FALLING MONUMENTS? is an installation that focuses on the polyphony of the discourse surrounding historical monuments and invites visitors to form their own differentiated opinions.
The emotional images of the toppling of monuments in 2020 are still present in our minds today: statues of former colonial rulers, slave traders and conquistadors were knocked off their pedestals all over the world and attacked with paint and tools. The toppling of monuments is of course nothing new, but the international scale was so enormous that there was talk of an “unprecedented wave of iconoclasm” (v.Tunzelmann, 2022, p.9). A new wave of attention roared up and put monuments at the center of a tense debate: On the one hand, there are activists who demand the abolition of certain monuments as a symbolic cementation of a discriminatory hierarchical value system. On the other side, preservationists argue that their presence can stimulate debates about the past and thus warn against the return of oppressive systems.
With FALLING MONUMENT?, Lia Bach and Lea Meister are facing up to their responsibility as designers to place socially relevant issues at the center of their work and use it to initiate processes of change through a transparency-creating debate.
The installation will be accompanied by three workshops.
Dealing with the history and significance of monuments in one’s own neighborhood can create a sense of identity and stimulate political interest and participation.
FALLING MONUMENTS? offers an accessible approach to a discourse on democratic thinking and action. By participating in the workshops, we invite citizens to become part of the debate, which is usually only conducted among heritage scholars and cultural journalists.
Projektwebsite: FALLING MONUMENT?
Dates Workshops:
13.01., 14.01. und 29.01.24 von 11:00 - 14:00 Uhr
Registration fallingmonuments@gmx.de
