Conference papers
2025
25 Jan. “Private Museums of Daily Life During Communism in Romania and the entrepreneurs of nostalgia”, Museums, Memory, Politics, Museums and Memory Working Group of the Memory Studies Association Conference (24-25 january 2025, Virtual)
23-26 May – “Cultural Policies of the New Left Regimes in South America in the 2000s”, Panel Cultural Policies of the New Left Regimes in South America in the 2000s, LASA 2025 Congress– Poner el cuerpo en Latinx Latin America (San Francisco, CA, 23-26 May 2025)
2024
28 Nov. “Informal cultural diplomacy during the Cold War: the case of the artist Corneliu Petrescu”, Cultural Diplomacy, before and after (28-29 November 2024, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest, Romania)
27 Nov. “Daniel Barbu et la défense du patrimoine sous le régime Ceauşescu », Colloque sur l’héritage de Daniel Barbu, Faculté de Sciences Politiques, Université de Bucarest.
15 June “The Contrasting Meanings of 1989 in Political Art: between ‘the End of the World’ and Liberation from the Communist Camp”, The Third East-Central European Art Forum Understanding 1989 in East-Central European Art. War vs. Revolution (14-15 June 2024), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.
2023
20 Nov. 2023, „Art and the Politics of Memory in Post-Dictatorships: A Cross-Regional Perspective on Eastern Europe and the Southern Cone of South America”, Guest Talk at the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, The Ohio State University (Zoom)
19 Oct. 2023 “Une vue d’ensemble sur la désobéissance des femmes pendant le régime communiste en Roumanie”, « Les femmes à l’Est : dissidence, subculture et émancipation (1945-1991) », Rencontre exploratoire, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, 19 et 20 octobre 2023
5 October 2023, “Socialist Solidarity between Visual Artists in South America and Eastern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s” presented at the International Conference “The State Socialist World turned Global: Cultural Encounters during the Cold War”, Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest, 5-6 October 2023.
21 Sept. 2023 – “Transnational Memory of Dictatorships from a Cross-Regional Perspective between South America and Eastern Europe”, Post-Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition; Panel Translating Memories: Difficult Heritage, Comparisons and Entanglements” (20 – 23 sept. 2023, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia)
15 Sept. 2023, “Art et politique de la mémoire à 50 ans du coup d’État au Chili”, Journées d’étude, Passés-Présents. Mémoires, traces et trauma de la dictature dans les arts au Chili (14 & 15 septembre 2023, Bibliothèque l’Alcazar Marseille)
19 June 2023, “Cultural Socialist Solidarity in the Second Socialist World: the Chilean-Romanian Relationship in the 1970s”, 8th international interdisciplinary conference of political research SCOPE: Science of Politics (17-22 June 2023), University of Bucharest
6 June 2023, „Transnational Socialist Encounters in the Second Socialist World: the Chilean and Romanian relationships (1970-1973)”, conference “Chile 1970-1973 in a transnational key. From the ‘Chilean road to socialism’ to the military dictatorship” 2023, Paris 6-7 June 2023.
25 May 2023, “Crossregional Cultural Collaboration between Socialist Regimes: Romania’s connections with Cuba and Chile” panel “Cooperación y conflicto en las relaciones exteriores de Cuba”, LASA Congress, Vancouver (24-27 May 2023)
18 May 2023, „Corneliu Petrescu’s Artworks in the Context of the Tyler Collection: a Cross-regional Trans-Ideological Friendship during the Cold War”, Guest Talk at the University of Tasmania (Zoom)
31 March “In Solidarity: Cross-regional Socialist Artistic Connections between Countries of the “Socialist Second World”, British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies 2023 (31 March – 02 April 2023)
17 March 2023, „Equal but Poor: (Dis)Connections and Parallel Forms of Aesthetic Resistance to the Political in Eastern Europe and South America in the 1970s-1980s” Keynote speaker at the conference „Equal and poor”, Second Forum of Equal and Poor – A comparative perspective on Art in Communist Europe and the Global South in the long 1970s, University of Poznan, 17-18 March.
