regarded as the basic elementof the history of art and the genuine object of art historical research.

Insularist Turn

Jedes echte Kunstwerk trgt, wie die ideale Knstlerpersnlichkeit ... einen Massstab in, nichtausser sich ... als Monade.(J.v.Schlosser, Ein Lebenskommentar, 1924.)

Meine Bekanntschaft mit ihm /i.e.Benedetto Croce/ ist das eigentliche Ereignis meinesLebens geworden, mir eine vllige Erneuerung, eine zweite Jugend gebracht hat.(J.v.Schlosser, Ein Lebenskommentar, 1924.)

Es gibt keine Kunst, nur Knstler...(J.v.Schlosser, Ein Lebenskommentar, 1924.)


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Kunstgeschichte im eigentlichen Sinn kann niemals und nirgends Sprachgeschichte sein. Auch sind es die originale schpferischen Gestalten, um die es sich handelt, nicht die Nachahmer und Verwsserer, die keinen Ausdruck haben und ... nicht in die Kunstgeschichtegehren.(J.v.Schlosser, Ein Lebenskommentar, 1924.)

Even if Schlossers turn to insular theory conceiving of the work of art as a monaderepresented an open revolt against Riegls hegemony and had a character of the revolutionary break, it came into existence rather as a metamorphosis. His long museum practice wasnecessarily focused on singular works of art and his intensive study of the history of writingson art implied germs of nominalism on the one hand, and individualism on the other.Moreover, an indication of the implicit revolt against Riegls deductionist approach, againsthis abstract Grammar, his immanentist and impersonalist determinism, can be found in hisopen idea of artwork (i.e. his notion of the work of art as a culture historical phenomenon,and in his attempt to replace Riegls Kunstwollen with the notion of Kunstanschauung).Schlosser himself dated the implicit start of his nominalist turn as early as between 1901-

1903. Nevertheless, the role of a catalyst for the insular and individualist theory of art was played bySchlossers friend Benedetto Croce. But Croce not only inspired Schlosser to conceive of arthistory as the history of great artists, but expelled history from art completely. As aconsequence, Schlosser, a member of a historical school par excellence, fell into a dilemma.Extreme atomist historicism that regarded works of art as entirely unique phenomena(monads) threatened to lead into an ahistorical transcendentalism. Consequently, the historyof art changed into a reconstruction of an eternal existence of masterworks or on KonradFiedlers terms into a transhistorical appurtenance of geniuses. In addition, Croce urgedSchlosser not only to replace Riegls impersonal determinism with individualist activism,Kunstwollen with individual artist. He also substituted an aristocratic individualismappreciating only great artists and their masterworks for Riegls democratic idea of art thatremoved the gap betwen high and low art. Moreover, Croce stimulated him also to rejectRiegls relativism. In order to overcome Riegls value neutral approach Schlosser synthesizedCroces idea of the science of art regarded as critique with Vasaris idea of art history as value judgment. Despite that Schlosser anchored art historical research in value judgments withoutlapsing into the old historical normativism that had categorized the history of art in periods of peaks and declines. Thus, Vasaris diachronic normativism was replaced by a synchronic one.According to Schlosser, art history must be anchored in an axiology distinguishing betweencreative and not creative art: geniuses and epigones.

In addition, following Croces belief in art as an expression, Schlosser contraposed expressionto communication and style to language. Style was the product of individual artists andembodiment of their creative expression, according to Schlosser, and not, as Riegl claimed,the result of an anonymous artistic intention (will to form). As a consequence, the dilemmamentioned above that resulted from Croces antinomy art criticism versus history, wasovercome by means of a dualist theory. In 1935, following Karl Vossler but contradictingCroces ahistorical model in a sense, Schlosser divided Stilgeschichte fromSprachgeschichte, the history of style from the history of language, individual expressionfrom collective communication, and creation (by great artists) from imitation (by epigones).In this way Schlosser counterposed Croces belief in creative expression to Viennese idea ofstyle and its history. The true history of art was regarded by Schlosser as production of styles, but styles were conceived of as individual expressions and as executed exclusively by greatartists. Similarly to Vasaris model of the history of artists, great masters were regarded as


