Academic Sessions: Liverpool 2002
The Colonisation of Public Space - the Empowerment of Sculpture
Jo Darke, Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 72 Lissenden Mansions. Lissenden Gardens, London NW5 1PR. jo.darke@inted.demon.co.uk
Sculpture remains one of the most public art forms. From the Eiffel Tower to the St. Louis Arch, vast architectural sculptures have become icons of the modern metropolis. In 1889, a quarter of a million people watched the unveiling of Dalou\'s Triumph of the Republic. A hundred years later, public sculpture provided some of the most evocative images of the fall of the Soviet régime as statues were demolished en masse. Historically, monuments have been erected to legitimise and perpetuate political power structures; they have contributed to the imposition of colonial hegemony. Sculptural objects and structures placed in public space have provided sites of ideological contention which have extended far beyond controversies about aesthetics. Global companies and civic bodies have collaborated on public projects not only to generate/re-generate cultural and capital investment but also to create \'visitor attractions\'. Arguably, since the 1950s, conspicuously prestigious public sculpture has been utilised to bestow \'culture\' on the fruits of Capital. Every development in the contemporary built environment has its sculptural feature or temporary installation/intervention, asserting its place in modern-postmodern culture. But what meanings do these public \'sights\' convey? Is there a role for contemporary monuments or can space itself commemorate? Can monuments help us recover memory or has memory been subsumed in art? What part do past and present monuments play in the construction of individual and cultural identities? This strand will explore the historical and contemporary role of monuments and sculptural objects in public spaces and consider their impact and interaction with politics, social life and culture. Focusing on two broad themes, we hope to address the idea of \'contested monuments\', especially those affected by local or national conflict, and also to give consideration to issues to do with collective memory, identity, embodiment and being.
Public Sculpture and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Reuben Fowkes (University of Essex, England)
This paper will consider several aspects of the place of public sculpture in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This includes looking at the role public monuments played in the course of the revolt, the central example of which is the destruction of Budapest\'s Stalin statue by iconoclastic crowds on the first night of the uprising. This hugely symbolic event was arguably a ritual act of public desecration which transgressed the most sacred site of communist public space. After the suppression of the revolt, many of the statues demolished over the course of the revolution were recast and quietly reerected. The Stalin statue was not rebuilt, and, in its absence, became a virtual anti-monument to the 1956 Revolution. Its huge socialist realist plinth continued to fulfil its original function as a platform for party dignitaries on public holidays, while subversive urban myths developed surrounding the statue and its downfall. After the fall of communism, veterans\' associations rushed to erect monuments to the revolution\'s martyrs. Many of these were created unofficially, without planning permission or an orderly commissioning process. At the same time, monuments to communists who had died defeating the revolution were removed and placed in Budapest\'s Statuepark of retired communist public monuments
The Berlin Wall: From Border to Object
Lorettan D-Gascard (Franklin Pierce College, USA)
The Berlin Wall was constructed as a literal and emblematic landmark--it delineated a geographic border and isolated ideologies. By the 1970\'s, the contrast between the Wall\'s East and West surfaces served to amplify its symbolic presence: The East surface obstructed by border guards and "no man\'s land" remained unadorned, while the West surface became a public "canvas" for sprayed and brush painted images, messages, signs and ornamentation. When the Wall lost its function as border on 7 November 1989, the West surface became the object of a ritualistic dismantling by a collective stream of "Mauer Spechte", chinking away at its painted surface. At the same time, monolithic sections were officially hauled off, often repainted with government-friendly slogans and motifs, and installed/exhibited in public spaces. The metamorphosis of the Wall from border to relic and public sculpture was surrounded by political and legal circumstance and suspended between spontaneous dynamism and planned superintendence. Within these constructs, this paper examines the nexus between the public\'s role in forming and transforming public art; and political dominion (and sway of dominion) in the assessment and identification (and reassessment and re-identification) of such works.
Absence in Public Space - the Failure of Sculpture in the Aftermath of War
Joe Kerr (Royal College of Art, England)
The paper discusses the absence of public sculpture after the Second World War, that is to say the failure of sculpture to provide a suitably monumental form in the aftermath of war. Such discussion encompasses specific examples, for example Lubetkin\'s Lenin Memorial, but also examines broader issues such as photographs superseding physical monuments as the authentic memorials of that conflict. It concludes by looking at how monuments are now suddenly back on the agenda, here and in the United States and elsewhere (for example in Vienna), but are proving equally problematic. Additionally, the paper looks at the persistent failure in Britain to construct the equivalent of a national monument.
Colliery Disaster Memorials and the Construction of Memory
Paul Usherwood (University of Northumbria at Newcastle, England)
Even though they often pre-date them by many years, colliery disaster memorials in the North East of England tend to be similar to First World War memorials both in appearance and rhetorical style. It might be assumed therefore that the kind of memory (and forgetting) that they perpetuate and the kind of symbolic landscape that they help to create are similar. But this is not necessarily so. This paper looks at these hitherto little studied works and the role that they have played in coping with mass bereavement and in shaping the character of a particular region.
