The Museum of Warsaw organizes the international conference accompanying the exhibition ‘Lovely Is the Youth of Our Age: Photo Albums 1850–1950‘. The exhibition will serve as a starting point for theoretical reflection and an invitation to reconsider the collections of photography albums and methods of working with them in cultural institutions.
The conference will take place on 8-9th April 2024 in the Museum of Warsaw (Rynek Starego Miasta 42, 00-272 Warsaw). The conference will be held in English and Polish with simultaneous translations provided.
At the Museum of Warsaw, we are seeking ways to work with photography albums that fully appreciate their multidimensionality and agency. A photography album endures – each opening, accompanied by storytelling, interventions, and interpretations, builds its successive layers. Therefore, it poses both a research and a curatorial challenge.
We believe that incorporating theoretical insights into museum work can lead to new discoveries and revitalize albums that are often confined to storage. Therefore, we propose an exchange of perspectives, experiences, and reflections in this field among researchers, museum professionals, conservators, and creators.
During the conference, we will focus on three areas of practice: research practices, creative practices, and practices of working with albums in cultural institutions. We will be interested in the contexts, functions, histories of photographic albums, and above all their performative dimension: evoking situations, emotions, bonds, memories. Finally, we also want to discuss the album in the broadest perspective – as a metaphor for memory, a figure of remembrance.
[Registration closed]
Conference program committee: Katarzyna Adamska, Monika Michałowicz, Ewa Nowak-Mitura, Karolina Puchała-Rojek
Coordination: Wanda Kaczor
Exhibition ‘Lovely Is the Youth of Our Age: Photo Albums 1850–1950‘ and the conference are part of the ‘Focus on photography’ grant implemented by the Museum of Warsaw and the National Museum of Iceland thanks to the Norwegian and EEA Funds.
The conference is co-financed by the British Council Foundation.