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producers of styles and, consequently, the authors of history. At the same time, style wascotraposed to artistic language, to a mere communication performed by epigones. Smallmasters solely spread stylistic innovation executed by great masters, according to Schlosser.Consequently, neither Riegls history of grammar nor the history of language could beregarded as the true art history, according to him. They represented solely either an empty

abstract construction or inferior culture historical part of the true art history. In that waySchlosser attempted to preserve the historicity of art without losing the unique, individual andtrascendental nature of artistic creation and reconcile Vienna School historism with Crocesexpressionist transcendentalism. However, the critical revision of Riegls orthodox paradigmwas materialized and its hegemony shattered by a new nominalist model.

Counter-Paradigma

In 1924, simultaneously with casting doubts upon Geistesgeschichte by Benesch and Tietzeand the radical revision of Riegls orthodoxy by Schlosser, the most intransigent critic ofVienna School, Josef Strzygowski, equated the crisis of Geisteswissenschaften generallywith Vienna School methodological doctrine. In contrast to Schlosser, Tietze or Benesch,Strzygowskis criticism was an external and destructive one. He condemned not only thediachronic and linear ideas of history, but also Eurocentric and humanist concept of thehistory of art as hegemonic, and immanent conception of art history as entirely mistaken. Hesuggested instead to replace it with the geography of art focusing on a pluralist notion ofWorld art history. It was conceived of as consisting of plurality of simultaneous, constant andinteracting artistic territoral circles anchored in different nations, peoples or races. In addition,Strzygowski insisted on replacing historic-philological and formalist monistic methods ofinquiry (characteristic of Vienna School) with a systematic science of art(Kunstwissenschaft). It should consist of factual art history on the one hand and the study ofart reception on the other. Due to its vicious and negative intention Strzygowskis projectaffected the development of the Vienna School only indirectly i.e. through the mediation bythe students which had attended simultaneously Dvo' kss and Schlossers as well asStrzygowskis lectures despite interdiction by both being at war with the other.

Inductionist Revolution

Dvo' ks Hauptwerk Idealismus und Naturalismus ...ist einen ausgesprochenen Rckschritt.Hier geht Dvo' k nicht mehr von den Denkmlern aus, sondern er versucht die ganzemittelalterliche Kunst aus ...konstruierten Weltanschauungstheorien zu erklren /.../ hier wurdeein Versuch gemacht, die Kunst zum blossen Ausdruk einer ... a priori gegebenenWeltanschauung zu machen.(Q.Kaschnitz-Weinberg, Alois Riegl, 1929.)

Nichts ist im gegenwrtigen Stadium so wichtig wie eine verbesserte Erkenntnis deseinzelnen Kunstwerks /.../ das einzelne Kunstwerk /wird/ als eine eigene, noch unbewltigteAufgabe der Kunstwissenschaft.(H.Sedlmayr, Zu einer strengen Kunstwissenschaft, 1931.)

The group of art historians entering the scene in the second half of the 1920s known asViennese structuralists also regarded the situation in post-war art history as the crisis of itsscientific status. Due to that they launched the project of art history as a rigorous and exactscience (strenge Kunstwissenschaft). Even if Riegls evolutionist version of style historywas also targeted by the group that consisted symptomatically of Schlossers graduates beforeall, its criticism was directed primarily against Geistesgeschichte, its deductive procedure and


