The annual conference of the International Committee of memorial Museums in remembrance of the victims of Public Crimes (IC-MEMO) will focus on the influence of memorial museums on shaping personal and collective memory, and on the intergenerational transmission of memory – how arts reflect different zeitgeists and express them. The meeting will take place in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem from October 14 to 18. On October 13, a pre-conference evening reception will be held at the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfusot in Tel-Aviv.
The keynote lecture will be delivered by James Young, Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies of the University of Massachusetts. The conference will be developed around three topics:
- Topic 1: “Memory, Art, and Identity” Special Conference Theme
Taking into account the relevance of remembering the past and what influence memorialization can have on the way a society moves forward from trauma and loss, we wonder:
WHAT is the role of the artistic language on memorialization, democratization, and justice?
How does your institution incorporate art to help shape collective memory of the past? Could you elaborate examples of how your museum /memorial leverage art, art production, and art collections to assist in healing our society from public crimes?
Can art HELP transform tacit knowledge of a public crime (hidden knowledge known only to an individual) to explicit knowledge (knowledge that is articulated and becomes embedded in the fabric of cultural memory)? In particular, how can art and artists revolutionize the way in which personal stories become a part of public histories?
- Topic 2: Memory Building through global Justice Departments & Courts
- Topic 3: The Eichmann Trial: Lessons from different world perspectives