Living memorial and frozen monuments: the role of social practice in memorial sites

Abstract

Monuments and memorials have become mundane elements of public space: commemorative plaques, statues, and memorial sites are mushrooming in the wake of memory production. However, besides the emblematic ones that have become accepted both by the powers and the public, there is a long list of monuments which are less cherished and/or have failed to be accepted as landmarks. When analysing two memorials in Budapest, I was interested in the possible factors explaining the failure and/or neglect of a monument. The monument dedicated to the victims of the German Occupation of Hungary was never officially unveiled, thus has not become part of the governing authority’s political landscape. Hence the proliferation of commemorative plaques on site the Corvin Passage, one of the emblematic scenes of 1956 revolution in Hungary, seems to be in a limbo between a commercial area and a heritage site. In contrast, the anti-monument on Liberty Square, a collage of personal relics, juxtaposing the official memorial, regularly visited by locals as well as tourists. Based on the example of the anti-monument on Liberty square, I stress the importance of social practice in commemoration. I argue that a memorial site’s public acceptance and success is correlated with its capacity to engage in regular social practices.

Commemorating local victims of past atrocities and far-right support over time

“…Instead of, or in addition to the material presence of the memorials, Berlin residents may respond to the social practices that accompany them. Social practices give memorials life and render them meaningful as people actively engage with them ( 31 ). As described in the introduction, the Stolpersteine memorial invites everyone in a neighborhood to participate and many do.…”

An Assessment of Cultural Places of Interest in Tshwane to Inform a Tourism Shift From Colonial to Indigenous Towards Decolonisation

“…The monument commemorates war, conquest, dominance, (and nationalism), is a form of militarism legitimisation, and is a symbol of mourning (Abousnnouga & Machin, 2010). Much of the 20th-century architecture of which this forms a part, was built to celebrate the triumphs of colonisation and to encase into physical form the builders' (political) powers (Erőss, 2018). The Voortrekker Monument is an example of this principle as it functions as a museum in which Afrikaner history is stored and displayed.…”

Entanglements of art and memory activism in Hungary’s illiberal democracy

“…(Rothberg 2009: 3). The clash between different versions of history also activated personal recollections of the past alongside professional discussions, which underlines that memory is essentially a social practice and cannot be overwritten by top-down memory politics (Erőss 2018). The persistent memory activism of the Living Memorial thus highlights that conflicting memories triggered by top-down interventions in the public space may generate urgent public debates that would remain hidden or underexplored otherwise.…”