Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture

The recent opening to the public of large-scale National Socialist installations in Germany – like the Denkort Bunker “Valentin” in Bremen-Farge – has prompted questions on how to address the legacy of Nazi advances in science and technology in musealized spaces, and, more generally, how to curate i...

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Main Author: Elke Heckner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Leicester 2017-06-01
Series:Museum & Society
Online Access:https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/view/651
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author Elke Heckner
author_facet Elke Heckner
author_sort Elke Heckner
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description The recent opening to the public of large-scale National Socialist installations in Germany – like the Denkort Bunker “Valentin” in Bremen-Farge – has prompted questions on how to address the legacy of Nazi advances in science and technology in musealized spaces, and, more generally, how to curate inconvenient military history. To tackle these questions, the issue of affect is crucial. Curation must be able to confront articulations of right-wing extremist “reactionary” affect in and beyond the museum setting. This has been a challenge for Dresden’s newly redesigned Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, whose anti-militaristic message is being drowned out by right-wing xenophobic demonstrations in Dresden’s streets. This paper seeks to counter current curatorial strategies that displace and suppress affect. By considering affect’s productive potential without ignoring the record of Nazi manipulations of affect, it proposes the concept of an ‘upstander’ museum and delineates a new methodology for rethinking affect in curatorial settings.
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spelling doaj.art-e2dbebfc5a724df18a4c1b9001cae6c82022-12-22T02:18:11ZengUniversity of LeicesterMuseum & Society1479-83602017-06-0114336338110.29311/mas.v14i3.651605Fascism and its Afterlife in ArchitectureElke HecknerThe recent opening to the public of large-scale National Socialist installations in Germany – like the Denkort Bunker “Valentin” in Bremen-Farge – has prompted questions on how to address the legacy of Nazi advances in science and technology in musealized spaces, and, more generally, how to curate inconvenient military history. To tackle these questions, the issue of affect is crucial. Curation must be able to confront articulations of right-wing extremist “reactionary” affect in and beyond the museum setting. This has been a challenge for Dresden’s newly redesigned Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, whose anti-militaristic message is being drowned out by right-wing xenophobic demonstrations in Dresden’s streets. This paper seeks to counter current curatorial strategies that displace and suppress affect. By considering affect’s productive potential without ignoring the record of Nazi manipulations of affect, it proposes the concept of an ‘upstander’ museum and delineates a new methodology for rethinking affect in curatorial settings.https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/view/651
spellingShingle Elke Heckner
Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
Museum & Society
title Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
title_full Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
title_fullStr Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
title_full_unstemmed Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
title_short Fascism and its Afterlife in Architecture
title_sort fascism and its afterlife in architecture
url https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/view/651
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