Visions of Ecology on Art and the Environment in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, EVENT #2

EVENT #2: SWEET RUINS: INFRASTRUCTURES OF THE SOCIALIST ANTHROPOCENE | Thursday, December 8, 2022, 12:00pm ET
DR. MAJA FOWKES AND DR. REUBEN FOWKES
ART HISTORIANS, CURATORS AND CO-DIRECTORS OF THE POSTSOCIALIST ART CENTRE (PACT), THE UCL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES
Sweet Ruins: Infrastructures of the Socialist Anthropocene
The hollowed-out spaces of derelict sugar factories documented by Slovak artist Ilona Németh in the project Eastern Sugar (2018-21) register the social impact of deindustrialization and symbolize the broken promises of the post-communist transition. The demise of the East European sugar industry also raises questions about the disappearance of the culture, lifestyles, as well as attitudes and practices towards the natural world, that grew up alongside socialist infrastructures. What can be learned from the ruins of sugar factories about the distinctive socialist path through the Anthropocene and what parallels can be drawn between the rise and fall of northern sugar beet and the social and environmental histories of southern sugar cane?
Dr. Maja Fowkes and Dr. Reuben Fowkes are art historians, curators and co-directors of the Postsocialist Art Centre (PACT) at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies. Their publications include Art and Climate Change (Thames & Hudson, 2022), Central and Eastern European Art Since 1950 (Thames & Hudson, 2020) and Ilona Németh: Eastern Sugar (Sternberg Press, 2021). Recent curatorial projects include the exhibitions “Colliding Epistemes” at Bozar Brussels (2022) and “Potential Agrarianisms” at Kunsthalle Bratislava (2021). Their research on the “Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts” is supported by a UKRI Frontier Research grant.
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