Mr Gorbachev, Tear Down This Art!

The moment when Mr Gorbachev was asked to "Tear down that wall" was huge, but the fall of the wall was an even greater event in history. The physicality of removing an object that stands for something so loathed and detested is so emotionally rewarding that we see it frequently in history. Not all works can and will be torn down in the heat of revolution or freedom, so after the political movement has come and gone, what happens to this art? After the fall of the Soviet Union, previously subjugated countries exercised their new power in deciding what to do with symbols of the old regime. Specifically in Russia, the topic was more complicated. They were not oppressed by a distant power, but rather by people who were their neighbors and countrymen. With the policy of Glasnost, Russia slowly turned away from communism. The official end of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 also functions as the official start of the Russian Federation as it is known today. Statues of Lenin were being torn down, monuments were graffitied, decorative hammer and sickles were chipped away with whatever means necessary.

Observing all this destruction, Vitaly Komar and Alexis Melamid, through the New York art magazine ArtForum, asked artists to “submit proposals for saving and transforming the monuments rather than destroying them.” Within the article they stated "History should be preserved for future generations. But these monuments are not just history for us, they are our lives. It's not so much the monuments themselves we want to preserve as the beautiful sweet world of our childhood.” Not everyone shares these sentiments, and find them to be insensitive in light of the thousands of people murdered in the name of the state. Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow said, "The signals which are being sent to people are rather mixed," to see statues glorifing a genocidal dictator in modern, everyday life. A handful of parks in in the former Soviet Union are dedicated to featuring these statues in various ways.
   

             Hungary’s Memento Park has statues of Lenin, Engels and Marx, but focuses on communist leaders specifically from Hungary. It has two sections, Statue Park and Witness Square. Statue Park, like it sounds, features various statues of prominent communists. Witness Square acts as the foil to Statue Park, and houses indoor exhibitions about dictatorships and democracy. The architect of the park, Ákos Eleőd said “These statues are a part of the history of Hungary. Dictatorships chip away at and plaster over their past in order to get rid of all memories of previous ages. Democracy is the only regime that is prepared to accept that our past with all the dead ends is still ours; we should get to know it, analyse it and think about it!” This view can be seen in the foil-style set up of the park and square, which aims to remember, but not commemorate the past. 

        A park in Lithuania, called Grūtas Park, or Stalin World (unofficially), is an entirely different experience for visitors. The complex is made to look like a Soviet Gulag prison camp, with barbed wire, guard towers, and parts from concentration camps. It also features 86 statues from 46 different artists organized by the role the subject played in history. There is a cafe serving traditional Lithuanian food, as well as a mini zoo and a playground. Every year, the park organizes a “Soviet Celebration.” Actors play former political leaders and invite visitors to participate in reenactments. This, along with the communist themed gift shop have stirred controversy, but the park is overall well received. Seeing the now mossy and dirty statues removed from places of political power and placed in the forest where the Lithuanian Resistance began recontextualizes these works and provides a place to learn from the past. 

In my opinion, the best of these parks can be found in Moscow. Muzeon Park of Arts, also known as Fallen Monument park, within Gorky Park has become an real life history book of Russian sculpture. It was established in January 1992, to house Soviet era sculptures. They lay in varying degrees of damage, dotting the landscape, and are grouped by subject. Each one is accompanied by a plaque informing the viewer about the history of the piece as well as the work itself. These are not the only pieces in the park; modern and contemporary works also populate the park. In the 2000s the park hosted symposiums where contemporary artists could create limestone sculptures to add to the park. 

More recently, starting in 2011, the government has funded many projects aimed at improving the infrastructure of the park, and make it more attractive as a tourist and leisure destination. Muzeon Park no longer solely functions as a graveyard for communist sculptures, but has become an “open-air contemporary art museum, a special exhibition space, a music festival venue, and a massive creative workshop.” This blend of functions and works allows the past to be seen with the knowledge seen only in hindsight, and prevents the willful repression of horrible acts of years past.

This approach takes as close to neutral position as possible, providing past and present information. The concept can be take forward and applied in new situations. It could be modified to fit the question of confederate statues in the American South, or any situation where an uncomfortable part of history needs to be remembered rather than commemorated. The creation of confederate statues and iconography peaked 45 years after the end of the civil war, with another spike during the 1960s, as backlash to the civil rights movement. This creates a huge difference in intent behind these sculptures. Context is essential to understanding any works of art, especially these that are so politically charged. In Fred Wilson’s “Mining the Museum” he re-situates objects such as revolution era silver works such as goblets and pitchers with slave shackles the same companies would have been producing at that time. In that vein any sculpture parks created in America will have to show the public face of history, more unsavory parts, and the continuation of history since then. Displaying the continuation of history is crucial in preventing the dissociation of past events from the world today. Further, this contextualization of these objects is what lets them pass from objects that glorify to objects that represent the past.

- Carla S Casana







Works Cited

Cheremushkin, Peter. “When Monuments Fall: the Politics of Toppling Political Sculpture.” Russia Beyond, 12 Jan. 2012, www.rbth.com/articles/2012/01/12/_when_monuments_fall_the_politics_of_toppling_political_sculpture_14179.html.

Glaser, James. “What Russia Can Teach the US about What to Do with Confederate Statues after Charlottesville.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 14 Aug. 2017, www.independent.co.uk/voices/charlottesville-protest-confederate-statue-taken-down-what-to-do-a7892856.html.

Golloher, Jessica. “Statue Graveyard in Moscow.” Public Radio International, 25 Apr. 2011, www.pri.org/stories/2011-04-25/statue-graveyard-moscow.

Merewether, Charles. “The Rise and Fall of Monuments.” Grand Street, no. 68, 1999, pp. 182–191., doi:10.2307/25008505.

Shogren, Elizabeth. “Hated Symbol of KGB Torn Down by Crowd.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 1991, articles.latimes.com/1991-08-23/news/mn-979_1_kgb-headquarters.

Stubblefield, Thomas. “Do Disappearing Monuments Simply Disappear? The Counter-Monument in Revision.” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism, vol. 8, no. 2, 2011, pp. 1–11.