Dear friends of the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre,

Happy belated New Year! We are delighted to invite you to our first event in 2019, which will be a lecture, 'On Love, Lacuna, and Loss: An Episode in the Post-War Restoration of Leningrads Palaces, given by our guest speaker,Professor Irina Sandomirskaja, on Thursday, 7th February at 17.15 at the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre. 

The lecture will explore the cultural restoration of palaces in and around Leningrad after the Second World War, and the socio-cultural attitudes towards loss and remembering. It will also feature fragments from a Soviet film about a post-war woman conservator. By drawing a parallel between her fragmented psyche and the restoring of ruined architecture, the talk will reflect upon the price one has to pay for remembering, and upon the ultimate impossibility of conciliation between the past, the present and the future.

 

Irina Sandomirskaja is a Professor at School of Culture and Education and Centre for Baltic and East European Studies at Sdertrn University in Sweden. Her research focuses on Soviet history and culture, language theory and philosophy as well as critical theory and philosophy. In 2013 she was awarded Andrei Bely Prize for book Blokada v Slove: Ocherki Kriticheskoi Teorii i Biopolitiki Iazyka (Moscow: NLO, 2013). Her current project investigates Soviet theories and practices of cultural heritage preservation with a particular interest in the crossroads of time, memory and representation in the specific conditions of Soviet historical and aesthetic doctrines.

The lecture will be followed by a wine reception. Please see a poster below with the event's details.

We look forward to seeing you there. Should you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

With best regards,

Alina