Oct 272011

Check out this amazing project. How do we make a monument active? I believe this project does it successfully.

http://www.gerz.fr/html/main.html?res_ident=5a9df42460494a34beea361e835953d8&art_ident=e796072e25c4df21a6a3a262857e6d3f

With the help of Germany’s then 61 Jewish communities, a list was compiled of all the Jewish cemeteries that were in use in the country before the Second World War. The names of these 2,146 cemeteries were engraved on an equal number of paving stones, which were removed from the alley crossing the square in front of the Saarbrücken Castle, the seat of the Provincial Parliament. Initially, the work was carried out without a commission, in secret and illegally. The stones were removed at night and replaced with engraved ones. All stones were placed with the inscribed side facing the ground and therefore the inscription is invisible. In the course of the project the artwork was approved by Parliament and retrospectively commissioned. Castle Square in front of the Parliament was renamed The Square Of The Invisible Monument (Platz des unsichtbaren Mahnmals).

Object: 2146 engraved paving stones.
Site: Square of the Invisible Monument, Saarbrücken.
In collaboration with students of the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst, Saarbrücken.

Publications:
- 2146 Steine – Mahnmal gegen Rassismus
Hatje/Cantz, Stuttgart 1993 (German)
- 2146 Stones – Monument against Racism
Stadtverband, Saarbrucken 1993 (English)