Volume 5, Issue 2

The term “curation” has taken on a host of meanings beyond the museum context. While there are marked differences between its meanings – including the specific act of exhibition-making as well as the act of keeping and tending to an existing collection in a museum – we here specifically foreground curation as a social process of selecting and negotiating various forms of (embodied) performances in public, transcending institutionalized contexts such as museums. We argue that, when combined with the idea of counter-narratives, the concept of curation can elucidate aspects of social practices and open up a useful heuristic for the analysis of representations and performances in the public sphere. Since these practices make extensive use of imaginaries of the past, this approach is suitable for combining perspectives from public history and anthropology.

Historical reenactment has developed from a niche phenomenon to a global one over the past couple of decades. As a popular pastime it sparks enthusiasm and curiosity for past lifeworlds among the reenactors themselves as well as among the audiences. With its focus on restaging battles and combat, the reenactment environment is a predominantly male one. This article examines female practices of reenactment in a Polish reenactment group. It aims to not only add to the existing body of literature on female reenactors, but to further pinpoint the extent to which the concept of curation helps expand and deepen the understanding of reenactment practices both in general and with regard to female participation. The focus is on female-to-male cross-dressing, interpreted as an ambiguous practice which allows for both the deconstruction of normative gender performances and their stabilization.

The exhibition MapsUrbe: The invisible City (December 2018 – January 2019) staged the creations of young Mapuche artists and activists addressing the politics and history of the indigenous diaspora in Santiago (Chile). Engaging with urban space materiality and the trajectories shaped by displacement and endurance within the city, the exhibition explored subversive aesthetics and political imaginations, crafting alternative spatialities and temporalities. Building on two years of collaborative work with Mapuche artists and activists, and moving from an initial act of generative refusal, this paper explores a redefinition of curatorial practices within collective artistic projects that aim at opposing dominant historical narratives. By reflecting on an experience of collective co-curation, it shows how these practices challenge established and institutionalized narratives embedded in public spaces, resulting in creative appropriations and powerful counter-narratives ‘on our own terms.’

Dark academia is an ‘internet aesthetic,’ an aesthetic style used in posts on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Tumblr that resonates the atmosphere of life in boarding schools, prep schools, and (Ivy League) colleges from the last decades of the nineteenth century up until the 1940s. It expresses a fascination with (neo-)gothic architecture; with tweed, lace, wool, and leather; with literature and art, and Romantic longing. Having been a main trend on social media platforms throughout the coronavirus pandemic, dark academia captures and facilitates cultural engagement in times of social isolation and closed college campuses. This article studies the dark academia aesthetic as a mnemonic curatorial practice with tendencies to counter hegemonic norms and narratives. Focusing on the affective dimensions of dark academia, this article argues that the aim of this internet aesthetic is to annul historical distance by capturing a mood and atmosphere associated with early twentieth-century campuses through the means of curated social media representations. This de-historicization allows for the renegotiation of values, like inscribing queerness – associated with secret queer romantics at gender-divided schools – into its representational language, without having to reassert historical gender binaries.

My research looks into the revitalization of Miao origin myths in the West Hunan minority ethnic autonomous prefecture in China. Based on two years of fieldwork and archival studies, I propose that West Hunan people’s active perception and interpretation of origin myths and folklore of the Miao people comprise and emphasize curational practices of restructuring historical narratives with a special focus on counter-narrativization. I argue that these efforts challenge lineal historical narration by providing counter-curational perspectives. Interpretations of myths and folklore over the issue of Miao identity reveal curations and counter-curations carried out by different institutions and individuals out of various political and social concerns. Overall, the recent revitalization of origin stories about the Heavenly Kings and the various presentations of Miao origin myths demonstrate the fluidity of minority ethnic identity, which combines the construction of linear history (military/political expansion and Sinicization, when non-Han societies came under the influences of Han culture, language, and ethnic identity) and the construction of mythic history (conveying principles and morality). My case studies illustrates counter-curational practices carried out by individuals and local cultural institutions, which lead to restructuring of historical narratives and counter-curational interpretations of minority ethnic cultures.

Performing history has become immensely popular in China since the dawn of the twenty-first century. What is exactly the cultural impulse behind the massive craze for performing history in China? Premised on history being one of many modes of representation of the past, and performance being one of them, this article argues that performing history through reenactment, an expression of cultural memory mediated and remediated in the present, is a new form of public history in China. The democratic impulse enacted by such a performance can nurture serious discussions on historical issues, cultivate a shared interpretive authority, and shape historical consciousness of the ordinary Chinese.

This discussion’s participants – all public historians working on Russia, albeit from different disciplinary backgrounds and with different areas of expertise – speak about the past and the present of (public) history in the country, and touch upon possible futures. Beginning with an acknowledgment of the immense interest in historical knowledge that characterized the 1990s, the conversation goes on to examine the rise of the official historical politics in Putin’s Russia and their impact on historical science, memory work, and public engagement with the past more broadly. These developments contextualize the establishment of the first public history programs at Russian universities in the early 2010s, discussed here both in their specificities and compared to other countries. At the heart of the conversation is the war of aggression that Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022. The participants of the discussion see it as a caesura, while at the same highlighting continuities in the regime’s historical politics before and after the invasion. Issues of postcolonialism and decolonization are also raised, as well as the question of (public) historians’ responsibility for the ongoing tragedy.