The Department of Memory Studies invites you to a seminar talk by Oliver Kühschelm (Institute of Rural History, St. Pölten, Austria, Head of the Centre for Historical Migration Research at the IRH): The Shopping Mall Excalibur City: A Liminal Space in “No Man’s Land”

 

Where: In person in Brno, Department of Memory Studies, Veveří 97

In the 1990s the businessman Ronald Seunig built the shopping complex Excalibur City in Hatě next to the Austrian border and made a fortune from duty-free sales to Austrian consumers. Austrian media described the mall’s location as a “no man’s land”. The presentation shows how Seunig drew on Americana, especially frontier imagery of lawless freedom and rebellion, to create a populist appeal to consumers seeking cheap luxuries, above all cigarettes and alcohol. Austrian reporting eagerly adopted this imagery while combining it with elite scorn for a consumerist public. Czechs and Czech society remained largely absent from these representations, which turned Excalibur City into a stage for Austrian grievances and consumer desires.