Seminar on "Post-War Memory" April 1th

The Seminar on Post-War Memory invite you to listen to Michaela Howse : "How can we work on memorialization from a personal perspective?"

Abstract : Breaking Porcelain is a personal journey in the curatorship of inherited porcelain shards. A Meissen porcelain collection, once belonging to my great, great grandparents – German Jewish collectors in Dresden – was stolen by the Nazis, partly lost and partly bombed in the firebombing of Dresden, later in part recovered from the destruction, and then further held in East Germany until the remains of the collection, a great deal of it broken, were finally returned to the family. Broken and scarred, the porcelain fragments I have inherited serve as memorials that bear the evidence of their complex pasts. At the heart of the curatorial project lies the intention to understand the value and relevance of these porcelain fragments today. This involves exploration into the contexts that informed them during their history as well as appreciation of the effects they have had on people’s lives in the recent past.