Details

Speaker:
Gruia Badescu / Sabine El Chamaa (filmmaker)

Abstract

In his research on post-war reconstruction and memory, Gruia Bădescu reflects on the distinctive trajectories of two cities that some have put together in a category of “conflict cities”: Beirut and Sarajevo. Similar in their Ottoman histories, their imperial makeovers, their religious diversity, the two cities differ in other aspects, including the way they approached the legacies of wars of the late twentieth century: an obsession with memory in Sarajevo and an enforced amnesia in Beirut. The question of contrasting the two cities and embodying experience and memory has also emerged in the work of Lebanese film-maker and scholar Sabine El Chamaa. Beirut- Sarajevo Intersections is a visual project resulting from the collaboration of the Zukunftskolleg research fellow and the filmmaker, funded by the Zukunftskolleg Intersectoral Cooperation Grant. The project examines how the trajectories of these cities intersect, interrogating whether and how their urban histories, memories, and imaginaries mirror each other. Aside from the dialogue between the two cities, the project emerged as a dialogue between approaches: between the one rooted in urban history, architectural hermeneutics and memory studies (Bădescu) and film-making, particularly feminist traditions with a focus on the intimate and the domestic experience of space and memory (El Chamaa). Based on the research and footage in the two cities and on the continuous dialogue between approaches, the event in Konstanz will be a performance lecture, which transcends the traditional academic lecture format, serving as a platform where protagonists transform the lecture into a dynamic space that combines film, storytelling and academic debate, blurring the boundaries between artistic work and scholarly research and reflection.