The first two days of the conference took place in Kaunas. The conference participants began their
stay in Lithuania with a walk through the city streets and, led by one of the coordinators, Tomasz
Błaszczak, learned about the history of Kaunas, whose modernist architecture has recently been
inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
First conference sessions, in the spaces of the Library Vlad Adamkus, opened with a lecture "How
to think about the history of the 20th century: a historian of Central and Eastern Europe in the face
of evil" given by Aurimas Švedas. It was followed by a session of lectures, during which the topic of
disputed territories, war and the politics of memory was presented based on the papers of
researchers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Armenia and Austria. The next session revolved around
the topic of agonistic spaces, and its guests were from Finland, Poland, Belarus and Great Britain.
The next two days of the conference took place in the International Dialogue Center in
Krasnogruda. The participants, led by the coordinator of the event Weronika Czyżewska-
Poncyljusz, began their stay with a story about the place and a walk in the Krasnogruda park. Then
Krzysztof Czyżewski talked about the relationship between love, memory and otherness in the
context of the idea and practice of Borderland. In the afternoon, two sessions were held during
which participants from Poland, Scotland, Great Britain, Armenia, Austria, Lithuania and Pakistan,
based on their research experiences, talked about artistic and educational practices related to
memory, borderland and war, and discussed the way of practicing art and education on the borders
of memory. The first day in Krasnogruda ended with a Cafe Europa event in the „Song about
porcelain” Cafe led by Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz. During the evening, with musical
accompaniment by Radosław Nowicki, poetry by Lusine Kharatyan, David Clarke, Iryna Mularczuk
and Krzysztof Czyżewski resounded, and there was a performative reading of a play by Shahid
Nadeem and members of the Ajoka theater group.
Saturday morning began with considerations on the exhibition and commemoration of the disputed
territories. During the second session, guests from Poland, Armenia, Great Britain and Pakistan
talked about creating cultural policy and the potential of agonism in building peace. After lunch, the
conference participants met in the Invisible Bridge space, where an exhibition of photos from
contemporary Kabul was presented: “Kabul II 23. Everyday life and the past” by Dr. Agnieszka
Nowakowska and Dr. Tomasz Rawski from the University of Warsaw. Then it was time for the last
session, during which the topic of commemorative practices in places with a complex history was
discussed. The conference ended with the concert of the Klezmer Orchestra of the Sejny Theater
at the Sejny Jazz Cooperative.
Text and photos Agata Wasilewska
