DESCRIPTION:

Whilst notions of post-memory (Hirsch) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg) have become a critical focus of attention in Holocaust literature, comparatively little attention has been paid to these concepts in the field of visual arts, where artwork by the so-called ‘second generation’ (i.e. children of Jewish refugees or Holocaust survivors) has not been systematically explored. This online symposium therefore aims to set out a new interdisciplinary research agenda, looking at how second-generation (Jewish) artists have engaged with the Holocaust, with the first-generation experience, and with related issues of migration, memory and identity. The event brings together academics from different disciplines as well as artists, curators and educational practitioners, to explore how subjects and themes relating to the second-generation experience have been examined and mediated through visual means in art (painting, drawing, sculpture, print-making, installations, photography and other lens-based media). Discussions will explore the reading and symbolic meaning of key topoi (e.g. cultural heritage, memory, absence, genealogy, migration), genres (e.g. landscapes, portraiture) and material processes (e.g. use of photographs and archival materials) in second-generation art, at an individual and collective level. The event will draw together international perspectives from the UK, the Netherlands, Israel and the USA.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr Glenn Sujo (author and curator of Legacies of Silence: The Visual Arts and Holocaust Memory, Imperial War Museum)

Respondent: Monica Bohm-Duchen (Insiders/Outsiders Festival)

The event will take place on Microsoft Teams and the joining link will be sent out two days before the event.

For full programme and abstracts, please see the School of Arts website here.

The event is generously supported by the Association for Art History (AAH), Cultural Literacy Everywhere (CLE), the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the School of Arts at the University of Leicester. The symposium is open to all and free to attend.

For questions, please contact the organisers: Dr Imogen Wiltshire (iw61@le.ac.uk) and Dr Fransiska Louwagie (fl47@le.ac.uk)

Image copyright: © Monica Petzal