Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


nelson_final.pdf (10.95 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Embodied Memory and Viewer Engagement: Prague's Memorial to the Victims of Communism

Nelson, Grace Elizabeth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555678731352293

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Art/Art History.
Completed and dedicated in 2002, Prague's Memorial to the Victims of Communism, an immersive installation relies on the performative body of its viewers to make visible the atrocities of communism during the years 1948-1989. The sculptor Olbram Zoubek (1926-2017) received the commission to create the memorial as the result of a 2000 competition published by Prague 1. The memorial spans two staircases that climb the bottom of Petrin Hill in Prague's Mala Strana district. The first staircase leads up to the second, which is populated by six bronze statues of men whose bodies are depicted in an increased state of decay, giving the illusion of bodies disappearing into the woods. The human figures refer to local memory of the iconic figure of Jan Palach as a leading figure of resistance after 1968 as well as the 1989 protestors who were successful in bringing communism to an end in the country. The public space of this memorial allows the viewer to be made an integral part of the preservation of memory by providing the viewer with a space to engage with both the physical memorial and its topic of memorialization. The purposeful inclusion of the viewer reflects a memorial trend toward the `anti-monumental', which serves to condemn totalitarian notions of memory conveyed in monumental forms, demonstrating a clear break with the city's past. The Memorial to the Victims of Communism constitutes its own form of political persuasion, functioning as self-promotion for the Czech Republic's status as a new democratic nation. The memorial allows the viewer to connect closely with the memory depicted by Zoubek, and, as a work of public art, makes that memory continuously accessible to viewers.
Allie Terry-Fritsch, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Katerina Ruedi Ray, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
86 p.
Art History
Prague; Memorial to the Victims of Communism; Olbram Zoubek; Jan Palach; Antimonumental; lieux de memoire; embodied memory; performative viewer; viewer engagement; communism; memorials

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nelson, G. E. (2019). Embodied Memory and Viewer Engagement: Prague's Memorial to the Victims of Communism [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555678731352293

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nelson, Grace. Embodied Memory and Viewer Engagement: Prague's Memorial to the Victims of Communism . 2019. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555678731352293.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nelson, Grace. "Embodied Memory and Viewer Engagement: Prague's Memorial to the Victims of Communism ." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555678731352293

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1555678731352293
684
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.