Visual narrative of a post-communist estate: transgression of memory and the ruins of community. (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rabikowska, Marta
• Is Part Of: Visual communication. Volume 14:Number 4(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 437
• Page End: 455
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: anthropology -- film-making -- memory -- narrative -- nostalgia -- performativity -- phenomenology -- place -- post-communism -- self-reflection -- visual hermeneutic; Visual communication -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; Art and society -- Periodicals; 302.222
• DOI: 10.1177/1470357215593848
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-3572

Abstract

This article discusses the visual identity of a post-communist estate in Poland and the role of memory and the remembering of the communist past. Phenomenological concepts derived from Paul Ricoeur and Maurice Merleau-Ponty areemployed in the analysis of the post-communist identity of Cementownia, a community and place observed through the lens of a video camera. Through the interpretation of videoed perceptions of the place, interviews and staged recordings, the performative work of memory is defined, while visual anthropology frames a reflection on ruination, which characterizes the condition of the community. Film-making is applied here as a method and a critique of the schizophrenic position of post-communist societies, suspended between past and present and consequently between the discourse of capitalist advancement and the experience of impoverishment. A self-reflective analysis shows that the process of transition from communism has resulted in social inequalities which relate to the political degradation of the meaning of a past alienated from the post-communist discourse of history.