The EU-funded project TRACES - Transmitting Contentious Cultural Heritages with the Arts: From Intervention to Co-Production will conclude its three-year research programme with a two-day event conference, entitled "Transmitting Contentious Cultural Heritages with the Arts". Due to be held in Milan on 17 and 18 January 2019, the symposium is conceived to provide a critical overview on the main findings and results ensuing from the investigations and the "creative co-productions" developed within the project, as well as to foster the critical debate about the transmission of contentious heritages and the process of “Reflexive Europeanisation.” The meeting intends to promote an inter-disciplinary and forward-looking discussion aimed at opening new perspectives based on the project outcomes. The programme of the TRACES final conference combines lectures and lecture performances. It will culminate with the opening of the TRACES final exhibition, entitled "Contentious Objects / Ashamed Subjects", curated by Suzana Milevska at the Politecnico di Milano.

Background

Through an innovative research methodology, TRACES has investigated the challenges and opportunities raised when transmitting complex pasts and the role of difficult heritage in contemporary Europe.

To this end, the project, funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, has involved a multi-disciplinary team made up of established and emerging scholars, artists, and cultural workers to develop a rigorous, creative and all-round investigation on contentious cultural heritages, and to experiment with innovative research methodologies.

In order to achieve these objectives, TRACES has initiated a series of “creative co-productions” in which artists, researchers, heritage agencies, and stakeholders collaborate on long-term projects researching selected cases of contentious heritage and developing new participatory public interfaces. Theoretical investigations pertaining to different research fields and disciplines have supported and complemented these art-based research actions, analysing and expanding their outcomes with the aim to identify new directions for cultural institutions and museums to effectively transmit contentious cultural heritage and contribute to evolving European identities.

Further information

For additional details about the TRACES final conference and registration, please visit http://www.traces.polimi.it/2018/12/12/traces-final-conference/