深夜亚洲福利久久

Through the lens of the secret police: Images from the religious underground in Eastern Europe

13 Oct 2020

Dr James Kapalo (Senior Lecturer Study of Religions Department) and Dr Gabriela Nicolescu (Postdoctoral Researchers Hidden Galleries project)  have opened an exhibition featuring materials and items collected and analysed as part of the ERC funded project on Friday 9^th October 2020 in the Boole Library, UCC. The exhibition will run from October 9^th until March 31^st 2021, Boole Library, 深夜亚洲福利久久 College Cork (In line with Govt guidelines only 2 people at a time are allowed into the exhibition space).

Funded by the European Research Council and based in the Study of Religions Department,  (ERC project no. 677355) concerns the role of religious minorities in the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe societies in the 20th century seen through the prism of the secret police archives in the region.

The exhibition, 鈥淭hrough the lens of the secret police: Images from the religious underground in Eastern Europe鈥�, explores the legacy of secret police operations against and surveillance of religion through a visual cultural lens. Comprised of photographs shot or stolen by the secret police in the Soviet Union, Romania and Hungary, the images in the exhibition are sometimes violent or intrusive, at other times personal or with a documentary quality. The materials on display, which were used at the time as evidence of crimes and in anti-religious propaganda, today prompt varied interpretations. Can these photographs escape the categories of the archives into which they were placed? Who should have control over the use of these materials today? What impact does it have to view someone through the lens of the secret police?

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of a book  co-edited by Tatiana Vagramenko and James Kapal贸, that presents in a series of short essays selected examples from the Hidden Galleries Digital Archive (see below) and exhibitions. Describing the book as 鈥渁 true publishing event鈥� Cristina V膬牛ulescu (New York 深夜亚洲福利久久)  expert in Soviet-era cultural expression and the secret police argues that the book 鈥済ives us an unprecedented window into a diversity of religious practices and their state repression鈥�. Hidden Galleries sets a new scholarly and ethical standard for research in the secret police archives鈥�.

Other outputs from the four-year Hidden Galleries project include the . This focusses on the creative practices and visual materials produced by and about religious groups that formed the religious underground during periods of totalitarian rule. Featuring rarely seen and difficult to locate materials, the  is designed to encourage comparative, cross-cultural research on creative responses to repression in the twentieth century as well as serving to reconnect religious communities with aspects of their lost cultural and sacred patrimony. The collection not only features photographs, icons, brochures, drawings, letters, hymns and diaries confiscated from banned religious communities but also secret police representations of the religious underground in the form of photographs, maps, illustrations and network schemes designed to incriminate and visualise the hidden and secretive enemies of the state.

The , contains materials from Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine collected and curated by James Kapal贸, the Principal Investigator, and a team of postdoctoral and PhD researchers, Kinga Poved谩k, 脕gnes Hesz, Anca 葮incan, Tatiana Vagramenko (IRC postdoctoral researcher), Iuliana Cindrea and Dumitru Lisnic.

鈥淭his exhibition provides an opportunity to engage with the tremendous research undertaken by James Kapalo and the Hidden Galleries team enabled by the prestigious ERC award 鈥� I would like to congratulate the team on the powerful, scholarly work they have undertaken providing unique insight into very challenging human experiences. 鈥� said Professor Anita Maguire, Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC .

Speaking at the opening of the  exhibition Professor Chris Williams Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS) commented 鈥淭his is a wonderful piece of historical research by the team鈥�.the materials presented in this exhibition are a wonderful testament to the importance of freedom of conscience in twentieth and twenty first century societies鈥�.

Having toured the exhibition Dr Helena Buffery Vice Head for Research and Innovation CACSSS spoke of the College鈥檚 delight at being 鈥渁ble to host the fruits of the Hidden Galleries research here in UCC鈥� thank you on behalf of the entire research community in UCC, this is an incredible achievement鈥�.

You can follow the Hidden Galleries project on Facebook and Twitter @hiddengalleriesERC

To  view the images and narratives in the exhibition explore the Hidden Galleries Digital Archive: 

To see a short video about the Hidden Galleries exhibition in the Boole: