The Past Made Present: Three Holocaust Memorials in Berlin

Publication | Digitized

Overview

Summary: Since the 1990s, memorial making in Germany has been dominated by a trend of "countermonuments". In the belief that straightforward representations of the Holocaust in an urban surrounding as a public gesture would make it less urgent for the viewers to engage in the memorial, artists who dedicate themselves to "countermonuments" attempt to invite the viewers to actively interpret the meaning of the work for themselves. This trend coincides with a broader trend in memorial design, following the modernist and constructivist movements in art and architecture, which has shifted away from explicit representation toward the use of more abstract forms, and focuses visitors' attention on the shape and material of the artwork. This paper will examine three memorials in Berlin, namely the Mirrored Wall Memorial, Places of Remembrance and the Garden of Exile, with a focus on their contexts and artistic expressions. Featuring a direct phenomenological interaction with the site and space around them, these memorials associate their viewers with the historic contexts of the sites in their unique way. In doing so, a knowledge and understanding of the past is accessible within the present.
Format: Book
Author/Creator: Zheng, Yiran
Published: 2015

Language: Undetermined
External Link: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1687202722?accountid=47978
ISBN: 9
Additional Form: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

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