From military sites to exhibitionary arenas in Poland and Latvia, 2015-2019

• Authors: Dagnosław Tadeusz Demski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the last years mass tourism has become, alongside with previous forms constituting ‘exhibitionary complex’ (Bennett 2004), an element affecting the formation of cultural institutions. The present analysis is based on four examples of grand post-military objects (established in the 19th and 20th centuries) transformed with the use of diverse techniques and now serving functions of a non-military character. The common denominator of the post-military territories presented in the text is the fact that all of them have become a peculiar ‘exhibitionary arena’. I attempt to demonstrate that post-military territories which bear resemblance with respect to former functions and infrastructure, i.e. size and passage of time since their establishment, condition and substantiality, are currently going through various processes of transformation. Within these processes they have been ascribed with different values which are created by practices transforming sites. The notion of the politics of memory is also taken into account.

Keywords

EN

post-military base; exhibitionary complex; authenticity; experience; knowledge; memory politics; participatory turn; Poland; Latvia

Discipline

• ETHNOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Český lid: etnologický časopis (Český lid: Ethnological journal)
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 106
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 491-514
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Dagnosław Tadeusz Demski

• Český lid, redakce, Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic