Returning to Europe: Remembering the 1989 Revolutions Thirty Years Later, Prague and Budapest

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the 2019 celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the 1989 revolutions in Central Europe, responsible for the fall of communist regimes in the region. I will do so by taking two exhibitions that were on display that year as object and source of analysis: the photographic exhibition 1989 - Pád železné opony (1989 - The Fall of the Iron Curtain), organized in Prague, Czech Republic; and the ‘89 ‘90 - 30 Éve Szabadon (‘89 ‘90 - 30 Years of Freedom) poster exhibition in Budapest, Hungary. Through the comparative study of the two exhibitions and the analysis of the political processes that marked the democratic transition in the Czech Republic and Hungary, the intention is to understand how the narratives around the 1989 revolutions have been structured in the region in the current context of democratic crisis and the rise of the conservative right. At the same time, the article considers the memory around the 1989 revolutions from the point of view of the so-called “return to Europe” of the countries of the former communist bloc.

Keywords:
1989 Revolutions; Central Europe; Memory