mon·u·men·tal (mny-mntl)adj.1. Of, resembling, or serving as a monu-ment.2. Impressively large, sturdy, and endur-ing.3. Of outstanding significance:

MU

Dear participants of MONU-MENT UNREALIZED,

Greetings from the Netherlands! We really enjoyed our time to-gether in Helsinki and we would like to recap some of the themes and notions addressed, as well as provide you with guidelines on how to proceed with your in-dividual research.

MONUMENT UNREALIZED (MU) aims in weakening the con-ceptual boundaries of what we consider a ‘monument’ to be. It focuses more on the implemen-tation of public space sculpture in Helsinki and it’s relevance and impact on the social dynamics of the city’s every day life. That ‘impact’ is what MU takes a predominant focus on -the ability to generate ‘something’ in the poles of the city and in that sense gain a ‘monumental’ value.

We discussed ‘monumental-ity’ as a notion that could be emended on various art works situated in public space. From a figurative sculpture of a histor-ic figure (Marchal Mannerheim statue), to a memorial of a his-toric event or an idea (World Peace sculpture), to tempo-rary intervention (the work of Juke Jerram & Swing project by Kamila Szejnoch), to Banksy’s graffiti and various examples of street art (Urban Interventions book).

placeDuring our talks we discussed the importance of investigating what these forms of art ‘do’ to the space and therefore high-lighted the interrelation of the work and its location. And by location, we don’t only imply the geographical parameters of the space but also its social and historical value (what makes a space – a place).

We therefore ask you to investi-gate the past/present and pos-sible future identity of the loca-tion you choose. Research it’s history (by visiting the City’s photo archive, dive into articles etc.), it’s current state (by vis-iting the place more than once, talk to people around, take pic-tures and experience the ambi-ence of the area) and speculate how this place will look in the future. Your reports should be posted in the blog and should include visual documentation, small reflections of what you experi-ence and even some anecdotes of your encounters. Be an ob-server, a silent intruder, an in-side outsider. Map all those ele-ments of the space that make it a place – meaning all the fea-tures of the location that makes it something more than just a random territory in a map.

publicWe talked about unwanted pub-lic works of art and we briefly elaborated on the ability of the work to generate a debate - a conflictual space, to partially unite and sometimes exclude groups with different ideologies. Embrace the possible conflict-ual nature of your proposal. On that note, think who (what group of people/what ideolo-gies) does your proposal ad-dresses to and how ‘open’ is your work to the public? Does it call for participation? Could the public read it as something else and appropriate differently?

thinkDoes your proposal aim in high-lighting the already existing identity and features of this ‘place’ (weather that is a park, an old shopping mall, a drug dealers’ meeting point, a bench, a tram stop, a bridge, a path-way or even an existing public space sculpture), or is it meant to alter its identity? Remember we discussed about public space art functioning as an ornament (aligning with space) and as a monument (im-pregnating the space). There are not clear divisions to both categories but it’s nevertheless good to think about them.

OCTOBER

Remember none of your pro-posals is going to be realized (sad face/happy face), so feel free to suggest anything no matter how wild or unrealistic it might be! It needs though to address and somehow answer the issues introduced above.

octoberUse the month October to:1. Buy a small pocket note-book (the cheaper the better). Name it whatever you want and keep it with you all the time. 2. Write down things that pop in your head during your research, make sketches, mind maps, drawings, “to–do” lists etc.

We will be expecting to see posts from all of you on the blog by the end of October. We love that some of you went ahead and posted various reference works. From now on, we expect to see posts that relate directly to your research - scans from your note-books, photos of locations, links to articles, narratives of your encounters, reflective thoughts etc.

The blog is there to map a pro-cess, to function as an archive and should remain rough and unedited. It is our cyber-link un-til we meet again. So use it and we will be checking it almost ev-ery day!

You are also more than welcome to contact us via mail : nikos@expodium.nl & bart@expodium.nl

We wish you all the best and we are looking forward to checking out your additions to the proj-ect.

Best, Nikos & Bart

interveneConsider every possible imple-mentation as an intervention. It can be permanent or tempo-rary. It can be a physical ad-dition (sculpture/structure) or it can be an event, a perfor-mance, a guerilla action. Maybe the city has too many features that remain unnoticed. Maybe the way to go is to in-tervene on pre-existing public sculptures. Some of you brought up ‘la-beling’ and the ‘choreography of attention’ as strategies that could re-formulate the meaning of merely insignificant spots in the city. Maybe a dark city cor-ner deserves a bronze plate with the label ‘Pissing Monument’. Maybe a ‘misplaced’ monument needs to find a new relation with its background. That can be accomplished by relocating in or by simply indicating a new viewpoint that makes it relate to another structure, building etc.

This is not the time to concretize a proposal. It’s time to collect/accumulate info, visuals, sto-ries, incidents, thoughts, news-paper articles, quotes etc. It’s a time to start writing down things that relate to your observations – small things. We don’t expect you to write essays or super the-oretical texts. You can get inspiration by visit-ing the blog we initiated during our Detroit residency (yes, we had a residency in Detroit) – June, July & August 2010 http://newstrategiesdmc.blogspot.nl

MU

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MU