27/08/2023, 3:00 pm,

Curator's tour through the exhibition Off the Pedestals: Iván Argote, Eduardo Chillida, Jenny Holzer, Zauri Matikashvili, Joiri Minaya, Leila Orth with Merle Radtke

, Stadthausgalerie Münster

Off the Pedestals engages in current political and social debates on war and colonial monuments by raising related issues of identity politics and commemoration practices in the public sphere and putting them up for discussion: To which extent have notions of colonial and imperial power supporting the vision of white male supremacy embodied by these monuments also moulded the memory landscape of our society? How can and should we deal with this kind of heroization of crimes from the imperial past today? Which of the embodied memories are entitled to a place in public space and which are not? And is it necessary to historicize all these surviving legacies? The (artistic) confrontation of such long-repressed questions breaks the silence about past misconduct and invites discussion. Resulting from this is a comprehensive discourse on society as a whole that at the same time brings the city’s specific history into focus.

The idea that entire nations celebrate and honour only themselves from a contemporary perspective seems absurd and outdated. In order to approach the complexity of history open-mindedly, it is necessary, in this context, to integrate other narratives into our historical understanding. For if monuments are about commemoration and history, shouldn’t they also qualify as horizontal and integrative places where differ-ent ideas of our history can be discussed with a view to the past, present and future? An exchange of thoughts about how we collectively create memory in public spaces and how wounds can likewise be made visible—or maybe even consciously kept open—forms the basis of a debate from which new artistic strategies may arise.

In the guided tour Merle Radtke will give insights into the works of Iván Argote, Eduardo Chillida, Jenny Holzer, Zauri Matikashvili, Joiri Minaya and Leila Orth.

The guided tour takes place in German.