Columbia University Seminar in ..."Replicas and Reconstructions in the Service of the Nation, " October 8

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From: Dimitris Antoniou <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2019 at 00:34
Dear list members,

On Tuesday, October 8, at 6:10 pm, the Program in Hellenic Studies at
Columbia University will hold the year's first meeting of the University
Seminar in Modern Greek.

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, October 8, 6:10-7:30 PM
LOCATION: 618 Hamilton
TITLE: “Replicas and Reconstructions in the Service of the Nation:
Istanbul, Athens, Skopje.”
SPEAKER: Kalliopi Amygdalou (Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow, Hellenic
Foundation for European and Foreign Policy)

ABSTRACT: In South-eastern Europe, a region parcelled into nation-states
with exclusive definitions of identity, architectural heritage has often
been recruited in the service of politics. Shared layers of history
(Classical, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman etc.) have been split among competing
historiographies and in a period marked by crisis, conservatism and
'East-West' dilemmas they are still in the core of heated debates today,
impeding visions of European integration, prosperity and peace. Anchored on
on-going projects in three cities in the region, this research explores the
ways heritage is claimed through practices of reproduction and
reconstruction. In some cases such practices correspond to recurring waves
of revivalist architecture, such as North Macedonia’s ‘Skopje 2014’ project
which was widely protested by citizens and neighbouring countries.
Elsewhere, large replica buildings are installed in the heart of the city,
such as in Istanbul, where the reconstruction of the barracks on Gezi park
ignited the Taksim Square riots in 2013 and the on-going reconstruction of
Hagia Sophia’s medrese caused the reaction of ICOMOS. In other cases yet,
the production of copies is politicised on a much smaller scale, as
testified by the copies of the Elgin Marbles in the New Acropolis Museum
and the copy of “Alexander’s Sarcophagus” in the Skopje Archaeological
Museum. The research aims to ask, how do replicas, copies and
reconstructions intersect with questions of national identity and economic
policy? And how is their relationship with the original transformed, lost
or, at times, irrelevant? Moreover, in a region of strongly defined
borders, how do such objects connect to each other, addressing local and
international audiences?

Our next seminar will take place on November 19: Sokratis Koniordos
(Professor of Sociology, University of the Peloponnese), “Morphology and
Structure of the New Greek Emigration: Exiting, Residing Abroad,
Returning.”

With all good wishes,
Dimitris Antoniou
Co-chair of the University Seminar in Modern Greek
_______________________________________________
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June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : [email protected]