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spiritualist character. In the footsteps of Schlossers criticism of abstractions, members of thegroup regarded deductive generalisations as unverifiable abstract constructions.Consequently, a strict inductive (bottom up) procedure focusing on analysis of a singlework of art was introduced. In addition, the interpretations by means of analogies wereconsequently replaced with Sachforschung, an empirical analysis of the structure of the

work of art based on its objective perception. This kind of analysis should uncover the innerorganization and functioning of the work and grasp its aesthetic status and message.Representatives of this group, Hans Sedlmayr especially, held their initiative for amethodological revolution and characterized it as a new epoche of art history. Nevertheless, rather than an original innovation or a radical turn it was an attempt tosynthesize diverse stimuli taken from their predecessors. Croces and Schlossers insularnotion of artwork as a monad now characterized as an independent world or microcosm wascombined with Riegls analysis of formal structure and the idea of a centrally organisedfunctional whole taken over from Gestalt Psychology. Borrowing from a synthesis ofCroce-Schlossers axiological dualism with Strzygowskis idea of a systematic science of art(Kunstwissenschaft) that strictly separated case study from the study of the reception (orimmanent art history from social history of art) Sedlmayr attempted to bridge the gap betweenart history and aesthetic (or Kunstgeschichte and Kunstwissenschaft). His project resultedin a hierarchical theory of two art histories. The first art history regarded as a craft(concentrated on dating, attribution or identification of iconography) was delimited from thesecond and higher science of art regarded as investigation and observation of aesthetic natureand artistic quality. Moreover, following Gestalpsychology Sedlmayr developed theconcept of gestaltetes Sehen, i.e. a correct sensual approach to the work of art enabling us tograsp simultaneously its organization, its aesthetic status and its inner content without any preconceptions and a priori knowledges. Due to that Sedlmayr implicitly reintroducednormativism into art history. Consequently, his notion of structural analysis assumed acontradictory nature: Paradoxicaly enough, an impartial, empirical and rational analysis if based on correct sensual approach - was supposed to identify aesthetic quality of a work ofart. Moreover, an immanent and decontextualized analysis of an artworks structure wasexpected to discover inner spiritual content of a work of art. No wonder that Sedlmayrscompanion Otto Pcht, in his paper Das Ende der Abbildtheorie (Kritische Berichte, 1930-31), warned against the danger of slipping from scientific analysis into poetry.

Reverse of Rigorous Science

The authors /i.e. of Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen, II/ often tend to isolate formsfrom the historical conditions of their development, to propel them by mythical, racial- psychological constants, or to give them an independent self-evolving career. Entities likerace, spirit, will, and idea, are substituted in an animistic manner for a real analysis ofhistorical factors.(Meyer Schapiro, The New Viennese School, Art Bulletin 1936.)

Diese dritte Forderung, historisch zu denken, hat ihre einfache Begrndung in derTatsache, dass das Kunstwerk nicht als Projektion der Ideen seines Schpfers in denluftleehren geistigen Raum entsteht, sondern als eine Auseinandersetzung des geistigenSchaffens mit den verschiedensten Gegebenheiten der konkreten historischen Situation ...(H.Sedlmayr, Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte, 1936.)

Das Kunstwerk ist eine Monade, in der die kunstwirkenden Krfte eines Volks und einer

Epoche sich verdichten.(H.Sedlmayr, Julius Ritter von Schlosser, 1938.)


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In 1936, the year Sedlmayr took over the chair of art history at Vienna University fromSchlosser, a fundamental criticism of The New Viennese School was published in The ArtBulletin. Its author Meyer Schapiro unmasked the metaphysical core of the structuralist project of rigorous science of art as articulated in two volumes of the journal

Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen in 1931-1933. According to him, Viennese structuralistsnot only neglect the social, economic, political and ideological factors in art and isolateforms from the historical conditions of their development explaining art as an independentvariable...which has an immanent goal. They also substitute in an animistic manner...mythical, racial-psychological constants...entities like race, spirit, will, and idea...for areal analysis of historical factors...giving them an independent self-evolving career. As aconsequence, theological deductions were prefered by Viennese art historians to anempirical study and a mysterious racial and animistic language was offered in the nameof a higher science of art.

