De-commemoration is a social phenomenon that regards the destruction or profound modification of material representations of the past in public space, representing the opposite or undoing of memorialization. The precise term was coined by Israeli historian Guy Beiner in 2018. [1] [2]
De-commemoration is the set of “processes in which material and public representations of the past are removed, destroyed or fundamentally modified”. [1] Guy Beiner introduced the concept of de-commemorating in reference to hostility towards acts of commemoration that can result in violent assaults and in iconoclastic defacement or destruction of monuments. Beiner's studies suggested that rather than stamping out memorialization and giving an impression of freedom from the past, de-commemorating can paradoxically function as a form of ambiguous remembrance, sustaining interest in controversial memorials. [2] The very dishonor that damage or removal brings to the memorial gives it back its importance in a distinct way juxtaposed to commemorative plaques, statues, and monuments that recall the past in public spaces that are very often ignored in everyday life. [3] [4] Destruction of monuments can also trigger renewed acts of memorialization (which Beiner labelled "re-commemorating"). [2]
According to the framework of sociologists Tracy Adams and Yinon Guttel-Klei, three types of practices can be identified related to the phenomenon. The most widespread is desacralization, that is, desecration and destruction of the monument. [5] The second practice is reframing, which consists of showing the controversial past by recontextualizing the memorial or giving it a new meaning. In practice, this can involve adding explanatory plaques or renaming memorial spaces and streets, thus changing the status and symbolism of monuments or landscapes. [6] The third practice, planned obsolescence, is rarer and refers to monuments deliberately built with a limited lifespan in order to criticize real established monuments or they are installed to spark controversy and thus provoke their demolition. [7]
De-commemoration is not a recent social phenomenon, [8] and has involved five different approaches in historical examples according to a framework set by Sarah Gensburger and Jenny Wüstenberg. [9] It can be the result of a change in political regime and then aims to adapt the symbolic landscape. This is the case, for example, in France after the First Empire, in colonized countries after their independence, or after the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. [10]
De-commemoration can also be linked to a societal transformation that makes monuments or place names appear anachronistic, for example by trying to reduce the over-representation of male statues or street names, or in New Zealand by making room for memorials to Maori people, history, and culture. [11] It can also result from forceful action, from a mobilization that directly aims to provoke changes in the memorial landscape. This is the type of de-commemoration, such as that carried out during and following the Black Lives Matter movement, or in Latin American countries confronted with the legacy of colonialism, or in European ports regarding the Atlantic slave trade. This type of de-commemoration is often the kind that is most spread and documented in mass media, in particular regarding the decolonization of public spaces. [12]
De-commemoration can also sometimes act as a smokescreen, a maneuver by those in charge to prevent political change or to sidestep a debate on the past, as in postcolonial Namibia. [13] Finally, it leads, more rarely, to a transformation in the way of thinking about memory, to reconsidering commemoration itself. This rarely happens because the tendency is to replace the destroyed monument with another of different meaning but of the same type. However, de-commemoration also leads to questioning and modifying the legislative frameworks of memorial uses and sometimes to resorting to new technological tools with how memorials are conceived, created, and interpreted. [14]
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Iconoclasm is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be figuratively applied to any individual who challenges "cherished beliefs or venerated institutions on the grounds that they are erroneous or pernicious."
Damnatio memoriae is a modern Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory" or "damnation of memory", indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts. Depending on the extent, it can be a case of historical negationism. There are and have been many routes to damnatio memoriae, including the destruction of depictions, the removal of names from inscriptions and documents, and even large-scale rewritings of history. The term can be applied to other instances of official scrubbing. The practice has been seen as early as the Egyptian New Kingdom period, where the Pharaohs Hatshepsut and Akhenaten were subject to it.
Civil religion, also referred to as a civic religion, is the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols, and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places. It is distinct from churches, although church officials and ceremonies are sometimes incorporated into the practice of civil religion. Countries described as having a civil religion include France and the United States. As a concept, it originated in French political thought and became a major topic for U.S. sociologists since its use by Robert Bellah in 1960.
