IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

What can we do with monuments that have lost their significance or whose significance is now contested? In recent years, there has been an increase in the movements contesting monuments and sites worldwide. An iconic example is the Rhodes Must Fall movement in Oxford, but there are countless examples all around the globe. Clearly, when societies transition, there is the question: what should we do with the remnants of the past? Should we conserve them as they are? Should we contextualise their meaning in the present? Or should they be? Strategies to deal with contested histories have varied worldwide depending on the monument’s location, size, iconography and symbolism. Some have been erased and replaced, like the Lineup for Meat Stalin Statue in Prague – replaced by a metronome in 1991. While others have intervened with artistic approaches to change its meaning. Take the Soviet Tank painted pink by David Černý (also in Prague) as an example, or the Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, where Soviet soldiers turn into superheroes. In this presentation, we would like to o shed some light on how these contestations are dealt with in Europe, taking examples from our mapping studio – the Contested Histories Initiatives – which counts over 500 cases around the world. We will look at how contestations have been dealt with in the past, what strategy was followed and what lessons can be learned for the future.