THE BACK OF THE MONUMENT
Lecture by curator and art historian Lisa Parola
Thursday, February 11th, 2021 on ZOOM
from 6 till 7.30 pm registration required per mail: blo-huj@riseup.net
registration open till February 11th – 4 pm
The lecture will be in english
Placing the monument in a public context is never a neutral action, but a way of broadcasting a narrative that has prevailed over others, creating a temporary balance between the transmission of memory and the construction of the imaginary, in continuously transforming plural societies whose values “may differ (…) because collective memory is always intrinsically plural, the temporary result of conflicts and compromises between different desires of memory” (Halbwachs). Voices that come to terms with each other in communal space to define – not without conflicts – the temporary desire of memory. Every monument, besides representing History, therefore has a story that is often prefaced by lengthy and more or less conflictual negotiation among the main subjects involved: communities, the client and the artist.
Monuments are forms that gather and transmit an event, a name or multiple names, a date, a place. The monument is recognizable to two elements: verticality and extension. Raised on a plinth, it is a visual encumbrance that interrupts the ordinary urban panorama, adding a new vantage point. At the same time, the extension – formed by a lawn or simply by the color of the pavement – marks off the “protected” space, a sort of “material aura” that indicates a suspension of ordinary space.
Taking these various tensions and directions into account, in the research I began ten years ago I have gathered images and decided to concentrate on different orientations through which the memories of monument has chosen to position itself, to return to question the different narratives of History.
Lisa Parola graduated in History of Modern Art from the University of Turin. She is the co-author of publications and research works, particularly on the themes related to cultural politics, the contemporary art system, public space and territory. Is a founding member of the curatorial independent project a.titolo. Between 2007 and 2014 she taught on the Master in Management, Marketing and Multimedia of Cultural Heritage and Activities in Corep (Politecnico, Turin). She was a contributor to the “La Stampa” daily newspaper as a contemporary art journalist until 2010. In 2013 she was appointed cultural mediator for the project Matera European Capital of Culture and performed planning and programming activities as part of this role. Since 2016 to 2019 she was the director of the artistic program for Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte (www.fondazionesardiarte.org) and she collaborated with important institutions as the University of Turin, Merz Foundation, Gam Palermo and independent spaces. In 20202 she is the curator of the international stage for Cosimo Veneziano’s Biomega art project, winner of the Italian Council 2019 promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture and presented in Kiev with the M17 Foundation and the independent space Radius.