Maitres Chez Nous: Public Art and Linguistic Identity in Quebec
Annie Gerin (University of Regina, Canada)
With the introduction of issues of difference to the study of culture, one no longer needs to argue that race, gender and language constitute knowledge, underpinned by ideologies of power and nation, and disseminated through cultural fantasies. We now recognise that these are epistemological fields in their own right, and that they challenge homogenous historical narratives, which perpetuate themselves by using assumptions of truth to promote a historical status quo. However, while space is used as the main metaphor for \'positioning,\' it still rarely comes into question as a field of motivated knowledge. Space, as we experience it, is a representation assembled from a complex mixture of lived, conceived and perceived features; it is simultaneously material, social and subjective. Furthermore it is particularly malleable through construction, occupation and appropriation. This paper will examine the production of public art in Quebec in the second half of the Twentieth Century, in relation to francophone identity. Issues of language, cultural identity, law, as well as appropriation of imaginary and material space will be brought together in order to address transformations in conceptions and uses of public space. In this context, public art will be discussed outside the tradition of art history, which understands it as part of the sculptural tradition (three-dimensional objects removed from the museum and placed in another environment.) Indeed, public art is often used to mark a site or a cultural or political presence in an area. It is also often appropriated or deflected from its original purpose. For these reasons, the paper will focus on use rather than form, on diversity rather than tradition, and on conflicting elements within Quebec\'s nationalistic discourse on space.
The Memorial to Walter Benjamin and the Complexities of \'Being There\'
Shelley Hornstein (York University, Canada)
What does it mean to travel to a remote site of commemoration, particularly for those who may never travel to these monuments. Dani Karavan\'s Passages - Memorial to Walter Benjamin heightens the importance of place and the dynamic of geography for commemorating Walter Benjamin yet almost erases itself in the landscape. How do we commemorate if our presence in its site is not possible? Can architecture - the great spatial captor - capture memory and place? How important is it for a physical monument to exist in a place when the majority who will know of it will do so only through photographs or word-of-mouth? With Karavan\'s work as a centerpiece, Benjamin\'s own writings and Derrida\'s concept of architecture as the writing of space where, as he puts it, a mode of spacing makes a place for the event, I will raise questions about the collision, elision, juxtaposition and seamlessness of landscape and site, history and politics. What is anticipated when a site transforms from one tourist economy as a border-crossing to a place where the monument, as catalyst, shifts into an itinerant exhibition of the people in it who have come to pay homage to Walter Benjamin, see a "Karavan" piece, or try to reconcile the past? By erasing locality or rendering it secondary, this monument garners international currency another international tourist attraction and challenges our ability to discover local context or recover memory.
Sculpture remains one of the most public art forms. From the Eiffel Tower to the St. Louis Arch, vast architectural sculptures have become icons of the modern metropolis. In 1889, a quarter of a million people watched the unveiling of Dalou\'s Triumph of the Republic. A hundred years later, public sculpture provided some of the most evocative images of the fall of the Soviet régime as statues were demolished en masse. Historically, monuments have been erected to legitimise and perpetuate political power structures; they have contributed to the imposition of colonial hegemony. Sculptural objects and structures placed in public space have provided sites of ideological contention which have extended far beyond controversies about aesthetics. Global companies and civic bodies have collaborated on public projects not only to generate/re-generate cultural and capital investment but also to create \'visitor attractions\'. Arguably, since the 1950s, conspicuously prestigious public sculpture has been utilised to bestow \'culture\' on the fruits of Capital. Every development in the contemporary built environment has its sculptural feature or temporary installation/intervention, asserting its place in modern-postmodern culture. But what meanings do these public \'sights\' convey? Is there a role for contemporary monuments or can space itself commemorate? Can monuments help us recover memory or has memory been subsumed in art? What part do past and present monuments play in the construction of individual and cultural identities? This strand will explore the historical and contemporary role of monuments and sculptural objects in public spaces and consider their impact and interaction with politics, social life and culture. Focusing on two broad themes, we hope to address the idea of \'contested monuments\', especially those affected by local or national conflict, and also to give consideration to issues to do with collective memory, identity, embodiment and being.
