Conference topics

Techniques, technologies and actions on matter

Has the history and anthropology of techniques, which were in favor in most Balkan countries at the time of historical materialism, fallen into disuse? The aim is to show the vitality of this field of research, which extends from the extraction of raw materials to the manufacture of technical objects by industry or handicrafts, and to the challenges of new technologies.

Materials, energies, flows 

Materiality conjures up relationships with environments and the various biotic and abiotic elements that make them up. Whether mineral, vegetable or animal entities, energies or substances, the elements of the natural world are the subject of multiple cultural representations and social uses.

Biographies, social lives and itineraries of things

Material culture is made up of an infinite number of artifacts, which often have different lives, between their use value, their symbolic dimension, their obsolescence and their possible second life or transmission. These systems of object have technical, political and economic characteristics that tell us a great deal about the societies that produce and consume them.

Collecting, museographing, exhibiting

The REB at Mucem will provide an opportunity to reflect on the status of materiality in museum collections and activities. What do museum objects tell us about Balkan societies? How do museum institutions relate to their own objects, and how are their practices shaped or transformed?

Memorial and heritage objects

Beyond museums, heritage and memorial processes involve multiple objects (from the most everyday artifacts to the most emblematic monuments) and act on their material characteristics as well as their symbolic value. How does the notion of materiality enrich our understanding of these processes, and of what materials are heritage and memory made?

 Architecture, urbanism, spaces

How do built environments influence and reflect cultural and social practices, as well as political and technical choices that generate morphologies and transform spaces? How do their production and use contribute to the materialization of power relationships, social ties and cultural representations that run through the city?

Infrastructure, equipment and development 

Infrastructures (roads, engineering structures, industrial facilities, energy complexes, etc.) are the subject of intense contemporary reflection, which questions the materiality of the development of societies (transport, communication, production, etc.). What about these objects that are as much synonymous with technical power as they leave deep marks on the environment?

Systems of objects, production and consumption

Economies, lifestyles and consumption practices are embodied in objects that are part of exchanges, endowed with value and price, used and manipulated, preserved and destroyed. How are these functional or pleasurable objects designed, produced and displayed, commodified, twisted and reused?

Ecology, environment and milieus 

Environmental issues are becoming increasingly acute in the Balkans as elsewhere, and are the subject of innovative research, as illustrated by a recent issue of the journal Balkanologie. How does materiality enable us to grasp ecological issues, whether in terms of the relationship between humans and non-humans, the preservation of resources, or current processes for taking environments into account (recycling, biomimicry, “sustainable development”, etc.)?

Materials, circulation and mobility 

Objects circulate and move as much as (and with) humans, following economic, migratory and political logics of varying scales, from short circuits to massive forms of distribution. These circulations also generate cultural encounters and hybridizations.

Arts, crafts and creation

Whether pictorial, literary, plastic or audiovisual, artistic and intellectual creation is rooted in materiality. It is the product of modes and worlds of production that nourish aesthetics and imaginations as much as social distinctions. These works embody, express and communicate forms of thought and life experience, creating meaning and emotions.

(Inter)cultural materials, between identity and otherness

From clothing to food, as well as various technical, aesthetic and ritual artifacts, many objects embody cultural, ethnic and religious affiliations. These “identity” objects can be claimed, disputed, contested or rejected as stigmatizing, enabling the affirmation and negotiation of interactions between communities and social groups.

Objects of power, power of objects

Ideologies and political regimes are expressed through specific materialities, charged with power and endowed with authority. Some objects embody institutions, forms of government and administration, legitimacy and sovereignty. Others illustrate counter-powers and resistances, including by circumventing, subverting or reversing the material codes of power.

Gender, generation, class 

Do objects have a gender, an age, a social class? Objects affect the people who handle them, indicating relationships of gender, generation and class. Anything but neutral, their physical characteristics and uses are the result of socially learned skills, reflecting status and position, situating individuals and the “qualities” they ascribe to themselves or that are assigned to them.

Sensoriality, bodies and perceptions

Sensory approaches are intrinsically concerned with materiality: the senses are as much a mode of knowledge through physical experience as they are a culturally constructed way of experiencing emotions and formulating judgments. The incorporation of objects calls into question bodily techniques, technical mediations, perceptions and individual and collective sensibilities.

Sacred, ritual, supernatural

Religious beliefs and practices mobilize numerous material objects which, in the multi-faith context of the Balkans, can be transferred, reused or contested. “Religious materiality” questions the immaterial and sensitive relations to various supernatural entities, generally associated with ritual and liturgical actions.