Second international event

On Friday, September 25, 2020, the second international event of the project Breaching the walls was held. We do need education! titled BREACHING THE WALLS: PROJECT IN THE TIME OF SETTING NEW BARRIERS AND WALLS

After the event at the University of Bielefeld last December, and the break in international activities due to the covid-19 pandemic, the second appointment was organized by the Institute of Contemporary History in Prague, which after several months of work presented some of the results of the project that emerged from the collection of interviews, including methodological problems and pitfalls that had to be faced due to the pandemic.

During the webinar, the documentary YOUTH TO YOUTH: THE FREEDOM MOSAIC (2019) was also presented, telling a mosaic of narratives from former students who participated in the 1989 revolutions. The documentary captures their memories of the late 1980s in Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution and the following decades and shows how storytellers interpreted the 1990s – both euphorically and critically – as the beginning of the new millennium and our present. The interviews are completed by a period film and historical comments. The documentary was made in 2019 in collaboration with Czech television and the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The Webinar was also an opportunity to comment on Pierre Alozie’s photos from the exhibition Europe in Flux, organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and held at the 12 Star Gallery in London, inside the Europe House, home of the European Commission and European Parliament representation in the United Kingdom. The photographs capture not only the euphoria of that surprising night in Berlin, but also the struggles and suffering that followed in different parts of Europe after the fall of the communist regime.

The conclusions are then entrusted to Paolo Capuzzo, professor at the University of Bologna, Department of History, Culture and Civilization.

All project partners are involved in the webinar and will participate with interventions.

LINK TO FOLLOW THE WEBINAR REGISTRATION: https://youtu.be/u5SPHFMCYNU

Here is the program:

INTRODUCTION • h. 14:30 – 15:00
Lenka Krátká, Institute of Contemporary History; Czech Academy of Sciences) and Welcome from Gramsci Foundation
Jana Wohlmuth Markupova, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University Key note speaker: Meaning of 17th November 1989 in the Memory of Former Student Protagonists in Czech Republic  

Section I • h. 15:00 – 15:45 BEFORE and AFTER
Roberto Ventresca, Gramsci Foundation Reflection on the collection of interviews in Italy
Teresa Malice, Gramsci Foundation Reflection on the collection of interviews in Germany
Klaus Bushi, Municipality of Tirana Project experiences in Albania
Mateush Pawlikowski, History Meeting House Warsaw Project experiences in Poland
Lenka Krátká, Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences Reflection on the collection of interviews in the Czech Republic  

Section II • h. 15:45 – 16:15 DOCUMENTARY FILM YOUTH TO YOUTH: THE FREEDOM MOSAIC  

Section III • h. 16:15 – 17:00 BREACHING THE WALLS – INTERVIEW INTERPRETATION
Roberto Ventresca, Gramsci Foundation
Teresa Malice, Gramsci Foundation
Lorena Shele, Municipality of Tirana
Mateush Pawlikowski, History Meeting House Warsaw
Lenka Kratka, Institute of Contemporary History Comments by the colleagues from the University of Bielefeld  

Section IV • h. 17:00 – 17:15 PROJECT “IN PICTURES”  

CONCLUDING REMARKS • h. 17:15 – 17:45
Paolo Capuzzo, Gramsci Foundation; Full Professor of Contemporary History and Head of Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna