Shaping the Past – Perspectives

(12 April 2021)
11 April 2021 marked the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. To remember the horrors of National Socialist rule, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, is showing the “Disappearing Wall” on Theaterplatz in Weimar. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier commemorated the victims.

Cheyenne Concepcion describes her project concerning the border constructions between U.S. and Mexico as looking outwards, towards the broader spatial conditions negotiated by borders.

Future places of remembrance should be based on the wishes of those affected. To do this, we need flexible designs that change as people change, as Ulf Aminde describes.

Ada Pinkston reflects on past, present and future of memory works in the U.S. and places her project LandMarked in this context.

Alisha Wormsley’s There are Black People in the Future is inspired by afro-futurist artists and writers who highlight the need for Black people to claim their place.

Joel Garcia writes about his politization in East LA during the ’90s and how he created a platform for the Indigenous based on his experiences.

How do monuments shape the commemorative culture? How can they become places of participation? The project “Shaping the Past” of the Goethe-Institut, the Monument Lab and the Federal Agency for Civic Education brings together initiatives from North America and Germany.

Monument Lab Fellow Free Egunfemi Bangura describes the background, the current impact and the future of the Commemorative Justice movement she created.

Achille Mbembe has been accused of anti-Semitism. The ensuing debate raises fundamental questions about the culture of memory and freedom of expression. An article by Michael Rothberg.
 

Cheyenne Concepcion considers her time in Berlin, especially the ways the formerly divided city offers a site to engage borders and monumentality back in the U.S. while inquiring about the (after)lives of border walls as sites to reckon with legacies of division.

Joel Garcia reflects on his time in Berlin, especially around the ways the formerly divided city offered a site to engage borders and monumentality in the U.S., and considers narratives of freedom and manifestations of white supremacy.

Over the summer, we traveled to Berlin with members of Monument Lab's 2019 Fellows cohort for a research trip, meeting with memory workers, cultural organizers, and public space advocates, touring both prominent and grassroots sites of memory.