2022
17 December, “The Transition from Socialist Unions of Artists to Democratic Artistic Unions: the case of Romania”, Social Theory Politics, and the Arts Conference, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea (14-17 Dec. 2022)
23 June (online) chaired a panel “Session 5: Art, Architecture and the Politics of Heritage” at the conference Art and the City: Urban Space, Art & Social Change, School of Communication and Culture, University of Aarhus, (23-24 June 2022)
22 June, Caterina Preda presented a paper on ‘Performative Monuments Events’ as Counter-Monuments in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe”, (Re)thinking Countermonuments: The Evolution of “Memory against itself, Online colloquium, University of Leeds, (21-22. June 2022)
16 June Caterina Preda presented a paper on “Post-Socialist Statuary Politics and the Ambivalent Socialist Heritage in Romania and Bulgaria: Replacing Socialist Heroes with Anti-Communist Victims,” Ecologies of Decay: Modern Ruination in the Global (Post)Socialist Peripheries, 16-17 June 2022, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
2021
3 Dec (online) ‘The Role of Artistic Memorialization of the Roma Holocaust in Romania: A ‘New Distribution of the Possible,’ as part of the panel ‘Mnemonic Justice: Romani Communities in Eastern Europe and their Painful Pasts Revealed through an Intersectional Lens’ at the ASEEES Annual Convention New Orleans.
11 Nov. (online) “Transregional Cultural Relations of the Second Socialist World during the Cold War” in a panel titled at the Narrating Cold War conference, 11-13 Nov. 2021, Hong Kong Baptist University (11 November, online).
1 July (online) “Dear Comrades, Visit Your Past!”: the Politics of Daily Life Museums of Communism in Romania” at the Conference “Temporality and Materiality under Socialism” (01-02 July 2021, online)
9 July (online) “The visual representations of dissent against communism in Romania: anticommunist heroes and ‘prison saints’” Memory Studies Association Annual Conference “Convergences” (University of Warsaw, Poland, July 5-9, 2021)
6 July (online) chaired the panel ‘Transitional Justice and Memory’ and presented a paper on ‘The transnational artistic memorialisation of Operation Condor’ at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Transitional Justice 6-7 July 2021, Loughborough University
9 June (online) guest lecture about “The Fine Arts Union of the Socialist Republic of Romania: controlled autonomy by the state” as part of the seminar „Confrontations: Sessions in East European Art History”, UCL (online)
5 May (online): “’A time machine that will send you back in communist times’: the political role of the private museums in Romania” the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) 2021 Convention on 5 May 2021 (online)
30 April (online) Part of the scientific board of the conference “Art and the City: Urban Space, Art and Social Change” and chaired a panel on April 30 2021 titled ‘Session 7: Public Statues and Decolonization’, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Study.
12 February (online) “Communist Monuments in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe: Removed, Dislocated or Resignified” at the Balkan Circle organized by the CREEES at the University of Texas at Austin, 12-1.15 pm. You can liste to a recording here
2020
7 Nov. “Romanian Museums of Living in Communism: Private Spaces of Remembrance and the Aestheticization of the Communist Past”, in the panel “Of Nostalgia and Rebellion: Re-visiting (post-) communism through the lens of artistic memory “ASEEES Annual Convention (7 Nov 2020, 17 -18.30 Zoom)
10 oct. “Ce ne pot spune 1.500 de dosare din Arhiva Uniunii Artiștilor Plastici despre istoria artei socialiste de stat?” seminar parte a Întîlnirea Regională IP #2 ‘Fără pagină. Cum să revizitezi istoria la plural?’
