Progressive Heritage

International conference in the framework of “ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism” and the “NEB – New European Bauhaus”

The trans-European exploration of Modernism as a „progressive heritage“ opens up a large cosmos of joint findings and insights – concerning the current backlash against democratic and emancipatory values across Europe, and, at the same time, their importance for societal cohesion and active cultural collaboration, especially for Central Europe.

The core question is: How can we make our joint progressive heritage of Modernism productive, to derive answers for pressing current and prospective questions for a liberal and sustainable future? On the one hand this addresses the better understanding for the origins, developments, and transformations of the existing built modern environments and modern societies, and, on the other hand it concerns the understanding of the development of interpretations and agencies of these joint modern heritage and values. From history to present this implies an examination of „Disrupted Modernism(s)“ as well as in comparison the notions of diversity or ambivalences.

Following the perspective of the „New European Bauhaus“, this will essentially contribute to bridging between the objectives of the „New Green Deal“ and the larger frame of reference implicated by the term „Bauhaus“ as a label of the very diverse Modern avantgarde – to elucidate the intrinsic connection between the genesis of Modernism(s) and contemporary imperatives for resilient liberal and sustainable societies, dealing with green transformation, social cohesion and societal emancipation, democratic participation, social equality, and the unity of Europe.

 

schedule
working status
Further speakers, participants, moderators to be announced soon

 

Conference DAY 2
Sat – Nov 29, 2025

10:00 Registration – venue open for public (coffee offer)

10:30 Welcoming Day II (brief)

10:40 Interlude – external impulse(s):

• Docomomo International, Uta Pottgiesser:
  Preview Docomomo Journal (DJ74) „Imperfect Modernism“
• ICOMOS, Tino Mager: ICOMOS and the continuing discovery of Modernism

11:00 Section 1
Modernism – a progressive heritage for liberal, democratic, and sustainable societies?

11:00 Keynotes – Focus-statements
(3 statements, 3 speakers, each 10-15 min.; plus short introductions to speakers)

• Jörg Haspel (Germany): Everyday Modernism – From Cultural Heritage to Ecological Resource?
• Nataliia Mysak (Ukraine): tba
• Hubert Trammer (Poland): Modernism as part of the bigger whole?

12:15 Workshop-talk

12:45 Lessons-learned Section 1 (conclusion)

——— 13:00 Lunch-break ———

14:00 Keynote lecture
Michał Murawski (Great Britain): Little Empire – Architecture, Nature and Violence in Recolonial Russia

14:45 Section 2: Modern neighborhoods –
in-between social cohesion and sustainable transformation?

14:45 Intro to section
(incl. short introductions to speakers)

15:00 Keynote – Opening Section
Henrieta Moravcikova (Slovakia): Cultural centres: Messengers from the past or catalysts for community life?

15:30 Keystudies
Main presentations (several examples in comparison; 3 presentations; 3 speakers, each 20 min.)

• Riin Alatalu (Estonia): Cultural house as an anchor of rural society
• Dumitru Rusu (Romania): Monuments to Collective Joy – The Adaptive Requalification / Reuse of Soc-Modernist State Circuses in the Eastern Bloc

16:00 Q&A with audience

——— 16:15 Coffee-break ———

16:30 Focus sessions
(two sessions in parallel breakout rooms)

16:45 Focus session A – Breakout-room

16:45 Intro

17:00 Keystudies
Focus presentations (focus each on one object/project; 3 presentations, 3 speakers, each 10 min.)

• Monika Kicová (Slovakia): Former Headquarters of the Slovak Communist Party – from Transition Period after 1989 to Present
• Ana Ivanovska Deskova (North Macedonia): The Case of the Cultural Center in Skopje
• Andrea Londáková (Slovakia): The Afterlife of Socialist Retail. The Case of Bratislava’s New Market Hall

17:30 Workshop-talk

18:00 Lessons-learned (Focus Session A)

or

16:45 Focus session B – Breakout-room

16:45 Intro

17:00 Keystudies
Focus presentations (focus each on one object/project; 3 presentations, 3 speakers, each 10 min.)

• Lenka Burgerova (Czech Republic): Claiming the public space. Modernism in Teplice, Ústí, and Most
• Jasna Galjer (Croatia): Cultural Centres as Sites and Media Spaces. Cultural Practices from Socialism to Post-Transition – the case study of Workers University in Zagreb
• Mária Novotná (Slovakia): Shared Landscapes. Modern neighborhoods as an urban and architectural intervention within the fragile environments

17:30 Workshop-talk

18:00 Lessons-learned (Focus Session B)

——— 18:15 Short-break ———

18:30 Forum discussion
with speakers (Q&A with audience)

19:00 Lessons-learned (Section 2)

19:15 Wrap-up & Outlook (Day 1 & Day 2)

19:30 Release-Event – Docomomo Journal (DJ75) “Imperfect Modernism”
incl. Get-together”

 

ETOM NEB Lab – New European Bauhaus Lab
on Trans-European Modernism and its Progressive Heritage with focus on Central-Europe

The ETOM NEB Lab — is a co-creation Lab on trans-European Modernism – from its architectural and built heritage to its heritage of ideas and its diverse and ambivalent legacies – to evolve and realize transnational cooperation, best-practice, research, and capacity building. The ETOM NEB Lab is an official Lab of the „New European Bauhaus“ (NEB) and the first NEB project on the topic of Modernism, founded in the framework of the „ETOM – European Triennial of Modernism“. ETOM represents a circular ecosystem on a three-year rhythm to bear and sustain plural transdisciplinary collaboration projects and to establish the decentralized and recurring ETOM festival. The overall objective is to explore, unlock, and maintain the diverse potentials and resilience of emancipatory values of Modernism, as a cultural domain and progressive heritage (#progressiveheritage) – to make it productive for contemporary planetary questions for a sustainable future. The growing network involves more than 40 partners from 15 countries, including around 10 official NEB community members, on a heterogeneous and transsectoral background, with emphasis on Central Europe.

ETOM festival – As target and starting point for ETOM’s circular ecosystem and the work of the „ETOM NEB Lab“, the recurring ETOM festival reinvents the conventional schemes of Biennials or Triennials, to interlink actors, joint activities, and exchange formats across Europe for a multi-local and decentral festival of public and professional offers. To sustainably develop and pursue the topic of ETOM, the festival fosters public dialogue to bridge between professional and civic target groups and audiences. This approach is activated and continuously maintained by the Lab, with regular meetups and partner-events within the three-years cycle, with curated encounters within Milestone-projects and -conferences, and with the recurring triennial ETOM festival.

CREDITS – The „ETOM NEB Lab“ was created by the NEB members BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche, KÉK – The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Center, ICOMOS international, National Gallery Prague, Slovak Design Center, Estonian Academy of Arts, and ACE – Architects’ Council of Europe, as well as buschfeld.com, jointly acting as the Coordination Group of the Lab. The ETOM initiative was founded by BHROX bauhaus reuse / zukunftsgeraeusche and buschfeld.com during the COVID-19 pandemic, being the initiators and starting the basis for the trans-European creation of the „ETOM NEB Lab“. The ETOM initiative originates as the transnational spin-off to the superregional „Triennial of Modernism“ (TDM) in the cities of Berlin, Dessau, and Weimar and takes place parallel and in association with the festival in Germany. The development of the „ETOM NEB Lab“ and ETOM network has been accompanied and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), hosting the German NEB National Contact Point (NCP), and especially by the Berlin Monument Authority (LDA). The international network activities are featured in a triangular cooperation with DOCOMOMO, ICOMOS and ETOM.