East-West Cultural Relations: Interplay of Arts and Cultural Diplomacy 1945-2017

Venue: Jyväskylä, Finland
Period: 24-25 February 2017

The conference is part of the project Trauma & Revival, which showcases and reflects on the East-West cultural connections since the Second World War, by bringing together artworks and artists from both the former Soviet Union, East and Western Europe, from the past and present. The project is coordinated by the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR) and co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. The project began in June 2016 and will last until the end of 2018.

In the heart of the project is an exhibition, which brings together art from the East and the West from years 1945-68 and by that aims to look into the art history and cultural connections between the different sides of the divided Europe. The usual canon of modern art becomes problematized when artistic creation, discoveries and art history of Eastern Europe is presented alongside with the Western modern classics. The exhibition was opened in Brussels in June 2016 and will travel in the course of the project to Germany and Russia. You can read more about the Brussels exhibition here.

Besides the conference in Jyväskylä, there will be a conference in Krakow in 2017 as well as several roundtables in Brussels and Moscow dealing with similar questions. The contribution of these events is an open discussion about the cultural history and diplomacy of the East and the West as well as reflection how this shared history is seen in the present-day Europe.

8:30 Registration and Opening of the Conference

9:15-11:30 Panel Session 1
1-1: Exhibitions in Cold War Era Cultural Diplomacy 1
1-2: Music and Cultural Diplomacy in and after the WWII
1-3: State Perspective on Cultural Diplomacy
11:30-13:00 Keynote: Giles Scott-Smith

14:00-15:30 Panel Session 2
2-1: Yves Montand in the USSR
2-2: Windows East and West
2-3: In-between East and West

16:00-18:00 Panel Session 3
3-1: Exhibitions in Cold War Era Cultural Diplomacy 2
3-2: Popular Music in East-West Setting
3-3: Cultural Diplomacy and Arts in Present Context
19:00 Reception at the City Hall

9:00-11:30 Panel Session 4
4-1: Films in Cultural Encounters
4-2: Germany between East and West
4-3: Traveling and Views “from the other Side”
11:30-13:00 Keynote: Boris Gasparov

14:00-16:00 Panel Session 5
5-1: Architecture and Avant-garde
5-2: Music and Mobility during the Cold War
5-3: Organising the East-West Connections

16:30-18:00 Concluding Roundtable

You can register to the conference HERE.

Registration is open until 1 February 2017.

There is no registration fee.

The best way to get in touch with us is by email: ewcr2017@gmail.com.  You can also reach us at phone number: +358 40 805 3754, but we might not be able to answer the phone immediately.