/publications/unstable-pedestals-controversial-monuments-public-spaces
Public monuments can evoke strong emotions. In recent years, under the influence of movements such as Black Lives Matter, social awareness and the growth of historical knowledge, our views have changed radically. On occasions past heroes of have been pulled from their pedestals, but removing statues does not erase history. An Academy committee is going to advise on how we should deal with controversial heritage and how we can best conduct the related debate.
The committee will draw up a guide for the debate on how to deal with controversial monuments in the Netherlands. The guide is intended to create a framework for addressing the monument, its history and its future in a highly polarised debate on a case-by-case basis. The committee is focusing on monuments in public spaces, including colonial monuments.
The core issue for the committee is: What do controversial monuments in public space signify and how can meaningful communication about them take place between policymakers and stakeholders, such as victims’ relatives, representatives of ethnic and religious communities, local residents, etc.?
Underlying issues are:
- What is the attraction of material culture (statues, monuments, plaques, street names)?
- Why are or were people placed on pedestals?
- How did the statue / monument come about? (who took the decision; was there or was there no resistance to the decision and unveiling; the role of aesthetics; the choice of location)
- What is the significance of religion and ritual?
- What do you actually do with the statue or monument in response to resistance and opposition?
- Who had and has control over the monument?
- What are the different normative positions regarding the monument? How do these positions relate?
The committee will analyse the current social debates in the Netherlands on controversial monuments in public spaces from a broad approach (historicist, anthropological, religious, normative) and place them in an international context, using secondary literature and interviews with policy makers, representatives of social and scientific institutions and scientific experts.
Chair
Maria Grever, Emeritus Professor of Theory and Method of History and Historical Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Members
- Ann Rigney, Professor of Comparative Literature, Utrecht University
- Paul van Geest, Professor of Church History, University of Tilburg
- Gert Oostindie, Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, University of Leiden, former director of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)
- Hans van Houwelingen, visual artist
- Uğur Ümit Üngör, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Amsterdam, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Jennifer Tosch, founder of Black Heritage Tours in Amsterdam, Brussels and New York
- Harry Tupan, art historian, general director Drents Museum
Declarations of interest by members are available on request.