“To have eyes to see and eyes to cry” or how to interpret the pain of the past Cover Image

„Mít oči k vidění i k pláči“ aneb jak tlumočit bolest minulosti
“To have eyes to see and eyes to cry” or how to interpret the pain of the past

Author(s): Josef Řídký
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Politics of History/Memory, History of Art
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Nakladatelství Karolinum
Keywords: Monuments; memory; pain; architecture; historical consciousness

Summary/Abstract: The text deals with possible approaches towards the representation of pain in architecture, especially among monuments and memorials. Pain is approached as a historical event, having its own orientation towards the past, present, and future. Conceived as such, pain can also stand for our (collective) memory. While the dominant mode of representation consists of straightforwardly reminding people of past traumas, a strategy that can easily be weaponized for a political agenda and is still harder to experience authentically, a new generation of monuments takes different approach: instead of relying on historical context and an a priori knowledge, it mediates the experience of pain as such.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 251-259
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Czech