Having survived World War II and the bombings of the Liberation gave a new impulse to a whole post-war generation. The innovative modernity of the architects who rebuilt the destroyed cities, the commitment of the construction workers who worked in perilous conditions, and the establishment of new, temporary peaceful diplomatic relations inspired a rich visual and artistic production.
Organized in the framework of the research project Visual Culture of Trauma, Obliteration, and Reconstruction in Post-World-War II Europe (www.victor-e.eu), this conference will take place 20-21-22 April 2022 in Paris, at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA). Itwill bring together the viewpoints of historians, visual sociologists, and historians of art, cinema, architecture, photography, painting and other related visual media on the period of Reconstruction following the Second World War in Europe. The research on the challenges of the post-war period, which began in the 1980s, has been fruitful but is only including visual sources since the 2000s. The increased digitization of archival collections, in particular iconographic and audiovisual holdings, encourages the exploration of the Reconstruction period through the rediscovery of these new objects.