How Theaters Remember: Cultures of Memory in Institutionalized Systems Milena Dragićević Šešić, Milena Stefanović University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
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792(497.11):005.72 How Theaters Remember: Cultures of Memory in Institutionalized Systems Milena Dragićević Šešić, Milena Stefanović University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia Abstract: The aim of this study is to explore shaping a theater’s identity (semantic memory). organizational policies and strategies regarding the Research has shown that there are important institutional memory of Belgrade’s repertoire theaters. differences in active policies of preserving institutional The concept of institutional (organizational) memory memory among Belgrade’s theaters. Different has not been developed within the culture of memory organizational and programming strategies were theory. The role of theater in the culture of memory has implemented in order to safeguard institutional identity been researched mostly through studies of its and memory, particularly in theaters with a permanent repertoire, corresponding to how theaters deal with ensemble. The major difference is between theaters issues of glory, guilt, or shame. This study explores how whose culture of memory might be called “non-existent” theaters rethink their own past and organizational (Bitef), or “in storage” (BDP), and those succeeding in culture, how they use their capacity for re-imagining creating a functional memory (JDP, Atelje 212). themselves, for clarifying their role and function in different historical moments. The objective of this Keywords: institutional memory, organizational culture, research is to identify the main institutional policies and memory policies, memory representations, Belgrade, types of strategies used for preserving institutional theater, identity memory through key narratives of remembering, and key methods of inter-generational transfer. The sample INTRODUCTION comprises of four Belgrade-based public repertoire theaters: the Yugoslav Dramatic Theater (JDP), the The concept of institutional (organizational) Belgrade Dramatic Theater (BDP), Atelje 212, and Bitef memory has not been developed within the culture of Theater. Specific attention is given to the means of transmission, memory theory. Social scientists such as Maurice of individual (episodic) memories into the collective Halbwachs and Jan and Alleida Assmans have dealt consciousness, influencing organizational cultures and mostly with collective memories leading towards 11 “national memory” that helps constructs national which rarely had an organic link with the institution’s identity and its representation. The key research enterprise and/or its daily life (List of Technical question in these studies revolves around the notion of Museums, 2013). Thus, during the post-socialist how societies remember (Connerton, 2002), or how political transition period, many of those “collections” this transfer from individual to collective memory is disappeared in different ways. When cultural realized. Thus, the politics of memory have been seen organizations are concerned, the idea of institutional as a part of a larger cultural-educational public policy museum collections resurfaced recently when the focusing on the development of national identity and National Theater of Serbia opened its own museum, in its representation. In this sense, the role of theaters 2010. within larger national or city memory politics has also Institutional memory should be an important part of been researched (Banu, Dragićević-Šešić, Lužina, knowledge management (the management of facts and Gluhović, et al.), questioning the ways in which information which are the products of activity of an theaters, through their repertories, contribute to organization), a recent addition to managerial theory national memory: what are the traumas, i.e., ethical (Megill, 2007), mostly because numerous widespread and socio-political issues that are debated on stage; international organizations (UNESCO, Open Society what are the forgotten facts that theaters makes public; Foundation, HIVOS, etc.) have been facing problems in or, how do theaters deal with issues of guilt and shame? creating a unique organizational culture – but most of However, the way in which theaters rethinks all, in exchanging and using knowledge developed in themselves, their past and culture, how they mobilize different, and sometimes distant, divisions of a single their capacities for re-imagining, i.e., clarifying their organization. It is not only that money had been own role and function in different historical moments, wasted but also that human knowledge and and ostensibly how they communicate this to society achievements were left unused and forgotten. At the at large. However, these questions have remained same time, the trans-generational and traditional tools unanswered. of recognizing achievements and values (e.g., Managerial theory, though often emphasizing the anniversaries, monographs) seemed to be insufficient importance of organizational cultures (organizational and incomplete. values, philosophy and identity), has not developed The rise of interdisciplinarity makes knowledge research linked to institutional memory. Strategic management even more important. For example, how analysis comprised questions regarding a “corporate can one analysis of “endangered heritage” completed life cycle” (Adizes, 2011), namely, representing by a UNESCO expert become known within other organizational history as a series of events worth relevant departments of UNESCO, regardless of the remembering yet neglecting the issue of institutional sector or discipline in which it was originally created? memory as part of its identity. However, if we use as Furthermore, how can we ensure that this analysis is an example, we could trace museums of factories and remembered and utilized after a number of years? In mines created during the time of Socialist Yugoslavia the non-profit world, “knowledge management” has 12 simply become an alternate managerial discipline. As a 1992, they were re-étatized, and then with the law of result, no books and very few research studies in 2008, they were reformed once again as public cultural management have been devoted to institutions. However, this more recent law has not institutional memory and knowledge management, been fully implemented (i.e., no real competitions or while, in accordance with the predominance of autonomy for theater directors), and the theatrical neoliberal thoughts in cultural policy (Belfiore, 2008), laws that the theater community continuously topics such as the philosophy of change, demands have never reached the level of public debate. entrepreneurialism (Haghoort), strategic management The objective of the research is to identify the main (Burns, Colbert), project management (Dragićević institutional policies and types of strategies used for Šešić, Dragojević, Stojković), leadership, accountability, preserving the institutional memory of Belgrade’s city and others were, and are still, dominating the theaters through key narratives of remembering. cultural/art management discourse (Stefanović, 2012). Specific attention will be given to the means of The culture of memory in present-day Serbia focuses transferring individual (episodic) memories from on big “national narratives”, or in civil society on private to collective, by influencing organizational actions about controversial (trauma) moments cultures and shaping theater identity (semantic through the history of private lives. As a result, memory). Research questions include: do theaters important “stories” linked to the identities and have active policies regarding institutional memory; achievements of cultural institutions – stories which what are the organizational and programming are significant for understanding larger social and strategies implemented in order to safeguard cultural processes – have been put aside. institutional identity and memory; what are the defining narratives (explicit and implicit) and how RESEARCH AIMS they are used in preserving institutional memory; how do institutions remember the dark sides of their The aim of this study is to identify ways and history, or institutional trauma (censorship and self- modalities of preserving institutional memory in the censorship, rejection of creative dissident contemporary Belgrade theater system (within a personalities, etc.); and how is “dissonant heritage” larger research project titled Organizational Cultures memorialized? and Institutional Memory: The Cultural System of the This research takes into account the difference City of Belgrade). In Belgrade, numerous theaters have between episodic memory and semantic memory been created since the Second World War in different (Wickery, 2011), focusing on the ways in which socio-political contexts, which have in turn influenced individual recollections are transferred into semantic their respective missions and values. Some were memory (long-term memory based on structured and created as state theaters, others as city theaters, but systematized knowledge about an institution). both types were later transformed into self-governing Semantic knowledge overcomes meanings of institutions. During the transition period, by law in individual episodes memorialized in different 13 “institutional corners”, thus becoming a kind of institutional memory, namely, how past events and knowledge that can be transmitted to the public. We experiences are transferred as memories to will focus on the dynamics between individual and newcomers (Assman, 2011: 25), although this question collective memory, starting with the thesis that is important for theater management