“The role of the Romanian Artists’ Union in producing art for the state in Socialist Romania”, Panel ‘Creating for the state during socialism: the role of artists’ unions’, ASEEES Annual Convention, San Francisco, 25. Nov. (23-26 Nov 2019)
“The artistic memorialization of dictatorships: a transregional approach”, Workshop Transregional Remembrances: Artistic Memory Work after Dictatorships (21. Nov, CEREFREA, University of Bucharest)
“Nostalgic and retro-aesthetic constellations in Eastern Europe: the case of the daily life museums of communism” (4 Sept.) at the ECPR 2019 General Conference Wroclaw (4-7 September 2019). Panel ‘The Art and Politics of Transnational Memory Practices in Eastern Europe’
“Transregional links during the Cold War: The case of the Museum of Solidarity (Salvador Allende)” (29 June) at the conference The Radical Sixties: Aesthetics, Politics and Histories of Solidarity (28–29 June 2019), University of Brighton, UK.
“Performing the memory of dictatorship A transregional approach of embodied memory” (26 June) at the Third conference of the Memory Studies Association in Madrid (25-28 June 2019)
“The Relevance of Daily Life Museums of Communism: The Absent Museum of Communism of Bucharest” (June 20th, 2019) at the Second Mellon Conference: Traversing the Gap: Relevance as a Transformative Force at Sites of Public Memory (June 19–21, 2019, 9/11 Memorial & Museum, New York)
“Nostalgia entrepreneurs and the museum of communism” as part of the panel “Entangled pasts and their transnational artistic memorialization in Central and Eastern Europe” (May 31st, 2019) at the 6th International Interdisciplinary Conference of Political ResearchSCOPE 2019) at the 6th International Interdisciplinary Conference of Political ResearchSCOPE 2019
Caterina Preda participated to the round table “Europe: 30 years after 1989 and a week after the vote” with a presentation about the Romanian case, 30 years after the transition to democracy (June 3rd, 2019, at the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs, John Cabot University, Rome).
“An archive of the possible: art of memorialization and the use of archival sources by contemporary artists in South America” at the Latin American Studies Association (#LASA2019) Congress in Boston (May 26th, 2019 )
https://lasaweb.org/uploads/lasa2019-program-final_en.pdf
“Rolul Uniunii Artiștilor Plastici în consolidarea mitului ceaușist în anii 1980: umanismul realist sau realismul ceaușist și arta omagială” (16 Mai, Conferința “Comunismul în România: Memorie și istorie” 16-17 mai, Academia Română)
“The art and politics of performative memory: performative socialist monuments in South Eastern Europe” as part of the panel “Artistic memory and post-1989” (April 12th, 2019) at the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies – Basees 2019 Conference in Robinson College, Cambridge [Umney Lounge 13.45-15.15].
“A Transnational Approach to Decommunized Socialist Heritage: Collecting and Re-signifying Socialist Art” at the international conference “Transnational Dimensions of Dealing with the Past in ‘Third Wave’ Democracies. Central Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Global Perspective” (1 April 2019, Faculty of History, University of Bucharest)
organized the travelling seminar “Romania’s entangled traumatic pasts” realized together with EUROM, 13-14 March 2019, University of Bucharest
“To the active fight for peace!”: The role of artists’ collectives in producing socialist art in 1950s Romania” in the workshop “Construirea unui model socialist de stat pentru artele vizuale românești: adaptări, transformări și forme colective de impunere a realismului socialist în anii 1950-1960” organized by Caterina Preda at the Institute of Political Research, University of Bucharest (12 February 2019)
Presented the project “Artistic Practices and Remembrance of Dictatorships: A Transregional Comparison of Eastern Europe and South America” on January 25th 2019, at the Phase 3 of the 2nd Intercontinental Academia on Human Dignity jointly held by the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), the Israel Institute (IIAS) and the Institute in Bielefeld (Germany, ZiF) on January 21-25, 2019 at the JIAS in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2018
Keynote speaker
”Artă și politică în România”, 20 October 2018, Timișoara, MADtalks: Caterina Preda | MAD(e) in Romania
“Art, state and ideology during the communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe”, MOZAK, Nosna Foundation, Krakow (13.10.2018)
Conferences
”Living statues: corporeal memory in postcommunist Eastern Europe” (7 Dec.) at the 50th Congress ASEEES (6-9 December 2018), Boston, US.
