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From a Regional Historical Event to a Place of National Memory: Batak and Constructions of History in Bulgaria

CAS 24/04/2007

The Institute for East-European Studies at the Free University of Berlin and The National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS, Sofia

organise:




  •  an exhibition “Batak as a Place of Memory”, within the project of the Institute for East-European Studies on the topic of “Islam as an Inimical Image. History and Present of the Anti-Muslim Stereotypes in Bulgaria and the Batak Massacre Myth”,
    18 May –17 June 2007.National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS,
    6A Moskovska Str., Sofia.



  • and a conference, held on the occasion of the exhibition’s opening on the topic of “From a Regional Historical Event to a Place of National Memory: Batak and Constructions of History in Bulgaria”,
    17 May 2007. National Ethnographic Institute and Museum at BAS,
    6A Moskovska Str., Sofia.




Тhe 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.

Project Director: Ulf Brunnbauer
Concept and Organisation: Martina Baleva
A catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.


2006 (cc) Creative Commons License. A project of the Centre for Advanced Study, financed by Bulgarian Ministry of Science and Education.
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