Bendruomenių atmintis šiuolaikinio meno projektuose

Abstract

One of the most important topics that arise in many art projects based on the aesthetic of participation is communal history and memory. This article reveals the origins of the role communities play in contemporary culture, discusses the causes of the current “memory boom”, and evaluates the significance of memory culture in the nurture of civic society and creation of communities’ collective consciousness. Moreover, the article discusses the dual nature of memory — its ability to encourage memory wars as well as its ability to facilitate reconciliation and the establishment of justice. The text also pays attention to counter-memory’s potential for conflict and change, and analyzes those strains of contemporary art which grant an important role to communal memory. The study discussed in the article reveals that art projects which analyze the memory of communities or localities do not just simply participate in the social process of remembering and contribute to what is remembered and how. These art projects become a type of mnemonic practice, objectivizing memory. Most of these art projects create narratives which function as counter-memory, i.e. they analyze the memories of social and ethnic minorities, the suppressed, forgotten, and marginalized histories which are excluded from the field of collective or cultural memory. Memory often becomes a means of historical and social justice, encouraging reconciliation and the possibility of dialogue. However, memory can likewise become a catalyst for conflict and confrontation. Lithuanian artists tend to avoid exploring conflicting memories and rarely have the resolve to talk about the memories of ethnic, social and other kinds of minorities. Therefore, they often operate in a safe cultural context, eschewing the foray into contested territories.