Symposion’s essential publication takes us on a journey through the maze of regional memory.
Symposion is a Serbian-based independent publishing house that, as its name suggests, seeks to explore the history and present of the post-Soviet countries in a variety of media. Their repertoire includes pop culture anthologies, albums, and concept books.
Prior to the TRAUMA series, they had published three previous thematic issues: Roncs (Wreck—the Transl.), Bűn/ártatlanság – szag/illat (Crime/innocence—smell/scent—the Transl.), and Közép-Kelet-Európa közhelyei (Clichés of Central and Eastern Europe—the Transl.). In these publications, the aim was to revise the visual and literary art and literature of the disasters caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars, and of course to highlight parallels or even divergences in the regional artists’ works, aesthetic thinking, and memories.
Since Freud, we have known that in every traumatic event, there always remains something inaccessible, something mythological that we are rationally incapable of explaining. This is equally true of nostalgia, a longing for things that have passed or perhaps never existed. Both of them color the past, so that from their perspective the past is no longer simply something that we have lived through directly, but reveals much about how it is still present in the memories of different nations.
In the first two editions, published in 2013 and 2016, the graphic works were accompanied by various texts, but the last edition, published in 2019, focuses exclusively on the graphics.
The Hungarian publication features artists such as László Győrffy, an emblematic figure of Budapest horror, and Lehel Kovács, whom we have previously reported on in Hype&Hyper.
Symposion Publishing’s products can be purchased at VALAMI HAZAI’s webshop.
Cover photo: László Győrffy
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Source: valamihazai, varfok-galeria