Conflicting memories and public space: what do statues tell us?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22409/antropolitica2025.v57.i3.a65388Keywords:
Statue, Memory, Public space, Conflict, Statuoclasty.Abstract
This summary presents the essay La Disgrâce des statues. Essai sur les conflits de mémoire, de la Révolution française à Black Lives Matter by the French historian Bertrand Tillier which analyzes the phenomenon of “statuoclasty”. Drawing on a rich theoretical corpus and numerous transnational examples, the author describes how societies have continued to attack statues, thereby questioning their construction process in public space. The examples of statuoclasty cited can be isolated actions or be directly linked to social movements (movement against the monarchy in France, movements against the communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe, the Arab springs, movements which denounce the supporters of slavery or colonialism, Black Lives Matter, Gilets jaunes, etc.). The diversity of actions perpetrated against statues are distinguished by their temporality, means and motives. The analysis highlights the political and symbolic significance of the actions, as well as the conflicts of memory and the images that they generate. In conclusion, the historian questions the heritage future of statues and the possibilities for taking into account both the complexity of history and memorial claims. The study of the phenomenon of statuoclasty shows the importance of contextualizing statues to understand their meaning in the present and, in general, highlights the memorial dimension of urban space.
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References
AGULHON, Maurice. La “statuomanie” et l’histoire. Ethnologie française, [s. l.], v. 8, n. 2–3, p. 145–172, 1978.
APPADURAI, Arjun. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
BREDEKAMP, Horst. Théorie de l’acte d’image. Paris: La Découverte, 2015.
LEFEBVRE, Henri. Critique de la vie quotidienne. Paris: L’Arche, 1958. v. 2
TILLIER, Bertrand. La Disgrâce des statues: Essai sur les conflits de mémoire, de la Révolution française à Black Lives Matter. Paris: Payot, 2022.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Laurine Sézérat
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