Veranstaltungen

Summer School "A Postcolonial Condition? Art, Literature, Film, and the Everyday in Eastern Europe"

Das Kunstgeschichtliche Seminar und die Osteuropastudien organisieren eine Summer School vom 22.-26. September 2025.

Öffentliche Abendveranstaltungen im Warburg Haus:

Montag, 22. September 2025
18.00–19.30 Evening lecture and in conversation
Coloniality without Colonies. Building the East European Confidence
Joanna Warsza (Stadtkuratorin, Hamburg)

Image credits: Małgorzata Mirga-Tas: Herstories. 2022–ongoing, courtesy of the artist

Dienstag, 23. September 23 2025
18.00–19.30 Evening lecture
“Need I mention every single bird that flies in the face of frontiers”. The German-Polish Border after 1990 in Art, Research and Curatorial Work
Prof. Dr. Burcu Dogramaci (Department of Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich)

Image credits: Anne Peschken and Marek Pisarsky: Brückenschlag / Mosty. 2022, two-channel video installation, courtesy of the artists

Donnerstag, 25. September 2025
18.00–19.30 Film screening and talk
Where Russia Ends. Cinematic Essay (Ukraine 2023, 25 minutes)
Oleksiy Radynski (Artist, filmmaker, Kyiv), Philipp Goll (Author, critic, Berlin)

Image credits: Still from Where Russia Ends (Ukraine 2023). Courtesy of Oleksiy Radynski

A Postcolonial Condition? Art, Literature, Film, and the Everyday in Eastern Europe

22.–26. September 2025
Warburg-Haus, Heilwigstrasse 116, 20249 Hamburg

Organised by Marina Gerber, Petra Lange-Berndt, Anja Tippner, Eastern European / Slavic Studies and Department of History of Art, Universität Hamburg.

Decolonial and postcolonial studies play a major role in Eastern Europe both in theory and in aesthetic practices such as art, literature, film, and visual and material culture. The resulting shift in perspective, especially since 1989, has shed light on peripheral actors and non-hegemonic positions. Debates about decolonisation have increasingly been shaped by the need to examine imperial structures, by site-sensitive approaches and by a re-examination of Eurocentric points of view. These debates have gained new urgency since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and the ensuing war. Important questions remain, however, about whether and how theories of decolonisation developed with other geographies in mind relate to Eastern Europe and exploring these can offer pertinent insights for the wider debate. The diversity of post-socialist spaces, which extend from Central Europe through the Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine to Central Asia, provides material for comparison in the light of different geopolitical, environmental and political constellations.

This Summer School will focus on these recent discussions and explore the following questions: Can post-socialist conditions be described as postcolonial? Or do we need to go further back in history and think about postcoloniality in Eastern Europe as a post-imperial space? If so, what might the decolonisation of Eastern Europe look like? What is the relationship between postcolonial, post-socialist and post-imperial dynamics? What role can the arts play in these processes? Which aesthetic practices can be described as decolonising? How do authors and artists develop alternative modes for situating themselves as Eastern European? How do postcolonial approaches adapt to cultural and historical experience and to new political conditions in the regions?