Public Sculpture and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Reuben Fowkes (University of Essex, England)
This paper will consider several aspects of the place of public sculpture in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This includes looking at the role public monuments played in the course of the revolt, the central example of which is the destruction of Budapest\'s Stalin statue by iconoclastic crowds on the first night of the uprising. This hugely symbolic event was arguably a ritual act of public desecration which transgressed the most sacred site of communist public space. After the suppression of the revolt, many of the statues demolished over the course of the revolution were recast and quietly reerected. The Stalin statue was not rebuilt, and, in its absence, became a virtual anti-monument to the 1956 Revolution. Its huge socialist realist plinth continued to fulfil its original function as a platform for party dignitaries on public holidays, while subversive urban myths developed surrounding the statue and its downfall. After the fall of communism, veterans\' associations rushed to erect monuments to the revolution\'s martyrs. Many of these were created unofficially, without planning permission or an orderly commissioning process. At the same time, monuments to communists who had died defeating the revolution were removed and placed in Budapest\'s Statuepark of retired communist public monuments
The Berlin Wall: From Border to Object
Lorettan D-Gascard (Franklin Pierce College, USA)
The Berlin Wall was constructed as a literal and emblematic landmark--it delineated a geographic border and isolated ideologies. By the 1970\'s, the contrast between the Wall\'s East and West surfaces served to amplify its symbolic presence: The East surface obstructed by border guards and "no man\'s land" remained unadorned, while the West surface became a public "canvas" for sprayed and brush painted images, messages, signs and ornamentation. When the Wall lost its function as border on 7 November 1989, the West surface became the object of a ritualistic dismantling by a collective stream of "Mauer Spechte", chinking away at its painted surface. At the same time, monolithic sections were officially hauled off, often repainted with government-friendly slogans and motifs, and installed/exhibited in public spaces. The metamorphosis of the Wall from border to relic and public sculpture was surrounded by political and legal circumstance and suspended between spontaneous dynamism and planned superintendence. Within these constructs, this paper examines the nexus between the public\'s role in forming and transforming public art; and political dominion (and sway of dominion) in the assessment and identification (and reassessment and re-identification) of such works.
Absence in Public Space - the Failure of Sculpture in the Aftermath of War
Joe Kerr (Royal College of Art, England)
The paper discusses the absence of public sculpture after the Second World War, that is to say the failure of sculpture to provide a suitably monumental form in the aftermath of war. Such discussion encompasses specific examples, for example Lubetkin\'s Lenin Memorial, but also examines broader issues such as photographs superseding physical monuments as the authentic memorials of that conflict. It concludes by looking at how monuments are now suddenly back on the agenda, here and in the United States and elsewhere (for example in Vienna), but are proving equally problematic. Additionally, the paper looks at the persistent failure in Britain to construct the equivalent of a national monument.
Colliery Disaster Memorials and the Construction of Memory
Paul Usherwood (University of Northumbria at Newcastle, England)
Even though they often pre-date them by many years, colliery disaster memorials in the North East of England tend to be similar to First World War memorials both in appearance and rhetorical style. It might be assumed therefore that the kind of memory (and forgetting) that they perpetuate and the kind of symbolic landscape that they help to create are similar. But this is not necessarily so. This paper looks at these hitherto little studied works and the role that they have played in coping with mass bereavement and in shaping the character of a particular region.
Maitres Chez Nous: Public Art and Linguistic Identity in Quebec
Annie Gerin (University of Regina, Canada)
With the introduction of issues of difference to the study of culture, one no longer needs to argue that race, gender and language constitute knowledge, underpinned by ideologies of power and nation, and disseminated through cultural fantasies. We now recognise that these are epistemological fields in their own right, and that they challenge homogenous historical narratives, which perpetuate themselves by using assumptions of truth to promote a historical status quo. However, while space is used as the main metaphor for \'positioning,\' it still rarely comes into question as a field of motivated knowledge. Space, as we experience it, is a representation assembled from a complex mixture of lived, conceived and perceived features; it is simultaneously material, social and subjective. Furthermore it is particularly malleable through construction, occupation and appropriation. This paper will examine the production of public art in Quebec in the second half of the Twentieth Century, in relation to francophone identity. Issues of language, cultural identity, law, as well as appropriation of imaginary and material space will be brought together in order to address transformations in conceptions and uses of public space. In this context, public art will be discussed outside the tradition of art history, which understands it as part of the sculptural tradition (three-dimensional objects removed from the museum and placed in another environment.) Indeed, public art is often used to mark a site or a cultural or political presence in an area. It is also often appropriated or deflected from its original purpose. For these reasons, the paper will focus on use rather than form, on diversity rather than tradition, and on conflicting elements within Quebec\'s nationalistic discourse on space.
The Memorial to Walter Benjamin and the Complexities of \'Being There\'
Shelley Hornstein (York University, Canada)
What does it mean to travel to a remote site of commemoration, particularly for those who may never travel to these monuments. Dani Karavan\'s Passages - Memorial to Walter Benjamin heightens the importance of place and the dynamic of geography for commemorating Walter Benjamin yet almost erases itself in the landscape. How do we commemorate if our presence in its site is not possible? Can architecture - the great spatial captor - capture memory and place? How important is it for a physical monument to exist in a place when the majority who will know of it will do so only through photographs or word-of-mouth? With Karavan\'s work as a centerpiece, Benjamin\'s own writings and Derrida\'s concept of architecture as the writing of space where, as he puts it, a mode of spacing makes a place for the event, I will raise questions about the collision, elision, juxtaposition and seamlessness of landscape and site, history and politics. What is anticipated when a site transforms from one tourist economy as a border-crossing to a place where the monument, as catalyst, shifts into an itinerant exhibition of the people in it who have come to pay homage to Walter Benjamin, see a "Karavan" piece, or try to reconcile the past? By erasing locality or rendering it secondary, this monument garners international currency another international tourist attraction and challenges our ability to discover local context or recover memory.