The twentieth century generated a crisis of public monuments. This paper proposes a reflection on the choices made by society regarding what aspects of history to remember and how in order to provide a foundation for its collective identity. Since ancient times, the task of public monuments has been to imprint in history the perpetual memory of a character, identified as the ideal model around which the history of their time revolves. With the French Revolution, there was a fundamental change of course on this front. The public no longer needed to follow an ideal sovereign, and the story was no longer calibrated to a single character but to each citizen. The crisis of public monuments after World War II dealt with the concept of durability, a fundamental attribute for this archetype, with the consequent birth of the counter-monument. To fully understand this crisis, the evolution of one of the commemorative monuments par excellence – historiated column – will be analysed through three key examples, far apart in space and time, each exemplifying a precise evolutionary phase: Trajan’s Column, the Vendôme Column and the Monument against Fascism, War, Violence, erected in 1986 by Jochen and Ester Gerz.
A Reflection on the Crisis of Public Monuments. The case of Historiated Column
Del Sole, Francesco
2020-01-01
Abstract
The twentieth century generated a crisis of public monuments. This paper proposes a reflection on the choices made by society regarding what aspects of history to remember and how in order to provide a foundation for its collective identity. Since ancient times, the task of public monuments has been to imprint in history the perpetual memory of a character, identified as the ideal model around which the history of their time revolves. With the French Revolution, there was a fundamental change of course on this front. The public no longer needed to follow an ideal sovereign, and the story was no longer calibrated to a single character but to each citizen. The crisis of public monuments after World War II dealt with the concept of durability, a fundamental attribute for this archetype, with the consequent birth of the counter-monument. To fully understand this crisis, the evolution of one of the commemorative monuments par excellence – historiated column – will be analysed through three key examples, far apart in space and time, each exemplifying a precise evolutionary phase: Trajan’s Column, the Vendôme Column and the Monument against Fascism, War, Violence, erected in 1986 by Jochen and Ester Gerz.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
