Report: Present pasts, a European Observatory on Memories

The support of the European Commission to the project “Present pasts. A European Observatory on Memories” was highly positive for the strengthening of the EUROM network, led by the University of Barcelona Solidarity Foundation, and for the promotion of remembrance policies among the European society. Seven activities were developed between 2017 and 2019, such as conferences, publications, study trips and artistic performances with the aim to reach a wide audience.

Event 1 – All along the Watchtower

• Participation: The event involved  48 citizens, including 3 participants from the city of  Barcelona(Spain), 45 participants from the city of Berlin (Germany)
• Location / Dates: The event took place in Berlin, Germany, from  01/09/2018 to 31/09/2018
• Short description:  The aim of the event was to prepare a multimedia performance that will contribute to the upcoming commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall in 2019.

Event 2 –  Study trips and networking

• Participation: The event involved 50 citizens, including 14 participants from the city of Barcelona (Spain), 09 participants from the city of Pamplona (Navarra), 09 participants from the city of Lisbon (Portugal), 02 participants from the city of Warsaw (Poland), 02 participants from the city of Amsterdam, 02 participants from the city of Andorra la Vella (Andorra), 01 participants from Bordeaux (France), 02 participants from Sort (Spain).
• Location / Dates: The six meetings and study trips took place in Florence (Italy) from  03/12/2018 to 04/12/2018, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) from 05/12/2017 to 08/12/2017, Brussels (Belgium)  from 28/11/2018 to 28/11/2018, Pamplona (Spain) from 07/03/2018 to 10/03/2018, Lisbon (Portugal) from 28/10/2017  to 29/10/2017, Solsona (Spain) from 14/06/2018 to 15/06/2018.
• Short description:  The aim of the meetings and study visits was to promote analysis and discussion on how remembrance policies are being developed in different parts of Europe as well as assessing different memory initiatives promoted by governments or civil society. The EUROM team also participated in conferences organized by its partners and several meetings including those held in Brussels by the EACEA and the European Commission.

Event 3 – The Frog Hibernation. Ten years of Laws and Memory Policies

• Participation: The event involved  136 citizens, including over 100 participants from the city of Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Pamplona, Palma de Mallorca, Salamanca. Tarragona, Gerona, Vitoria  (Spain),  01 participant from Athens (Greece), 01 participant from Grosseto (Italy), 01 participant from Toulouse (France).
• Location / Dates: The event took place in Barcelona (Spain), from 28/11/2018  to 30/11/2018
• Short description: The international congress addressed the uses, abuses, successes, and omissions that occurred in Spain and Catalonia in the last decade in terms of memory policies. Foreign experts presented different cases to compare the local situation with other European countries. The program included the main conference and two parallel sessions for scientific communications.

Event 4 – Traveling Seminar in Romania

• Participation: The event involved 26 citizens, including 18 participants from the city of Bucharest (Romania) and 08 participants from the city of Barcelona (Spain).
• Location / Dates: The event took place in Bucharest and Jilava (Romani), from 13/03/2019  to 14/03/2019.
• Short description:  The aim of the traveling seminar was to introduce students and scholars to the memory of the Holocaust in Romania and its traces, as well as to the memorialization of the communist past, both at the official level and in what concerns to memory sites.

Event 5 – Online Memories

• Participation: The first stage involved 15 citizens, including 03 participants from the city of Lyon (France), 03 participants from the city of Leuven (Brussels), 5 participants from the city of Madrid (Spain), and 04 participants from the city of Barcelona (Spain).
• Location / Dates: The project took place in Madrid and Barcelona (Spain), from 01/03/2019 to 10/04/2019.
• Short description:  The goal of this project is to keep track of the messages and the behavior of social media users regarding certain European commemorations and emerging memorial debates.

Event 6 – Left in Southern Europe 1968-1982

• Participation: The event involved 27 citizens from the city of Barcelona (Spain).
• Location / Dates: The event took place in Barcelona (Spain) on March 19/04/2018.
• Short description:  The aim of this roundtable and cine-forum was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the social revolutions that sparked in 1968, discussing the role of the Trade Unions, the students’ movements and other organizations in the revolutionary events, as well as the transformations that emerged in Southern Europe countries in the late 1960s till the 1980s.

Event 7 – Publications

• Participation: The second issue of the magazine Observing Memories involved 32 citizens, including participants from the city of Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Madrid (Spain), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Büren (Germany), Oxford (UK), Paris (France), Heidelberg (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Leuven (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Tallinn (Estonia), Ithaca (United States). The book “Ten years of laws and policies of memory” involved 25 participants from Barcelona (Spain), Bordeaux (France)
• Location / Dates: The magazine was produced in Barcelona, from March 2018 to November 2018. The book was published in February 2019.
• Short description:  The 2nd issue of the magazine “Observing Memories” addressed the role of the perpetrators: how the discourses around them are changing, what treatments are given to the legacies of former dictatorships, etc.