„Monument to a Destroyed Monument“

This monument could be situated anywhere in the world. In fact, it stands on the campus of the University of Graz, realised on the occasion of the Austrian Day of Contemporary History by the Russian Artist Anna Yermolaeva, currently a professor at the University of Arts in Linz. The approximately 500 statues of Lenin toppled in Ukraine alone served as the ideal type for the artist to document how easily replaceable symbols of power are. All of this, however, could be just as well about Iraq, or about Germany and Austria during the system change of 1945.

The affirmation of power, but also the power to define the interpretation of the past are symbolically manifested in the form of monuments. Erected in public places, they do not survive system changeovers. Their destruction, however, represents no reappraisal of the past, but an act of stuffing away, of hiding of substantial parts of one's own biographies. This can clearly be seen in Ukraine, where the flower beds surrounding the pedestals are still taken care of, even after the toppling of the character enthroned on the pedestal.

The Monument to a Destroyed Monument stands symbolically for the finite nature of claims to power, but also for their continuing effect, for the survival of a part of the old systems of norms and values in a politically redefined era.