BALTIC WORLDS BALTIC A scholarly journal and news magazine. May 2018. Vol. XI:I. Ivan Iljin, in the lap From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. of mother Russia May 2018. Vol. XI:I May 2018. Vol. XI:I BALTIC RLDS O rlds.com W balticwo Rescuing, keeping, and Rescuing,keeping, and moving things. moving things Against Againstthe Scatter ofthe World the Scatter of the World also in this issue Illustration: Karin Sunvisson ACTIVISTS IN ALBANIA /ARTISTS IN GDAŃSK SHIPYARD / ARCHITECTS IN LITHUANIA /SCIENTISTS IN THE COLD WAR report 77 CULTURAL by Maria Brock DIVERSITY The Wende IN THE FORMER Museum of the Cold War EASTERN BLOC in Los Angeles an a museum located thou- win Nachtweh and his partner Ulrike Wolf. Union, and originate from other East sands of kilometers away from In , the Wende received a grant of . Bloc countries, predominantly Hungary East Germany or the former million from the Arcadia Fund, established and Romania. Currently, only a small part Eastern Bloc provide a nu- by Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing, of the over , artifacts is on display. anced representation of life under social- which has since contributed more than However, the full collection is accessible ism? This was at the forefront of my mind million and become the Museum’s largest to scholars and other interested parties by as I paid a visit to the Wende Museum of funder. Additional funding for the museum appointment. the Cold War in Culver City, Los Angeles, comes from individual, corporate, and The Museum’s site has recently under- in April . Having visited and writ- foundation gifts, plus government grants gone a major change. In , it moved ten about a number of museums of GDR and other sources. In , the Museum to the Armory building in Culver City, a “everyday history’” or Alltagsgeschichte, expanded its collecting mission to include former atomic bomb shelter built in all of which are based in East Germany, documenting personal histories from the in anticipation of a World War III Soviet I was curious to learn more about how era. The “orphaned objects” in the col - air strike and formerly occupied by the this museum seeks to contribute to an lection, as Jampol refers to them, include National Guard before standing empty understanding of the GDR- and the Cold Eastern Bloc art and artifacts, such as for many years. It was in this hangar-like War history. textiles, photographs and home movies, structure with its surrounding garden, The Wende Museum was o cially furniture, restaurant menus, mixed tapes, which will house a piece of the Berlin Wall inaugurated in , but its history dates paintings, and sculptures. In terms of the once completed, that I met up with the back to the s, when founder Justin collection’s composition, around Wende Museum’s chief curator Joes Segal, Jampol, a US academic working towards a of the objects are from the former GDR, who took me on a tour of the current ex- PhD in modern European history, lived in from former countries of the Soviet hibition, introduced me to the Museum’s Germany and became concerned with “the founder, and answered my questions wholesale neglect and rampant destruc - patiently. As alluded to earlier, I was tion of Cold War material culture in Eastern “CURRENTLY, ONLY struck by the Museum’s implicit as well Europe and the Soviet Union that followed as explicit idea that there is value in look- the fall of the Berlin Wall in ” (from the A SMALL PART OF ing at historical processes not only from a Museum’s website). The Museum’s collec - THE OVER , temporal, but also a geographical distance. tion originated with items acquired by Jam- I was therefore particularly interested in pol in the mid- s, expanding in ARTIFACTS IS ON how the Museum diers in both scope with a signi cant donation by activist Al - DISPLAY.” and ambition from the many museums of 78 report PHOTO: WENDE MUSEUM PHOTO: MARIA BROCK Exhibition on ‘Cold War Spaces’. Interieur showing the aesthetics of Surveillance equipment from East Germany and the Soviet Union. the period. GDR history with large collections of GDR on a cultural exchange trip to Novosibirsk mer Eastern Bloc that operates both with- artifacts located in present parts of former in . Joes Segal explains that “the Cold in and far outside the tenets of Socialist East Germany. Additionally, I wondered War is the starting point, not the angle. Realism and juxtaposes it with contempo- whether its focus on Cold War history — an The angle is whatever presents itself. I am rary art. It actively invites conversations angle not eschewed to the same degree by actually more interested in how it is used, and collaborations with contemporary East Germany-based museums — would and how it is made operational, both in artists, and it commissions pieces on oc- lends itself to certain, perhaps simpli ed social and political