The Institute for East-European Studies at the Free University of Berlin and The National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS, Sofia
organise:
Òhe initiative is carried out with the kind support of:
The International joint projects support programme „Historical Workshop Europe” of the “Remembrance and Future” Fund of the "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" Foundation and the The Robert Bosch Foundation, the Institute for East-European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, the National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the Goethe Institute Bulgaria and the Polish Institute Bulgaria
The town of Batak and the massacre of its population in 1876 stand among the central memory places of the Bulgarian nation. The event is an inseparable part of both the memory about “the Turkish slavery” and the heroic Bulgarian struggle for liberation. However, a deeper investigation into the mechanisms of constructing the collective memory of the Batak massacre unveils some different layers of meaning. The part that images have played in representing the 1876 events constitutes a special point of interest.
The Bulgarian-German conference “From a Regional Historical Event to a Place of National Memory: Batak and Constructions of History in Bulgaria” focuses on the problems of constructing the visual representation of the Batak massacre as a Bulgarian place of memory and of the different interpretations of the event as well as the issue of the political instrumentalisation of memory. At the same time, the conference accompanies the exhibition “Batak as a Place of Memory” which will be displayed from 18 May through 17 June 2007 at the National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS, Sofia.
Conference Programme
/18 May –17 June 2007. National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS, Sofia, 6A Moskovska Str., Sofia/
9.00 – 9.10 a.m. Rachko Popov (Director of The National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS)
Opening and Introduction
9.10 – 9.40 a.m. Ìînica Flacke (German Historical Museum, Berlin)
Nations’ Myths and Islam
9.50 – 10.20 a.m. Ìàrtina Baleva (Arts Critic, Berlin / Sofia)
Batak and the Role of Images in Constructing a National Memory
10.30 – 11.00 a.m. Pause
11.00 – 11.20 a.m. Åvgenia Ivanova (New Bulgarian University, Sofia)
The Batak Massacre as a Traumatic Identification
11.30 – 11.50 a.m. Àlexander Vezenkov (Historian, Sofia)
Local Dimensions of the 1876 Uprising
12.00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break
1:30 – 1:50 p.m. Ulf Brunnbauer (Institute for East-European Studies of the Free University, Berlin)
“The Mountain” as a Mythical Place of National Liberation Struggles
2.00 – 2.20 p.m. Rumen Daskalov (New Bulgarian University, Sofia / Central European University, Budapest)
The Renaissance as a National Myth
2.30 – 3.00 p.m. Pause
3.00 – 3.20 p.m.Åvgenia Troeva (National Ethnographic Institute at BAS, Sofia)
Remembering Batak. Pomaks’ Memories of the April 1976 Uprising
3.30 – 3.50 p.m. Iva Filipova (National Ethnographic Institute at BAS, Sofia)
Memory, Power and Resistance. A Pomak Community in Northern Bulgaria
4.00 – 4.20 p.m. Ålya Tsaneva (National Ethnographic Institute at BAS, Sofia)
Historical Time and the Metamorphoses of the Batak Relic – the “St. Nedelya” Church. From a Temple and Museum to an Exhibition Complex.
4.30 – 15.00 p.m. Closing Discussion
6.00 p.m. Îfficial inauguration of the exhibition:
“Batak as a Place of Memory”,
National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS,
6A Moskovska Str., Sofia.
Project Director: Ulf Brunnbauer
Concept and Organisation: Martina Baleva
A catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.