• By John Gerbich and Surina Singh
• November 15, 2017

NCPC Explores Temporary Commemoration in Philadelphia

What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? That is the question recently posed by Monument Lab, a public art and history project produced with Mural Arts Philadelphia. The curatorial team installed temporary monuments in Philadelphia’s iconic public squares, neighborhood parks, and other sites across the city. On November 3, several NCPC staff spoke to the organizers as part of the agency’s ongoing effort to explore opportunities and challenges associated with new approaches to commemoration.

Background
One of NCPC’s core functions relates to the establishment of commemorative works of national significance in the National Capital Region. The question of an “appropriate monument for the current city” is one that has been of particular interest to NCPC in recent years. The agency has sponsored several important initiatives related to memorials, including the development of a Memorial Trends & Practice Report (2012), which identified and analyzed the commemorative landscape of Washington, and the Memorials for the Future (2016) competition, which asked designers, artists, and social scientists to develop new ways to commemorate people and events that are more inclusive and flexible. The competition resulted in proposals for innovative memorials that were adaptive, ephemeral, virtual, event-focused, and interactive. Whereas the Memorials of the Future competition was about ideas, Monument Lab explored how new forms of commemoration might look and feel when built.

Monument Lab
The Monument Lab curatorial team and Mural Arts Philadelphia installed temporary monuments by 20 artists across the city’s primary public squares, neighborhood parks, and other specific sites. These contextually appropriate, socially relevant artworks were coupled with research labs, where creative monument proposals were collected from visitors. Monument topics ranged from the immigrant experience, to memorialization of women, to social justice, and encompassed the many ways in which artists perceive the current city of Philadelphia.

One of the works placed in Rittenhouse Square, If They Should Ask by Sharon Hayes (see photo above), addressed the absence of women in public monuments in the city. It featured a series of empty pedestals along with the names of a long line of Philadelphia women, from the mid-1600s to the present day, who could be or could have been recognized with monuments. Another installation in Washington Square, On the Threshold (Salvaged Stoops, Philadelphia) by Kaitlin Pomerantz, was a monument to a symbol of Philadelphia neighborhood culture—the stoop. As described by the artist, the stoop represents a threshold between public and private space, and functions as a site for social interaction, relaxation, and participation. The artist used materials from recently demolished buildings for this installation.

While the installations are temporary, (Monument Lab runs from September 16 through November 19), the project team emphasizes that they are simply intended to start a larger conversation. The labs associated with each installation invite visitors to share their own ideas about an appropriate monument for the city. All entries are compiled into a public online database, which will ultimately serve as a repository that chronicles the shared values of the city and the diversity of perspectives of its residents. Monument Lab will summarize this information in a report that will be presented to city officials.

This collaborative project successfully brought together artists, the city, and the public to engage in a grassroots conversation about commemoration in the 21st century. In a city with an already strong emphasis on art and commemoration in public spaces, this project engaged the community to identify gaps, and sought to give a voice to the under- and unrepresented. Such an effort could have broad applicability for other cities that are trying to identify gaps in commemorative landscapes, embrace the changing contexts of existing commemorative works, and incorporate innovative approaches to commemoration.

Takeaways
NCPC staff finds this project particularly compelling, as it provides an example of the real-world application of innovative memorials, such as those seen in the Memorials of the Future competition. While the NCPC competition began a conversation about memorialization at the national level, Monument Lab has successfully implemented a proof of concept that demonstrates how such a project could be operationalized on the ground locally—effectively showing that memorialization can take a variety of forms, and cover a range of subjects. NCPC staff looks forward to keeping up with the project as the exhibition concludes, and will closely follow its lessons learned as they are developed.

Memorials for the Future NCPC's Commemoration Page Philadelphia's Monument Lab