“‘Communism never happened’: Romanian retro-aesthetics and the ‘nice’ side of communism” Communicative Forms and Practices of Nostalgia: Conceptual, Critical and Historical Perspectives (Södertörn University – Stockholm, Sweden, 8-9 November 2018).
”The geography of East-Central European Art and transregional links during the Cold War. The case of the Museum of Solidarity (Salvador Allende) and its collaborative model with the socialist countries in East-Central Europe”, Theorizing the Geography of East-Central European Art (26-27 October 2018, Piotr Piotrowski Center for Research on East-Central European Art, Poznań, Poland)
“The Surveillance of Artistic Performance by the Securitate in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s” (13.09.2018) Artists & Agents (Kunsthalle Zürich, 13-14.09.2018)
“Living statues: performing memory in post-communist Romania” (27 June 2018), Romania 100 Looking forward through the past, SRS Conference in Bucharest, 2018 (25-30.06.2018)
Chair of the #Panel “Art and the transnational memory of the dictatorships in the Southern Cone of South America” (23 May 2018); presented a paper on “El arte en las post-dictaduras suramericanas: entre memoria y justicia en el caso de 2054 de Francisco Papas Fritas” #Panel, “Las políticas de la verdad‚ la justicia‚ la reparación y las garantías de no-repetición interrogadas: ¿Con qué claves se saldan las cuentas con los pasados de violencia?” (25 May 2018). LASA Congress in Barcelona (23-26 May 2018).
“The ‘State Artist’ in Socialist Romania: Creating for the State and the Role of the Union of Romanian Artists” (10 May 2018), Arts in the State – The State in Arts International conference, Vilnius Academy of Arts (May 10–11, 2018).
“Creating for the state: the Romanian Artists’ Union (UAP) and the ‘state artists'”
(12 April 2018), Socialist Realism around the Bloc, (11-12 April 2018), The China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.
“Anti-Fascist Aesthetics in Inter-War and Post World War Two Romania: Irony and Political Commitment in the Works of Jules Perahim” (9 April 2018),Laughing at power, fascism and authoritarianism: Satire, humor, irony and interrogating their political efficacy (9-10 April 2018), Center for Jewish History, New York
“Living Statues: Performing Memory in Postcommunist Romania”, (3 March 2018), New Stages? Postsocialisms, Postliberalisms, and Performances The 2018 Annual Symposium of the Soyuz Research Network for Postsocialist Cultural Studies, Yale University (March 2nd & 3rd, 2018)
Other
Caterina Preda participated to the “Observatorio de memorias”/Travelling seminar (19-23 November) organized by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) at Santiago/Ribadeo/ Coruña/Santiago/San Simon (Spain).
2017
Chair of the Panel on ”Creating for the state: Forms of artistic (dis)engagement with the communist regimes: the Union of Artists and the state artists”; presenting the paper ”Contrasting artistic accounts of the 1989 revolutionary heritage in Romania” (Panel ”Revolutionary heritage in East-Central Europe after 1945 and 1989”), ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies) Annual Convention, Chicago (9-12 November 2017).
Chair of the Panel on Art and politics in dictatorships & paper on „Art and politics in the dictatorships of the Southern Cone: a comparison”, International Congress of Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Lima (April 29 – May 1, 2017)
29 March 2017. ”Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici and the building of a social consciousness of the state artist” during the workshop The history of art, artists, and specific institutions in Romania (1949-2010) at the Institute of Art History G. Oprescu of the Romanian Academy.
2016
Chair of the panel „The Romanian State artist: an overview of the Union of Visual Artists and its role in society” (18 Nov. 2016) at the international conference The Artist and Society, Institute of Art History and Theory, Ivane Javakishvili University of Tbilisi (18-19 November 2016).
