Is a new monumentality possible today? What are the forms it could take? Monumentality is a property of the artistic image, related to the aesthetic category of the sublime. Its content is socially relevant and expressed in the majestic plastic form imbued with heroic and epic themes that affirms positive ideal. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia It seems that the concept of monumentality is entirely obsolete now. The history of monuments has fallen into the past. Instead of monuments, we have theme parks: multimedia spectacles that are from time to time commissioned from famous artists and architects in order to commemorate some agreed-upon historical fact. These spectacles have neither formal innovation, nor do they depict heroes who have accomplished ‘great feats,’ only innocent victims, reminding us “Never Again…” There are also multifarious performative anti-monumental practices performed by a number of mostly marginalized groups; they tend to be interventions with already existing monuments (and urban life). Often, they mock them, or question their validity, re-codifying and destroying their image in the urban space and in the common memory of communities. Naturally, the government relapses into archaic habits, casting things in bronze, chiseling them out of marble, and erecting these monsters in the centers of their decaying power. There’s almost no arguing that monumentality in its classic, elevated forms has fled, and today’s citizens live surrounded by monumental symbols that have been drained of meaning, obsolete rituals of living memory. But is this really the case? And is it important to preserve any part of this most important tradition?
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