Anti-Monuments – Critical Art in the City Space
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thesis could be disputed, however. Huyssen states that monuments become invisible in everyday perception; the inhabitants stop noticing them. The research conducted by the Culture Studies students between 2010 and 2012 in Jeżyce would corroborate this statement. The students17 asked local inhabitants whether they knew what commemorative plaques featured in the vicinity of their homes and work places, and also talked about their importance in commemorating the people or events they were dedicated to: Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, Józef Haller, Romek Strzałkowski, the founders of the People’s Bank, employees of the National Insurance Company, teachers. The results proved that the plaques were irrelevant, particularly for younger interviewees who did not have direct experiences of the past. The interviews, which were conducted in the close proximity of memorial plaques, proved that they appear to be invisible, overpowered by the shop signs and advertising posters of banks and phone companies’ special offers. Interestingly, when encouraged by the students to look in a particular direction, the interviewees seemed to “remember” the plaques. Thus, it would be justified to state that memorial places are overlooked because they require focused attention, which is not a feature of the scattered perception in a busy street environment. As so often, both giant statues and small memorial plaques are somehow invisible to the passers-by, and it is up to artists to make them visible again. People engrossed in their daily activities forget about monuments, avoid looking at them as they are not visually attractive, or are simply too lazy to look up. Artists can reveal them by unearthing them from the depths of social oblivion through the means of playing on their presence, or by extracting passers-by from everyday life through artistic intervention. They can also encourage social disputes. Later in the text I will briefly describe each of these methods.
3. Playing with the visible – to hide and to reveal The game of “revealing” monuments has been mastered by an American artist of Bulgarian origin, Christo (Christo Władimirow Jawaszew). His method is quite playful. He covers and uncover objects. Christo has specialised in covering gigantic natural spaces and historical buildings with fabric. His work could be compared to the Freudian game of “fort/da” (gone/back), where a child demands and rejects a toy in turn. The aim of the game played by Christo is dif17 A research project by A. Urbańska and D. Wiśniewski titled Tablice upamiętniające na Jeżycach. I presented a description of the project in the article: E. Rewers; P. Juskowiak; W. Maćków; M. Michałowska, “Jeżyce oczywiste/nieoczywiste” [Obvious/nonobvious Jeżyce], Czas kultury (Time of Culture) 02:2012, pp: 38-51.