This Master Thesis engages in analyses of the contested issues interwoven into the hegemonic narrative and memory within monumental propaganda. The aim of the work is to analyze and find curatorial and artistic strategies, which lay beyond historic annihilation and affirmative preservation and lead to the plurality of memories and storytelling through revealing conflicts and open discussions. Grounded in the Post-Soviet bloc context current research turns to the questions of the constructions of memory and hegemonic historic narration within a monument. Figure of a ghost in the relation to monuments is used in this thesis as a metaphor and social concept to shape marginalized, suppressed or neglected stances in the past and present. Facing the ghost author strives to produce another type of knowledge and understanding of conflicts that manifest themselves in contested symbols and issues. Building on five recent examples of performative, discursive, archival and exhibition curatorial and artistic strategies Yulia Fisch layouts a sketch of series of acts and formats, that aim to provide a platform for discussions, conscious commemoration rituals and critical reflection of monuments, that inhabit post-soviet landscape.
Mentor: Prof. Thomas Sieber
Ko-Referent: Dr. Sønke Gau