De-commemoration is a social phenomenon that regards the destruction or profound modification of material representations of the past in public space, representing the opposite or undoing of memorialization. The precise term was coined by historian Guy Beiner in 2018.
Definition
De-commemoration is the set of “processes in which material and public representations of the past are removed, destroyed or fundamentally modified”.
Guy Beiner introduced the concept of de-commemorating in reference to hostility towards acts of commemoration that can result in violent assaults and in iconoclastic
Vandalism or destruction of monuments. Beiner's studies suggested that rather than stamping out memorialization and giving an impression of freedom from the past, de-commemorating can paradoxically function as a form of ambiguous remembrance, sustaining interest in controversial memorials.
The very dishonor that damage or removal brings to the memorial gives it back its importance in a distinct way juxtaposed to commemorative plaques, statues, and monuments that recall the past in public spaces that are very often ignored in everyday life.
Destruction of monuments can also trigger renewed acts of memorialization (which Beiner labelled "re-commemorating").
[Guy Beiner, Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 356–443.]
Practices
According to the framework of
Sociology Tracy Adams and Yinon Guttel-Klei, three types of practices can be identified related to the phenomenon. The most widespread is
Deconsecration, that is,
desecration and destruction of the monument.
[Admas and Guttel-Klein 2022, p. 610–612.] The second practice is reframing, which consists of showing the controversial past by recontextualizing the memorial or giving it a new meaning. In practice, this can involve adding explanatory plaques or renaming memorial spaces and streets, thus changing the status and symbolism of monuments or landscapes.
[Admas and Guttel-Klein 2022, p. 610–615.] The third practice, planned obsolescence, is rarer and refers to monuments deliberately built with a limited lifespan in order to criticize real established monuments or they are installed to spark controversy and thus provoke their demolition.
[Admas and Guttel-Klein 2022, p. 615–617.]
De-commemoration is not a recent social phenomenon,[Admas and Guttel-Klein 2022, p. 607.] and has involved five different approaches in historical examples according to a framework set by Sarah Gensburger and Jenny Wüstenberg.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 11.] It can be the result of a change in political regime and then aims to adapt the symbolic landscape. This is the case, for example, in France after the First Empire, in Colonization after their independence, or after the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 12.]
De-commemoration can also be linked to a societal transformation that makes monuments or place names appear Anachronism, for example by trying to reduce the over-representation of male statues or , or in New Zealand by making room for memorials to Maori people, history, and culture.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 12–14.] It can also result from forceful action, from a mobilization that directly aims to provoke changes in the memorial landscape. This is the type of de-commemoration, such as that carried out during and following the Black Lives Matter movement, or in Latin America confronted with the legacy of colonialism, or in European ports regarding the Atlantic slave trade. This type of de-commemoration is often the kind that is most spread and documented in mass media, in particular regarding the decolonization of public spaces.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 14–16.]
De-commemoration can also sometimes act as a smokescreen, a maneuver by those in charge to prevent political change or to sidestep a debate on the past, as in postcolonial Namibia.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 16.] Finally, it leads, more rarely, to a transformation in the way of thinking about memory, to reconsidering commemoration itself. This rarely happens because the tendency is to replace the destroyed monument with another of different meaning but of the same type. However, de-commemoration also leads to questioning and modifying the legislative frameworks of memorial uses and sometimes to resorting to new technological tools with how memorials are conceived, created, and interpreted.[Gensburger and Wüstenberg 2023, p. 16–17.]
Examples
File:1956 a budapesti Sztálin-szobor elgurult feje fortepan 93004.jpg|Damaged head of the statue of Joseph Stalin in Budapest, Hungary, in 1956.
File:SaddamStatue.jpg|The toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003.
File:Goodbye Cecil John Rhodes20 (16481463023).jpg|Removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town at South Africa in April 2015.
File:Пам'ятник-В.І.Леніну-у-Краматорську-3.jpg|The unbolting of the statue of Vladimir Lenin in Kramatorsk (Ukraine) in April 2015.
File:Edward Colston - empty pedestal.jpg|The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, United Kingdom, which was pulled down on June 7, 2020.
File:Christopher Columbus Statue Torn Down at Minnesota State Capitol on June 10, 2020.jpg|Statue of Christopher Columbus on the ground in Saint Paul, Minnesota (United States) on June 10, 2020.
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Monument au général Storms - 04.jpg|The monument to General Émile Storms covered in red paint in June 2020. The statue was removed in June 2022 by the municipality of Ixelles (Belgium).
File:Statue de l'impératrice Joséphine en 1998.jpg|Statue of Empress Josephine in Fort-de-France (Martinique), decapitated in 1991 and destroyed on July 26, 2020.
File:ভেঙে ফেলা বিজয় সরণির বঙ্গবন্ধু ভাস্কর্য.jpg|Destroyed statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in August 2024.
File:Denazification-street.jpg|The nocat=yes (Adolf Hitler Street) in Trier (Germany) renamed Bahnhofstraße (Station Street) on May 12, 1945.
File:Illustration odonyme à casablanca plaque de rue.jpg|Pierre Bullet in Casablanca renamed Ibnou Khalikane Street after Morocco's independence on March 2, 1956.
File:Place Ruth-Bösiger-plaque.jpg|Place du Chevelu in Geneva, officially renamed to Place Ruth-Bösiger in September 2020.
File:Nouvelle plaque de rue Victor-et-Hélène Basch (Bourg-en-Bresse) suite à renommage de la rue en 2023 (rue Victor-Basch).JPG|Renaming of rue Victor-Basch in Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) to rue Victor-et-Hélène Basch in 2023.
File:Plaque Rue Chevalier Saint George - Paris I (FR75) - 2021-06-14 - 1.jpg|Former rue Richepance in Paris, renamed rue du Chevalier-de-Saint-Georges in 2002
See also
Examples
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Decolonization of public space
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List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests
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Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials
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Demolition of monuments to Alexander Pushkin in Ukraine
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Demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine
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Firdos Square statue destruction
