{"id":11953,"date":"2026-03-03T14:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/?post_type=articles&p=11953"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:42:11","slug":"doing-public-history-in-a-shopping-mall","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/articles\/doing-public-history-in-a-shopping-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing (public) history in a shopping mall: pourquoi pas?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\nThoughts on the first C\u00b2DH history festival in the Belval Plaza shopping centre<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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It must have been sometime around 9 November 2019 \u2013 luckily my phone knows it better than I do: it was 15 October 2019, what one would not immediately assume given the rather light clothes the people on this photo are wearing \u2013 that I first saw a GDR watchtower and a presumably authentic section of the Berlin Wall in the open-air atrium of the Mall of Berlin. The mall, located just a few meters away from the former sector boundary, opened in 2014 on the site of the once biggest department store in Europe, Wertheim, which did not survive WW2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the 30th anniversary of its fall approaching, the Wall and representations of it were literally omnipresent in Berlin in the autumn of 2019, but this particular section really caught my attention: why? Because it was in a mall, an unexpected place that is yet highly frequented and accessible to people from all walks of life. Cool, is it not? If shopping malls can be places of recreation and entertainment, why would not they be places of history, too? This is not to say that malls have never before hosted exhibitions or fairs of different kinds, but rather to question how well they fare as locations for interactive history-related content. I would in fact argue they definitely serve the purpose, based on last year\u2019s experience. Keep reading\/scrolling for more details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n \n\"Open-air

\n The presumably authentic segments and the less-authentic-looking watchtower. Photo by Dora Komnenovic, 2019 <\/p>\n <\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On another 15 October (what a coincidence!), six years later, in 2025, the first ever history festival of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C\u00b2DH), the Histofest<\/a>, took place in the Belval Plaza shopping centre. This initiative was and still is an expression of the desire to experiment with new ways of practicing public history and engaging with local communities, as well as creating a networking platform where existing partnerships could be expanded and new ones created. With its multifaceted programme consisting of hands-on activities, a project\u2019s fair, a multimedia exhibit, a music performance, and a film programme, the pilot edition of the festival laid the groundwork for a recurring (annual) event combining networking, edutainment, and promotion. Approximately 300 visitors attended the event at the Belval Plaza mall and the Kinepolis cinema located within the shopping mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The atmosphere on the day of the festival and some of the tunes played by Ivan K. are perhaps best conveyed in the following recap video<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n \n\"Histofest

\n Flyer of the event designed by Kirill Mitsurov <\/p>\n <\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n \n\"Histofest <\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The film programme featured two documentary films, \u201cTito Among the Serbs for the Second Time\u201d by \u017delimir \u017dilnik and \u201cNicolae\u201d by Mihai Grecu. Although created almost thirty years apart (in 1994 and 2022 respectively), both films explore the effects a blast from the past, i.e. the sudden \u201cresurrection\u201d of long dead communist leaders can have on people. The two screenings were followed by a lively discussion about the political uses of the past and the future role of holography with the filmmakers \u017delimir \u017dilnik and Mihai Grecu. Interestingly, both Tito and Ceau\u0219escu<\/em> visited Luxembourg and the city of Esch-sur-Alzette in 1970 and 1972 respectively. You can read more about these state visits in my article \u201cTito und Ceau\u0219escu zum zweiten Mal in Luxemburg<\/a>\u201d published in German in the Tageblatt newspaper.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n \n\"Q&A

\n Q&A with \u017delimir \u017dilnik after the screening of his 1994 film. Photo by Ali\u00e9nor Gandanger <\/p>\n <\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n \n\"Histofest

\n Photo challenge. Photo by Snejana Granatkina <\/p>\n <\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n

It was this fact that turned state visits into the topic of the pilot edition of the Histofest, while at the same time adding a local history dimension to it. In fact, in the \u201cphoto challenge\u201d, visitors were required to put back together torn pictures of state visits (dear archivists, relax: only facsimiles were used!) and identify the prominent personalities on the photos. In return, they could win prizes and learn more about the people on the pictures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protocol of state visits often includes the signing of a Golden Book. At the first Histofest two such books were exhibited, the Golden Book of the City of Esch signed by Pope John Paul II and the Visitors\u2019 Book of the National Museum of resistance and Human Rights signed by Tito, among others. Next to them, the hologram of Ceau\u0219escu that was created for the purposes of the film \u201cNicolae\u201d was displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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