Ethics of Display

12/07/2022 | ART AND SOCIETY

10:00 - 13:00 GMT, Online 

The material past lives and lived testimonies of victims of genocide and human rights abuses frequently form a central part of the narratives of violence in Holocaust and Genocide Museums and other sites of memory. However, the use of victims' testimonies, personal artifacts, photographs and even in some cases physical remains poses questions about the ethics of display. Firstly, to what extent might this process re-victimise? Secondly, do museums have a moral duty towards the dead they display? Thirdly, how should museums store, handle and display both human remains and personal artifacts? These are merely a few of the myriad moral questions that researchers and museum staff must deal with in their everyday encounters with remains.

Hosted by the Peace and Conflict Cultural Network this symposium will explore this contested space, with contributions from Tali Nates, director of the Johannesburg Genocide Centre, Dr. Zuzanna Dziuban of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Elma Hodžić of the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and James Bulgin, Director of Public History at the Imperial War Museum.

In addition, we will explore possible themes and ideas for the 'Why Remember?' international conference as part of the symposium and invite both past participants and those wishing to attend in 2023 to engage with the Steering Committee of the Peace and Conflict Culture Network to assist in shaping the call for papers for the 2023 conference.

The Peace and Conflict Culture Network is an international network that facilitates connections between academics, practitioners and cultural sector workers, and mobilise arts and social institutions engaged in peace, conflict and cultural discourse.

The network will foreground the contribution of academics and institutions from post conflict societies in particular from the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the Great Lakes region, Lebanon and the Middle East and Colombia and Latin America.

The Peace and Conflict Culture Network is convened by University of the Arts London and funded by the AHRC. The organising team consists of Professor Liliana Gómez, University of Kassel; Dr Paul Lowe, PARC and London College of Communication; Dr Nela Milic, PARC and London College of Communication; Professor Kenneth Morrison, De Montfort University.