I participated in the international Histories in Conflict conference, the biennial meeting of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN), held this year in Jerusalem. Its starting point was:
“On the 50-year anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the contentious unification it legislated, we ask how can historians account for the predicaments of violence and uneven distributions of power in the built environment, particularly in the face of current worldwide geopolitical crises?
The conference aimed to open up questions about the purpose of writing histories of urban conflicts. At the heart of the conference was the question of how eruptions of strife shape architectural and urban histories; and reciprocally, how larger architectural and planning processes, along with the histories that register their impact, intervene in the predicament of conflict.”
There I presented the paper Forget to remember: art, activism, and preservation of conflictual sites. This presentation discusses issues related to preserving sites of conflict through artistic projects that propose new approaches to history and reflect on traumatic memories. I argue that the arts participate in contemporary processes of occupying public space and formulate alternative policies for preserving memory. Without seeking to celebrate the past, reconcile it with the present or redeem it for the future, artists and activists open up possibilities for writing the history of sites of conflict.