Wax Wars - Reshaping the material culture of WWI in Hungary.

Kocsis, Andrea (2023) Wax Wars - Reshaping the material culture of WWI in Hungary. In: 29th European Archaeological Association Annual Meeting in Belfast., 30 August – 2 September 2023, Queen's University Belfast.

Abstract

“If the gloves don‘t fit” - you must sew new ones. This paper analyses how the Hungarian Centenary WWI exhibition, A New World Was Born, mimicked the use of material culture to redefine the historical narrative of WWI. It also examines the impact of using pseudo-material culture on shaping public perceptions of the War. This curatorial practice helped express the four main narrative pillars of the exhibition. The first theme evokes the image of a pre-WWI Carpathian Basin without territorial claims or ethnic conflicts, where peace was broken only by the outbreak of the War. The second one elaborates on how the Allied powers triggered WWI and considers the Central Powers as victims of the Western aggressors. The third theme relativises WWI by reducing it to a Fraternal War, and the final one blames the tragedy of the conflict on left-wing governments. These themes are twisting historical objectivity by providing grounding soil for myths beneficial for contemporary political discourses. This paper discusses how these themes are expressed with the help of pseudo-material culture in the exhibition space through installations and storytelling. It also analyses how the exhibited themes nurture the mnemonic conflict between the strengthening Hungarian nationalism and the representation of the European Union in a populist political climate. Overall, this paper provides a case study which gives a thorough insight into how the museological choice of using commissioned installations at the expense of authentic material culture promoted the stakeholders‘ interpretations of the past in a populist setting by rewriting the traditional reference points of history and bringing new memory constellations to life.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item