About
PATTERNS has been the main focus of research and funding in ERSTE Foundation’s cultural work over the last few years and within this framework we initiated:
PATTERNS Call 2008
Gender Check – Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe
PATTERNS Travelling Lecture Set
PATTERNS aims to document, analyse and investigate different aspects of and practices related to the transformation of daily life and culture in Central and South Eastern Europe, while accounting for the pluralities that characterise the region. The initiative focuses on the 1960s and 1970s, as well as on the “transition” period leading up to the present.
PATTERNS Lectures encourages the development of new university courses in the fields of art history, cultural theory, and cultural studies in Central and South Eastern Europe and we are particularly interested in courses which:
- have been recently developed and have not been held before
- analytically deal with the period starting from the 1960s up to the present day, including the year of transition in 1989
- deal with cultural phenomena before 1989 until today, including aspects of popular, marginal and counterculture
- examine interdisciplinary and cross-cultural history in Central and South Eastern Europe
- involve critical methodology and innovative and interactive teaching practices
The first edition of PATTERNS Lectures was successfully completed: 14 courses from 11 countries were implemented at the respective universities and many of these will be continued in the long-term curriculum.
We have asked five participating lecturers about their experiences with PATTERNS Lectures:
Cristian Nae
“Politics of Identity in Eastern European Art after 1989″
“George Enescu” Universityof Arts, Iasi, Fine Arts, Decorative Arts and Design, Romania
Based on a classic lecture plus seminar structure, the course aimed to have a double impact. Firstly, it intended to bridge the gap of art historical knowledge which still exists at Romanian art academies by collecting the various fragments of existing information on recent art history in former Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall … More Info
Kornelia Slavova, Krassimira Daskalova
“Gendering Popular Culture, East and West”
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Department of Cultural Studies, Bulgaria
The PATTERNS Lectures course, which we taught in English over two consecutive semesters in 2011, was a very rewarding experience for both teachers and students. Popular culture and gender studies – two fields which had been neglected in Bulgaria for years – were placed firmly on the educational map in one fell swoop. More info
Lena Prents, Aliona Gloukhova
“What the Party didn’t Teach: Unofficial Internal and International Art Practices in Belarus from the Thaw until Perestroika”
European Humanities University, Theory and Practices of Contemporary Art, Belarus/Lithuania
Today’s art scene in the million-strong city of Minsk consists of several interconnected microcosms. The teaching activities at the European Humanities University in Minsk, which were brought to a standstill for political reasons and offered sanctuary in neighbouring Lithuania, have had a significant impact on the cultural sphere in Belarus. More info
Vjeran Pavlaković
“Comparative History of the Culture of Memory”
University of Rijeka, Department of Cultural Studies, Croatia
PATTERNS Lectures was a unique opportunity not only for me as a lecturer, but also for the students on the course and the administrative staff at the University of Rijeka. I believe the implementation of the course, The Comparative History of the Culture of Memory, was successful for all parties involved as it introduced new material into the curriculum and demonstrated a new way of using international funding. More info
