Remembering Berlin: Dealing with the politics of memory lecture

9 Mar 2010

The Virginia Tech Humanities Symposium Public Lecture presents Berlin conceptual artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock and "Spectral Traces: The Dark Spaces of Berlin" on Tuesday, March 16, from 5-7 p.m. in Hillcrest Hall.

Stih and Schnock will discuss how the interwoven layers of past and present have turned Berlin into a vast case study on how to deal with memory and history in a democratic society. The lecture is sponsored by the School of Visual Arts Visiting Artist Program; the Collaboration for Creative Technologies in Art and Design; the Alliance of Social, Political, Ethical and Cultural Theory; the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Humanities Symposium Award; the School of Public and International Affairs; the College of Architecture and Urban Studies; University Honors; Foreign Languages and Literatures; the humanities program; and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Renata Stih explores how memory functions in the social sphere and how it is reflected symbolically in the space of the city. She is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, teaching art and technology, pop culture, theatre, film and media, and also works as a film and art critic. Stih is a Rockefeller Fellow and has lectured widely in the United States.

Frieder Schnock is an artist and a doctor of art history. He wrote his thesis on land art; has worked as gallerist, art consultant, designer and art critic; teaches visual studies to film students; and is a former curator at the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. In cooperation with Stih, he specializes in art-in-public-space projects, evaluating post-colonial and human rights issues in the context of collections and urban space. He was a Rockefeller Fellow and has lectured at numerous American colleges and universities.

According to their artistic statement: “Our art is principally devoted to the ways in which the introduction of new media have brought about new modes of seeing and experiencing one's surroundings and to the possibilities of exerting psychological influence through the intrusion of art into the sphere of everyday life. The work has been shaped by studies about how memory functions in the social sphere and how it is reflected symbolically in the space of the city.”

Free parking is available in Hillcrest lot, which can be accessed from Washington Street or Duck Pond Road. Parking is also available in the Engel lot, located off of West Campus Drive, after 5:30 p.m. Find more parking information online or call (540) 231-3200.