As heroic statues fall out of vogue, communities have turned to experimental structures – from flourishing gardens to abstract sculptures – as monuments to loss on a vast scale
Metropolis
Memorials Are for the Living
Eddie Blake and Gian Luca Amadei question how architecture can help us contemplate loss and memory in the age of COVID-19.
Courtesy John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
Memorials aren’t for the dead; they are for those still living. As episodes of remembrance, they also inform new memory, reversing the way we think about time: instead of the past forming the present, the act of memorialization shapes history and thus how we access the past. But how do we create memorials when those who are left behind agree on so little? For centuries, architects have had to engage with the contentious issue of who gets remembered, and we live in an era where narratives are more widely contested than ever.
Vilnius to build monument for people who saved Jews during war – photos
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LRT.lt2020.12.18 12:14
VIlnius to build monument for people who saved Jews during war / Vilnius City Municipality/LRT.lt photocollage
Vilnius has received 14 proposals in an open tender to build a monument for people who saved Jews in Lithuania during the Second World War, according to a press release by the municipality.
The monument will be built in a public space near Onos Šimaitės Street, where a memorial stone was previously placed by the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LŽB).
Lithuania has dedicated the year 2020 to the Vilna Gaon and the History of Lithuania’s Jews, which coincides with the commissioning of the monument.