Lecture by cultural historian, film expert, head of the Department of Creative and Cultural Practices of the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture of Aberdeen State University Alan Marcus: we invite you to join

On March 17, Alan Markus, Head of the Department of Creative and Cultural Practices of the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture of Aberdeen State University, will give a guest lecture "Living Witness: Representation of a Post-Traumatic City Waiting for Peace" for Karazin residents.

This lecture continues the series of lectures under the auspices of Karazin University "For One Lecture to Victory: Speakers of the World in Support of Karazin University".

Professor Alan Marcus is a cultural historian, film scholar and Head of Creative and Cultural Practices who joined the University of Aberdeen in January 2007 from the University of Manchester, where he was Director of the Center for Screen Studies.

Prior to his appointment as Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Manchester's Department of Drama in 1994 and the development of a Diploma in Drama and Film Studies, he taught in the Film Department at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. As a postgraduate student at Cambridge, Professor Marcus investigated the impact of film and literary representations of Inuit on public perception and government intervention, drawing on his fieldwork in four Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic.

Alan Marcus graduated from the University of Illinois with a BA in Cinema and Visual Arts. He is a writer, director and producer of documentaries and other television programs for ABC-TV, CBS-TV (USA) and Channel Four (UK), including The Winds (1988) about the cultural changes occurring through the work of Sámi artists in the reindeer herding community beyond the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden and Finland.

He has been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 1984. Professor Markus' works are presented at photo exhibitions, video installations at avant-garde and museum exhibitions, as well as films at public screenings.

Alan Marcus's research and film work focuses primarily on famous 'post-traumatic' places and their relationship to the contemporary environment, as well as how our understanding of place can be shaped by recent events. Taking into account the tragedies experienced by the people of Kharkiv since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Professor Markus will talk about the film he made on a similar topic. One Market Day (2011) is a 30-minute film that examines the relationship between the most famous Western painting of the 20th century, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, completed in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, and the city of Guernica today in the light of past events, when it was almost completely destroyed by bombing in one day.

The film explores the key themes expressed in Picasso's painting, using symbols, auditory and visual metaphors to convey additional meaning. In the post-war period, the city of Guernica gained the reputation of a "city of peace", and a museum dedicated to this idea was opened in the center of the city. After a long time after the destruction, the city became the personification of reflection and a fruitful and peaceful future. During the lecture, Professor Markus will compare the city of Kharkiv with the city of Guernica, referring to the painting by Pablo Picasso.

The film and presentation will facilitate a discussion about how artistic representations, creative nonfiction, and historical responses to traumatic events can be used to shape contemporary thinking.

Start of the event: at 17:00.

You can register for participation by following the link.

The meeting will be held on the Zoom platform.

A link to log into Zoom (where you can ask your questions live) will come in a separate email to all registrants.

You can also listen to the lecture on the university's YouTube channel during a live broadcast.

We invite Karazenians to join us!