“The state artist in Romania and Eastern Europe: a theoretical overview” ( 5 Nov 2016) at the International Conference The State artist in Romania and Eastern Europe, I organized at the Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest
“Les relations entre l’Union des Artistes Plastiques de RSR et l’Union des Artistes de l’URSS”, (16 Sept. 2016) Colloque La place du grand frère. Les echanges culturels entre l’Union Sovietique et les democraties populaires à l’epoque communiste (Cerefrea, Bucharest)
“Le rôle des artistes dans les post-dictatures. Une comparaison de l’Europe de l’Est et du Cône Sud de l’Amérique du sud”, International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress in Poznán (23-28 July 2016)
“Performing the memory of the dictatorship in Chile and Argentina”, Performative Commemoration of Painful Pasts, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University (14-17 June 2016)
”Making visible: Operation Condor and art of memory in the Southern Cone”, Latin American Studies Association 50th meeting in New York (27-30 May 2016)
Chair of the panel on The Romanian state artist: hypostases of the relation between visual artists and the political power (28 May 2016) at SCOPE 2016, Institute of Political Research, University of Bucharest.
2015
“Reprezentări artistice ale romilor în secolele XIX-XXI”, Romii în România: identitate și alteritate, Institutul de Cercetări Politice (14 Dec. 2015)
“Art and politics in modern dictatorships : A comparison of Eastern Europe and the Southern Cone” (4 Dec. 2015), Beyond History and Identity, New Perspectives on Aesthetics, Politics, and Society in Eastern Europe, Winter Academy 2-12 December 2015, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin.
”Artistic resistance in dictatorships: a comparison of Romania and Chile in the 1970s and 1980s” (3 October 2015), The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, GSA (Washington D.C., 1-4 Oct. 2015)
“O artă autoritară? O comparație a regimurilor din Conul sud”, (În)semnele autorității. Între retorica crizei și imperativul consolidării, Universitatea Națională de Arte din București//UNAGaleria (19 June 2015)
17 June 2015, ”Romanian art of memorialization”, Society of Romanian Studies Conference, Bucharest.
“Arte y politica en las dictaduras, una comparacion del caso chileno y del caso rumano”, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile, 10 June 2015.
2014
17 Nov. 2014, „Romanian Art of memorialization: 1989 as seen by contemporary artists”, “Art, society and politics in (post)socialism” Universitatea de Vest, Timisoara, 17-18 Nov. 2014
28 Oct. 2014 „Arte de memoria en Rumania”, Centro Argentino de Relaciones Internationales, Buenos Aires.
27 Oct. 2014, „Arte de memoria en Chile” “Entre la dictadura y la posdictadura: Producciones culturales en Argentina y America latina”, Biblioteca Nacional, Buenos Aires Argentina (27-28 Oct. 2014)
12 June 2014 “The Art of Memorialization in Romania: ‘Project 1990” as an anti-monument”, Living After the Fall (?): Past-Present in Southeastern Europe, American Research Center in Sofia (June 12-13, 2014).
30 May 2014 „Art de mémorialisation en Roumanie post-communiste: entre nostalgie et questionnement”, Paradise Found, or Paradise Lost? Nostalgia, Culture and Identity in Central and Eastern, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (29-30 May).
2013
23 November 2013 “Informal images about informality in postcommunist Romania: artistic views on the political”, Informal practices and structures in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Academic Swiss Caucasus Net, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, (21-23 November 2013)
24 October 2013 „Artistic forms of collaboration with[in] the communist regime in Romania”, Memory of everyday collaboration with the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Institute of History, Research Center for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences et ali. (24-26 October 2013 Budapest)
10 October 2013 “Mémorialisation artistiques du coup d’État du 11 septembre 1973”, Journees d’etude: de l’Unite Populaire a la transition democratique: representations, diffusions, memoires cinematographiques du Chili 1970-2013, HiCSA, Paris 1 (9-10 October 2013).
