kultura sjećanja / remembrance culture
Successful start of the project “Staring at Goats. Propaganda, Scapegoating and the Other 1918-2018”
From 14-19. October 2018 in Weimar the kick-off meeting of partners within the project “Staring at goats. Propaganda, scapegoating and the Other 1918-2018˝ took place. In a project funded through the European Union's "Europe for Citizens" program, Documenta is one of five partner organizations. The grant-holder of the project is the association Culture Goes Europe from Erfurt, which on this occasion also hosted a meeting. Other partner organizations in the project are the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory from Estonia, UMAR from Portugal and the United Societies of the Balkans from Greece.
The aim of the project is critical dealing with the process of creating the identity of the Other throughout history, with a focus on the last 100 years. Special attention will be paid to the construction and political instrumentalization of the Other and the Different with the aim of social and political mobilization in authoritarian and totalitarian orders. The subject of analysis are primary historical sources like photographs, newspaper articles, posters and films.
By combining the methods of non-formal education and international public campaign, the continuities of the past with the present will be pointed out and the mechanisms of construction of Others that are still current and ubiquitous will be pointed out. The project seeks to encourage citizens to reflect on their own discriminatory and exclusive practices, to make them aware and critically question them, and to avoid using them in the future.
The aim of the working meeting in Weimar was to design and elaborate the course of the project and all its activities. Over the course of five days, representatives of partner organizations discussed the upcoming steps in the implementation of the project. During the winter, the partners will work on the preparation of a one-week international spring school that will bring together 45 participants interested in the project topic in March.