terms, than in what it casion. Currently, the museum features readings of life under socialism, especially is in and of itself.” He appears to relish the such a commissioned piece: a video in the current geopolitical climate. challenge of confounding expectations installation, “Vessel of Change”, by artist and of disrupting dominant narratives. Bill Ferehawk and multimedia designer HOWEVER, DURING our tour of the exhibi- As he put it “There are many people who David Hartwell, which addresses the end tion I understood that my reservations come here with a certain expectation and of the Cold War in a comedic reinterpreta- were mostly unfounded. The current get confused, which I very much like.” tion of the Malta Summit with sur- exposition on “Cold War Spaces” (to Joes Segal is a former Professor of Cul- real computer-generated renderings of close at the end of April) takes a spatial tural History at Utrecht University with George H.W. Bush and M. Gorbachev. perspective of the Eastern Bloc, dividing a special research focus on German art While saving artifacts from destruc- it not only into expected sections such as history. He met Justin Jampol while guest tion was one of its original missions, the the separation between private and pub- teaching a UCLA, and after a stint as guest museum is trying to be future-oriented lic space, but also “alternative” spaces, curator, he accepted the invitation to be- as much as it looks to the past — its o cial “shared” and “changing” spaces. Every- come the Wende Museum’s chief curator motto is “Preserving the Past — Informing day and consumer objects — the focus of in September . His background and the Present”. The aim, according to Segal, so many of the GDR museums located in interests mean that a focus on visuality is not to insist on the parallels between East Germany — do appear in the exhibi- and artistic representation are core ele- the Cold War and current politics, but to tion, but the domestic here becomes ments of current and future exhibitions. utilize any apparent similarities in order merely one among many overlapping The museum showcases art from the for- to question “how history gets interpreted, spheres. And while political repressions what stories are based on the materials and persecutions are acknowledged and we have, and […] to show them in a way referred to, this is not done in order to “THERE ARE that makes them relevant for now. So they showcase the triumph of the ‘democratic’ should inspire discussions.” This open- West over the East. Indeed, the highlight- MANY PEOPLE ness is in fact manifest in the museum’s ing of multiple facets of life under social- WHO COME HERE space and structure, which is light- lled ism is in many ways representative of the WITH A CERTAIN and accessible, oering additional room museum’s eclectic approach. Usually, for performances and concerts. An em- two exhibitions run concurrently. The EXPECTATION AND phasis on transparency means that visi- second exhibition — called ‘The Russians’ GET CONFUSED, tors can see how and where some of the — shows photographs of ‘ordinary’ Soviet permanent collection is stored. The mu- citizens, many of them humorous, taken WHICH I VERY seum is also kept open during exhibition by American photographer Nathan Farb MUCH LIKE.” changes, giving insight into how curato- report 79 PHOTO: WENDE MUSEUM PHOTO: MARIA BROCK Pieces of the Berlin Wall and boarder guard training materials in the Video installation ‘Vessel of Change’, with chief curator Joes Segal and background. author in central panels. rial decisions are made, presenting his- to create something that does not allow handling and display of the artifacts. tory as a construct and allowing museum for any of those simplistic approaches”— When asked about future plans for the guests to witness its construction. In Se- whether coming from those who see Museum, Joes Segal listed a whole series gal’s words: “I want to be a bit experimen- themselves as winners of the Cold War, or of exhibitions and collaborations. To men- tal and adventurous in connecting past those who approach ‘real existing social- tion just a few, upcoming exhibitions will and present, but also very transparent.” ism’ with nostalgic projections. The Mu- focus on art and culture in Socialist Hun- Another theme that emerged in both seum’s new location already performs a gary, the role of ballet in the cultural Cold our conversation and the way the exhibi- kind of reinscription by showcasing East- War, and Soviet hippie culture. These, like tion is framed is that of ambiguity. Infor- ern Bloc objects and art in a space that events such as future exhibitions on “The mation plaques next to exhibits are kept was meant to serve as protection from a War of Nerves: Psychological Landscape of relatively laconic — an intentional move, potential attack by the Soviet Union.