The 1930s Today: The Avant-Gardes in Times of Political Escalation
Workshop at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics.
Gustaf Munch-Petersen, Panter og kvinde, 1934.
This multidisciplinary network brings together researchers from avant-garde and cultural studies with an interest in the role of art and culture in times of political escalation. Starting from avant-garde studies, the network will engage critically with the widespread analogies between the 1930s and contemporary cultural and political currents, and explore how avant-garde legacies influence our reception of the 1930s in art and culture today. We investigate how the historical avant-gardes were affected by reactionary political forces in the 1930s, whether from Moscow, Berlin, or Tokyo, and how to assess, from a current-day viewpoint, the impact these forces had on avant-garde aesthetics.
Programme
Tuesday 3 June
| 09:30 | Welcome |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | TravelandTrauma BenediktHjartarsson (Reykjavik University) Andrea Kollnitz (Stockholm University) |
| 11:00 | Coffee |
| 11:30 –13:00 | Revolution, Violence and Leadership Kari Brandtzaeg (Munch Museum, Oslo) Sami Sjöberg (University of Jyväskylä) Harri Veivo (Université de Caen) |
| 13:00 – 14:30 | Lunch |
| 15:00 – 17:00 | Presentation of the network |
Wednesday 4 June
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Poetics of Liberation Marianne Ølholm (independent scholar) Tania Ørum (University of Copenhagen) |
| 10:30 | Coffee |
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Memory and Ecology Laura Luise Schultz (University of Copenhagen) Kristoffer Noheden (Stockholm University) |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Concluding discussion and planning of anthology |
| 13:00 | Lunch |
Last updated: 2026-05-15
Source: Department of Culture and Aesthetics