20 September 2013, „L’art de mémorialisation au Chili: le cas des disparus de la dictature”, Chili à l’épreuve du temps: impacts et réintérpretations du 11 septembre chilien, IEP, Sciences Po Rennes (19-20 September)
5 September 2013, The artist as witness in dictatorial regimes in in Eastern Europe and South America, European Consortium for Political Research, General Conference, IEP Bordeaux (4-7 September)
2012
L’art de rue et sa relevance politique De ‘Jos comunismul’ à ‘Vin in 5 minute'”, Nouvelles formes de participation dans les nouvelles démocraties (ICP, Bucarest, 10-11 décembre 2012)
“Art of memorialization: the construction of a different memory in postcommunist Romania” (2 July 2012), Romanian Studies Conference, Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania.
“Under [artistic] surveillance”, Workshop The Secret Police Archives.Transdiciplinary approaches, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), Bucharest, 11 May 2012
2011
“Art and politics in postcommunist Romania: changes and continuities” (14 October 2011), Social Theory, Politics & the Arts, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY (13-15 October 2011).
“The digital (artistic) memory of Nicolae Ceauşescu” (1 September 2011), Old Conflicts and New Media: Commemorating the Socialist Experience Online, University of Bergen, Norway (31 August – 2 September 2011).
“Art of Memorialization in Postcommunist Romania” (16 April 2011), Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention, Columbia Unviersity (14-16 April 2011).
“Artistic crisis: A Romanian example” (11 November 2010), European Congress of Aesthetics, Madrid (10-12 November 2010).
2010
“The personality cult of Nicolae Ceauşescu: artistic declinations” (23 October 2010), The personality cults of Modern dictators. Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London (22-23 October 2010).
“(A)Political art in modern dictatorships” (9 June 2010). Polarts event: Symposium Senses of the Political, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, (8-10 June 2010).
“Art and politics in modern dictatorships” (1 April 2010), Institute of Political Research, University of Bucharest.
2009
“Art and politics in Romania and Chile: 20 years after” (23 October 2009), Global 1989 Conference, Princeton University (22-24 October 2009). Panel: The arts: culture? Political culture?
“Civil society and the transition to democracy in Romania and Chile. Evidence for the role played by art(ists)” (15 April 2009), ECPR Joint Sessions Lisbon, Portugal (14-20 April 2009). Workshop 2: Civil Society Dynamics Under Authoritarian Rule
2007
“Can the arts influence politics? Two answers to the question: the cases of Pinochet and Ceauşescu” (7 Sept. 2007) ECPR General Conference in Pisa September 6-8, 2007. Politics and the Arts section – Panel ‘Can the Arts Influence Politics?’
“Art et politique dans les dictatures: le Chili et la Roumanie” (11 May 2007), SEGED – Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Amérique Latine, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3.
2006
“Política y cultura en las dictaduras. Cambios en el campo artístico post-1989” (15 Nov. 2006), 8 Congreso de Chileno de Ciencia Política, Santiago de Chile, Panel 35/IP Autoritarismos latinoaméricanos
“Dictadores y dictaduras. Expresiones artísticas de la política. Chile y Rumania 1970s-1989. Preestreno metodológico” (21-23 Sept. 2006 ), XII Encuentro de Latinoamericanistas Españoles: Viejas y nuevas alianzas entre América Latina y España, Santander, Panel # 15 Violencia política, dictaduras y exilio latinaoamericanos 1959-1996
“Dictators and dictatorships. Artistic expressions of the political: Romania and Chile (1970s-1990). A Methodological Preview” (1 June 2006), Art and Terror, symposium/ doctoral course is organized by the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Political Thought and Conceptual Change, and its research team “Politics and the Arts,” together with the Politics and the Arts Group (Standing Group for ECPR). Jyvaskyla, Finland
“Post-authoritarian Party Systems: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay” (25 -30 April 2006), ECPR Joint Session in Nicosia-Cyprus, Panel #20 “Parliamentary Practices in Presidential Systems: (European) Perspectives on Parliamentary Power in Latin America”
“The Europeanization of Romanian political parties: 1990-2006” (4 April 2006), Conference on “Political Decision. Mentality and Decisional Culture” (4-7 April 2006) Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest