German artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock came eleventh in the 1995 international competition for a Holocaust memorial in Berlin with their “anti-proposal” Bus Stop. Rather than creating a static monolith the artists proposed that the site where the eventual 2700 concrete slabs ended up would be occupied by a bus stop and information centre and that red busses with the sign denkmal (memorial) would travel all over Berlin taking visitors to various sites around the city that relate to the holocaust. As Schnock said, “A giant monument has no effect and ultimately becomes invisible. Giving people a way to visit the authentic crime scenes would be far more effective.” [1]
What is the remit of public art? What are the responsibilities of artists and architects engaged in creating works which seek to memorialize genocidal events? My paper seeks to address these issues in the context of the work of Columbian artist Doris Salcedo whose work has variously addressed the trauma suffered by victims of violence both in her own country, and in her more recent works, internationally and historically.
[1] http://wso.williams.edu/~mdeean/berlin/busstop.html accessed 7.9.09 Keywords : Public Art, Memorials, Holocaust, Contemporary Art, Film, Photography