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical, political, technical or architectural importance. Examples of monuments include statues, (war) memorials, historical buildings, archaeological sites, and cultural assets. If there is a public interest in its preservation, a monument can for example be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict gives the next definition of monument:
Monuments result from social practices of construction or conservation of material artifacts through which the ideology of their promoters is manifested. The concept of the modern monument emerged with the development of capital and the nation-state in the fifteenth century when the ruling classes began to build and conserve what were termed monuments. These practices proliferated significantly in the nineteenth century, creating the ideological frameworks for their conservation as a universal humanist duty. The twentieth century has marked a movement toward some monuments being conceived as cultural heritage in the form of remains to be preserved, and concerning commemorative monuments, there has been a shift toward the abstract counter monument. In both cases, their conflictive nature is explicit in the need for their conservation, given that a fundamental component of state action following the construction or declaration of monuments is litigating vandalism and iconoclasm. However, not all monuments represent the interests of nation-states and the ruling classes; their forms are also employed beyond Western borders and by social movements as part of subversive practices which use monuments as a means of expression, where forms previously exclusive to European elites are used by new social groups or for generating anti-monumental artifacts that directly challenge the state and the ruling classes. In conflicts, therefore, it is not so much the monument which is relevant but rather what happens to the communities that participate in its construction or destruction and their instigation of forms of social interaction.
Martyrs' Square, historically known as "Al Burj" or "Place des Cannons", is the historical central public square of Beirut, Lebanon.
Parc Montsouris is a public park situated in southern Paris, France. Located in the 14th arrondissement, it was officially inaugurated in 1875 after an early opening in 1869.
Cultural memory is a form of collective memory shared by a group of people who share a culture. The theory posits that memory is not just an individual, private experience but also part of the collective domain, which both shapes the future and our understanding of the past. It has become a topic in both historiography, which emphasizes the process of forming cultural memory, and cultural studies, which emphasizes the implications and objects of cultural memory.
The Congress Column is a monumental column in Brussels, Belgium, commemorating the creation of the Belgian Constitution by the National Congress of 1830–31. Inspired by Trajan's Column in Rome, it was erected between 1850 and 1859, on the initiative of the then-Prime Minister of Belgium, Charles Rogier, according to a design by the architect Joseph Poelaert. At the top of the column is a statue of Belgium's first monarch; King Leopold I, and at its base, the pedestal is surrounded by statues personifying the four freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. The Belgian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame lies at its foot.
A calvary is a type of monumental public Christian cross, sometimes encased in an open shrine. Usually a calvary has three crosses, that of Jesus Christ and those of impenitent thief and penitent thief.
Politics of memory is the organisation of collective memory by political agents; the political means by which events are remembered and recorded, or discarded. Eventually, politics of memory may determine the way history is written and passed on, hence the terms history politics or politics of history. The politics of history is the effects of political influence on the representation or study of historical topics, commonly associated with the totalitarian state which use propaganda and other means to impose a specific version of history with the goal of eliminating competing perspectives about the past. In order to achieve this goal, memory regimes resort to different means such as narrating, strategic silencing, performing or renaming/remapping.
The Place des États-Unis is a public space in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, about 500 m (1,600 ft) south of the Place de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe.
Memorialization generally refers to the process of preserving memories of people or events. It can be a form of address or petition, or a ceremony of remembrance or commemoration.
An outdoor bronze sculpture of Christopher Columbus by Jeronimo Suñol is installed in Central Park in Manhattan, New York.
A lieu de mémoire is a physical place or object which acts as container of memory. They are thus a form of memorialisation related to collective memory, stating that certain places, objects or events can have special significance related to group's remembrance. It is a term used in heritage and collective memory studies popularised by the French historian Pierre Nora in his three-volume collection Les Lieux de Mémoire. Nora describes them as “complex things. At once natural and artificial, simple and ambiguous, concrete and abstract, they are lieux—places, sites, causes—in three senses—material, symbolic and functional”.
National memory is a form of collective memory defined by shared experiences and culture. It is an integral part to national identity.
The Lenin Monument was a monument to Vladimir Lenin in East Berlin created by the Soviet Russian sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. It was inaugurated on April 19, 1970 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth. After German reunification, the district council of Friedrichshain voted for its removal despite demonstrations and petitions from neighborhood residents and preservationists. The demolition process began in November 1991, and by February 1992 the monument was completely dismantled and its fragments buried on the outskirts of Berlin. In 2015, the head of the statue was excavated, and since 2016 it has been on display at Berlin’s Spandau Citadel as part of a permanent exhibition of Berlin political monuments.
Liliane Klein-Lieber was a French Resistance member.
The Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman's Memorial or the Emancipation Group was a monument in Park Square in Boston. Designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball and erected in 1879, its sister statue is located in Lincoln Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Boston statue was taken down by the City of Boston on December 29, 2020, following a unanimous vote from the Boston Art Commission on June 30 to remove the memorial.
The Ethics of Political Commemoration is a framework that seeks to improve remembrance of the past, so that it contributes to a better future. As a moral framework, it is adapted from the Just War tradition, reflecting that remembrance is often conducted with political – and sometimes coercive – intent. Examples of such remembrance includes public events, monuments, museums, street names, among many others.