Limits of the monument in an expanded field

the production of other places of memory in contemporary times

Abstract

The article presents a reflection on the contemporary condition of the “monument”, starting from its first concept as “monere” – to warn, to remember – and the possibility of its “weak”, “weak” presentation (Solà-Morales), presenting approximate works to the “site specific” condition and in an expanded field. Intentional monuments and interventions in “places” of remembrance – sites that have “values” and meanings, often material pre-existences – are selected for their emphasis on the proposition of embodied experiences and for inciting reflection on memory, in a public sense, to raise awareness and warning. Among other works that deal with the memory of pain in the second post-war period, it presents a comparative analysis of Nameles Library (2000) by Rachel Whiteread, Field of Stelae in Berlin (2010) by Peter Eisenman and Topography of Terror in Berlin, both the project conceived in 1993 by Peter Zumthor as the project carried out by Ursula Wilms (2010), interpreting the works as blocks and “solos” of memory based on the meanings of “uncanny”, silence, terrain vague and heterotopia. Recognized not only as monuments, in the condition of the expanded field, memorials are valued as other places of memory, as they complicate the meanings attributed to the past, exposing the places of difference.