Western German Anti-Fascist memorials of 1980s: towards the problems of the counter-monument in contemporary sculpture

Abstract

The article focuses on the forming of a genre of counter-monuments in Western European sculpture of postwar era, a range of issues related to the causes of forming such a direction, its relation with the ideas of public art, a protest against traditional monuments being considered. At the beginning of the article the author defines the terms further used in the analysis. In particular, he makes critical comments on the term “the counter-monument” being associated with the entire post-war sculpture and considers it inapplicable (which contradicts the view shared by some Russian researches). Moreover the research resulted in establishing the connection between the public art and the counter-monument as its movement. The article examines in detail the two counter-monuments — Anti-Fascist memorials in two Western German towns, Harburg and Kassel, erected in the 1980s. As a result, the paper concludes that today the issues related to creating an alternative to traditional monument are no less relevant than a few decades ago. In this regard, the counter-monuments should be considered as separate works, experiments, and not as a manifestation of broader trends.

Keywords:

Western European sculpture in the second half of XX century, contemporary German sculpture, public art, public sculpture, monument, memorial, the counter-monument