There are no doubts that Schapiros criticism concerning the lack of methodological self-reflection was well-founded. As far as the reproach for mythical constants or mysteriousentities was concerned the situation was a little more complicated. In his paper on RieglSedlmayr explicitly avoided an abstract racialist explanation of the history of art. Accordingto him, Ebensowenig kommen als Trger des Kunstwolens die Volker in rasenmssogenSinn in Betracht; die Verteilung der Stile und ihre Grenzen decken sich nicht mit Grenzen undVerteilung der Volkstumer and instead pleaded for a more concrete sociological approach:Der Trger des Kunstwollens ist vielmehr immer eine bestimmte Gruppe von Menschen, diesehr verschieden gross sein kann. Nevertheless, in the manifesto of Viennese structuralismi.e. in his Towards a Rigorous Study of Art published in 1931 Sedlmayr, referring explicitlyto Otto Pcht, permitted already attempts to work out historical constants or invariants (of anational or regional type, for example) as legitimate objects of art history. In addition, in1936 as Hans Aurenhammer has noticed Sedlmayr started to turn away from theimmanentist structuralist conception of art. In the paper Geschichte und Kunstgeschichtealready from the position of the head of the Institute of Art History at Vienna University,Sedlmayr dissociated himself from Pchts isolationist approach and pleaded for anequilibrium between autonomous and heteronomous art history, and for a synthesis ofstructural analysis of a single artwork and the wider historical interpretation. In no time thenhe adopted the racialist mythical theory conceiving of the work of art as eine Monade, in derdie kunstwirkenden Krfte eines Volks und einer Epoche sich verdichten Despite that, hecontinued his attempt to reconcile his original belief in an individualist nature of art as a product of great masters with the collectivist metaphysical notion of art as an expression of

anonymous collective subjects. As a result, he articulated a theory of a circulation or anexchange between high and low art, claiming that Die Geschichte der hohen Kunst wird einBundnis mit der Geschichte der Volkskunst eingehen.

The Turn to Invariants or Biological Revision

An Stelle von schematischen Entwicklungsreihen ... soll eine Darstellung der realenhistorischen Zusammenhnge treten...die zu den anderen Kultursektoren hinber fhren, wieWirtschaft, Gesellschaft, Religion.(K.M.Swoboda, Neue Aufgaben der Kunstgeschichte, 1934-35)

die kunstgeschichtliche Einheit ... beruht ...auf der Annahme einer weitgehendenAbhngigkeit der Geschichte der Kunst von der politischen Geschichte.(K.M.Swoboda, Zum deutschen Anteil an der Kunst der Sudetenlnder, 1938).


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Erst die allerjngste Kunstgeschichte sucht nach Arbeitsverfahren, die imstande sind, dasrtlich, landschaftlich usw. im historischen Wandel der Stile sich Gleichbleibende, dieknstlerische Konstante eines Ortes, einer Landschaft zu erfahren und zu beschreiben.(K.M.Swoboda, Kunst und Nation, 1936).

Die Fragestellung dazu lautet: Welches ist trotz allem geschichtlichen Wandel der sichgleichbleibende Charakter der Kunst eines Volkes, einer Landschaft, einer Stadt ?(K.M.Swoboda, Neue Aufgaben der Kunstgeschichte, 1934-35).

As it is known today, thanks to H.Aurenhammer above all, Sedlmayrs methodological turnwas the consequence of the shift of his ideological conviction from Austrian catholicmonarchism to Pan-German hegemonic nationalism. At the same time, in the middle of1930s another pupil of Vienna School and a former Dvo' ks assistant K.M.Swoboda noted asimilar methodological change regarded as a general trend of art history at that time. In hisinaugural address at the German University in Prague in 1934 he drew up the new tasks ofart history. Due to the deep changes in art after the First World War, aroused consciosness ofnations, and a large extension of the research field of the history of art, art history was facedwith new problems, according to Swoboda. As a consequence, new concepts and methods anda new theory of art history were urgently needed. Referring to Viennese structuralisms thefirst task of art history was specified by Swoboda as an exact analysis of a single work of artand its artistic structure. Implicitly criticizing Riegls and Dvo' ks evolutionist projectSwoboda opposed it to the schematic constructions of genetic chains that dominated arthistory in the previous period. The second task was defined by him as the study of the realhistorical relations (reale historische Zusammenhnge) of art to all fields of culture,i.e. toeconomy and society or religion.

ReaderWriting Central European Art History

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