by Oliver Tappe, University of Heidelberg / MSH Guest professor

Oliver Tappe will present a public conference that will be mandatory for the students of the course “State and Society in East Asia” (about 30 students/year), whose topic of the year is “Public Spaces”. He will focus on Lao sites of memory and state commemoration which include monuments for national heroes (from ancient kings to 20th century revolutionaries) and other sites of historical relevance. While some of them appear as empty non-spaces that are ignored by most Lao people, coming to live only during the occasional wreath laying ceremony, others have been appropriated as public spaces or have become sites of everyday ritual activities (e.g. offerings to the powerful spirits of the old Lao kings).

In this conference, Oliver Tappe will discuss how different Lao sites of memory have been produced, (re-)defined and appropriated – between official communist Party-State commemoration and the diverse public discourses of memory and history. This topic is very relevant for the course “State and Society in East Asia” as it will illustrate the tension between (communist) state-orchestrated history politics and local counter-narratives, and how it plays out in public spaces. The frictions and contradictions within Lao historiography and commemoration crystallize in the various sites of memory that will be presented and discussed in Tappe’s conference.

Tuesday 18th February 2025, from 2pm until 4pm

Room P3.1.304
Building P3 - Level 1
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50
1000 Bruxelles

Free entrance