Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (43.2010)

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ARS 43, 2010, 1

Public Monuments in Changing Societies*

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As Boris Groys argues m his new bookAh/PoTTW,
post-Communist Eastern Europe is still a blind spot
for Contemporary cultural studies. The held has a
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Revolution effectuated such a complété break with
the past, that consequently the Russian avant-garde
artists situated themselves in the future. As a further
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A public lecture "Public Monuments in Changing Societies",
given by the author at Vysoká škola výtvarných umění in
Bratislava (Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava)
on 6 May 2010, was the basis of this paper.
' GROYS, B: Az/Pcwor. Cambridge (Mass.) — London 2008,
p. 149.
' Ibidem, p. 155.
^ LODDER, C.: Lenin's Plan for Monumental Propaganda,
ln: Ar/ /A Lcyzo/v P<A%/Ag, j7WpV//7*7 77/77/ ArzV/or/z/rcz'zz 7Z

Aop7//7/7*0, ^7//p*0//7 AopZ//Z/7*0 /0 AopO*t/, p7*0//7 Ao 077// 0p A't-
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/g/7777J*/ Aoý/0777 op /zAo."^ In my essay, I wish to follow
this reversed journey alongside a "trail of pebbles",
námely, unmissable huge public monuments.
Going back to the roots of the socialist public
sphere leads us to Lenin's favourite pet-project, the
Plan for Monumental Propaganda from 1918 that
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G/hZ/llTAT According to Christina Lodder, reaiizing
the potential of visual propaganda was part of the
"/77Z/AZ-/77oAk p7*Op/7g7777//T7 /77/7oA'77o" of the BolsheviksP
Lenin dreamed about a city telling history by
monuments, relocating and adapting Campanella's
Mediterranean CZ/y 0/ /A Az/77 into the Nordic Mos-
cow and PetrogradP As explained by Lunacharski,
Lenin recognized, that the climate "Az7*Ay zzAz/zypoz*
Ao P'OJOOOJ* op 7AA/7 GzZ/^ZizZTZO/A Ao^/770/Z /777/Z Az/t 7*E*AoO//
ykotoooj* A/7 t/A//oP'P Late 19'^ Century Paris with its
self-celebratory statue-mama^ and its claim to equate
the achievements of the French Revolution with the

O/MLAy /A7- /PPZ Eds. M. CULLERNE BROWN
— B. TAYLOR. Manchester — New York 1993, p. 18.
4 Ibidem, pp. 19, 26.
^ STITES, R.: R<?MAA?Mrt DrM/zzr LAp/A IAY3/Z Expřh-
/^077/ALip /i/ RzzvA// RřwAÁT/. New York - Oxford 1989,
pp. 88-92.
LODDER 1993 (see in note 3), p. 22.
' MICHALSKI, S.: Pz/^A Aíczzz//zzřzz/v Ar/ z'zz Pc AA/ BczzFďgc,
7F70 - /FA. London 1998, pp. 13-55.

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