Spomenik žrtvam vseh vojn in problematike sodobnega postavljanja javnih skulptur in spomenikov v Sloveniji
The Monument to the Victims of All Wars and the Issues of Contemporary Public Sculptures and Monuments in Slovenia

Summary/Abstract: The text discusses some of the contemporary issues of erecting public sculptures and monuments in Slovenia. It focuses on the Monument to the Victims of All Wars, unveiled in the centre of Ljubljana in the summer of 2017. The monument and the events surrounding it are presented as an example of a predicament in which the inappropriate behaviour of the different stakeholders in the long-term process of monument creation produces numerous social disagreements and ultimately results in a problematic monument. The article problematises the historical revisionism regarding World War II, which manifests itself in the monument and through the processes associated with it. It examines how and why such a large state monument can be created regardless of the absence of a professional consensus that monuments actually have a therapeutic effect on traumatised and post-conflict societies. Furthermore, there is also no consensus that Slovenians are currently such a society at all. The monument is often referred to as a tribute to reconciliation, although there is also no consensus about the necessity for reconciliation, let alone about what such reconciliation may actually mean and what its elements should be.

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