Critical Revealing of Communist Heritage in the V4 region, Ukraine and Georgia
Implementation period of project:
July 2023 — December 2024
Description:
The project is based on a common interest of the partners in the vanishing cultural heritage of the second half of the 20th century. The project countries are united by a common communist past, even though the situation in each of them was different, as it is reflected in the diverse topics of the pilot activities.
Traditional cultural and memory institutions do not pay enough attention to this period and, in many cases, they do not deal with that at all. Moreover, now we are in a situation where the last witnesses of this history are passing away, and with them their memories and narratives. On top of that, the tangible cultural heritage, especially the architecture, is endangered by the current urban development or, in the case of Ukraine, by the war. We want to point out that with a bigger involvement of independent cultural organizations in mapping, researching, and critical reflection, we will be able to partially overcome these problems.
The project will initiate sharing of knowledge and experiences on the creative presentation of communist history among independent cultural centers or similar actors in Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Ukraine and Georgia. Each of the partners identified a disappearing complex of cultural heritage that was specific to the communist period in their territory: forced evictions of the Roma minority (SK), industrial bread making as an essential mission in the Soviet Union (GE), Soviet industrial heritage of the Donbas region (UA), the internment of the nuns in the Broumov monastery (CZ) and colleges for advanced studies as boosters of freedom in communism (HU).
Illustrative photo: Azovstal iron and steel factory © Chad Nagle, Licence CC