Dashkova Centre

On Love, Lacuna, and Loss: An Episode in the Post-War Restoration of Leningrad’s Palaces

The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre is delighted to present a lecture by Professor Irina Sandomirskaja, who 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. The lecture 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 Södertörn 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. Everyone is welcome!

On Love, Lacuna, and Loss
Feb 07 2019 -

On Love, Lacuna, and Loss: An Episode in the Post-War Restoration of Leningrad’s Palaces

A lecture by Professor Irina Sandomirskaja (Södertörn University, Sweden) at the invitation of the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre.

The Princess Dashkova Russian Centre
19 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh
EH8 9LN