Another Look at Political Memory

In our summer issue, John Perreault examined the hole in our social memory that spans the years of the Nazi occupation in France. He concludes that we have forgotten about our artistic demigods--Picasso and Matisse--did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime. In a separate review, Ernesto Menendez-Conde and I took a look at Damnatio Memoriae, a show at 57th Street's Greenberg Van Doren Gallery. This show concerned itself with a similar idea--the persistence or absence of political memory, in this case in Italy in the second half of the 20th century. In this month's issue of Cabinet, the editors seems to be thinking along similar lines. They have included "Historical Amnesias: An Interview with Paul Connerton," a piece dedicated to the exploration of social memory.

Continue to Cabinet's Interview...