Remember us To Life - Vulnerable Memory in a Prospective Monument, Memorial and Museum
This project aims to investigate three commemorative projects that are currently under development in Sweden: A Holocaust museum, a monument over Swedish colonialization and a memorial for the victims of a murderer with racist motifs. I suggest that these three projects can be read as an engagement with an unhealed wound. This enables an investigation of how vulnerability is connected to questions of commemoration, cultural heritage and public space.
The three projects are very different in terms of scale, temporality and commissioner but can be understood in a common framework of how a society deals with the memory of vulnerable lives in public commemorations. Central aspects are that I follow the processes of development rather than, in retrospect, assess their result and that the proposed project consists of an empirical part and a critical evaluation of the three projects and the chosen theoretical frame.
The research addresses how contemporary discussions of public commemoration can be understood in relation to notions of vulnerability and grievability, the role of the commissioner, how future practices of commemoration can be sensible to a variety of aesthetic expressions, voices and experiences and how these commemorative projects can be considered as a form of ethical response to the past, theoretically as well as in relation to the current demands of the protests Black Lives Matter and in how cultural heritage is defined.
Final report
The project Remember Us to Life – Vulnerable Memories in Memorials, Monuments, and Museums aimed to engage with and examine an ongoing process while also developing both practical work and theoretical discourse related to memory work. During the course of the project, both the academic literature and concrete practices surrounding the role, function, and process of monuments and memory work evolved. The project followed three ongoing memory initiatives: two monuments and one museum. The latter, Sweden’s Holocaust Museum, opened in temporary premises in Stockholm in 2023. One of the monuments is currently in production and will be inaugurated in 2026 as an anti-racist monument in Malmö. The other, a monument concerning Sweden’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, was discontinued as originally planned but will instead be realized as a public artwork in Gothenburg.
My research questions aimed to develop a broad understanding of monuments and how memory work is carried out—how they are commissioned, financed, and designed. At the project’s outset, a vigorous debate was underway regarding how colonial and difficult heritage persists in our public spaces. The protests to remove statues and monuments as part of the Black Lives Matter movement also influenced the development of new monument processes in Sweden. The project was able to follow and study this development in real time. I gave lectures for commissioners and participated in public programs related to the monuments the project followed, as well as additional examples such as the HBTQI+ (LGBTQIA+) monument inaugurated in 2023 in Gothenburg. For the anti-racist monument, I also served on the jury—another concrete way to directly incorporate research findings into the projects.
As a researcher, I followed the development of Sweden’s Holocaust Museum from the early investigation phase to its establishment. Based on this work, I developed a vision for the museum and was, during the course of the project, hired as a strategy advisor for museum development. In this way, the research contributed—and continues to contribute—to the museum’s ongoing development.
The project's most important findings can be summarized as follows:
The discourse on vulnerability and grievability was brought to the forefront by the global Black Lives Matter movement. In Sweden, this resulted in a renewed interest in creating monuments to honor previously marginalized groups. Although many of the projects were initiated before BLM, both the discourses around them and their implementation were affected—for example, the Anti-Racist Monument in Malmö, the HBTQI+ Monument, and Romanoparken: Song of a Place in Gothenburg.
A new methodology for monument creation has been developed in a Swedish context, allowing for multi-year, complex processes. These include artistic feasibility studies and public dialogues before an artist is formally commissioned to realize the monument. The role of the commissioning body is central to determining both what the project becomes and how it is executed—clearly seen in both the Anti-Racist and HBTQI+ Monuments.
Sweden’s Holocaust Museum is the country's first memorial museum—a category of historical museums that actively address democracy and difficult heritage. This conceptualization of the museum is a direct result of the project’s research.
In cultural memory studies, the discourse on vulnerability can be enriched by concepts such as care, responsibility, and ethical accountability. It is when this line is drawn both theoretically and practically that vulnerability and fragile memories can be safeguarded.
Memory work should not be seen as a one-time intervention but rather as an ongoing, temporal commitment and process in order to be impactful.
The project's results encompass both popular science texts and presentations, peer-reviewed articles, and contributions to the concrete processes being studied. In November 2023, together with Public Art Agency Sweden, the project co-organized the conference Public Memory – Monuments and Difficult Heritages. In connection with this, the anthology Public Memory, Public Art: Reflections on Monuments and Memorial Art Today (eds. Enqvist, Modig, Katz Thor & Zawieja, Art & Theory (ENG) and Public Art Agency Sweden (SWE), 2022) was published.
In addition to this popular anthology, I co-edited an academic anthology on memory work and its relation to fascist legacies, authored a chapter for a textbook on the Holocaust, contributed to a popular history anthology on historical narratives, and published an essay in a German collection on monuments. I collaborated with the Goethe-Institut on a workshop, co-organized the MSA Nordic Biannual Conference 2024: The Art of Conviviality, and presented the project nationally in film studies, art history, and Critical Heritage at Stockholm University; aesthetics at Södertörn University; Jewish studies at Uppsala University; and at Tema Q & REMESO at Linköping University. Internationally, I presented the project at the University of Illinois, University of Texas at Dallas, Parrahesia Institute in Berlin, and House of Sweden in Washington, D.C.
In spring 2022, I was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the Department of English and Comparative Literature under Professor Marianne Hirsch. I presented my project at their Cultural Memory Seminar in dialogue with Professor Emeritus James E. Young. Public engagement has been central to this project—I have participated in podcasts, public conversations, radio broadcasts, and press interviews. I’ve also been involved in Holocaust research networks in Sweden, serve as co-chair of the Memory Studies Association Nordic, and have presented at conferences both domestically and internationally. In summary, the project has significantly contributed to the development of the field of cultural memory studies in Sweden.
My research questions aimed to develop a broad understanding of monuments and how memory work is carried out—how they are commissioned, financed, and designed. At the project’s outset, a vigorous debate was underway regarding how colonial and difficult heritage persists in our public spaces. The protests to remove statues and monuments as part of the Black Lives Matter movement also influenced the development of new monument processes in Sweden. The project was able to follow and study this development in real time. I gave lectures for commissioners and participated in public programs related to the monuments the project followed, as well as additional examples such as the HBTQI+ (LGBTQIA+) monument inaugurated in 2023 in Gothenburg. For the anti-racist monument, I also served on the jury—another concrete way to directly incorporate research findings into the projects.
As a researcher, I followed the development of Sweden’s Holocaust Museum from the early investigation phase to its establishment. Based on this work, I developed a vision for the museum and was, during the course of the project, hired as a strategy advisor for museum development. In this way, the research contributed—and continues to contribute—to the museum’s ongoing development.
The project's most important findings can be summarized as follows:
The discourse on vulnerability and grievability was brought to the forefront by the global Black Lives Matter movement. In Sweden, this resulted in a renewed interest in creating monuments to honor previously marginalized groups. Although many of the projects were initiated before BLM, both the discourses around them and their implementation were affected—for example, the Anti-Racist Monument in Malmö, the HBTQI+ Monument, and Romanoparken: Song of a Place in Gothenburg.
A new methodology for monument creation has been developed in a Swedish context, allowing for multi-year, complex processes. These include artistic feasibility studies and public dialogues before an artist is formally commissioned to realize the monument. The role of the commissioning body is central to determining both what the project becomes and how it is executed—clearly seen in both the Anti-Racist and HBTQI+ Monuments.
Sweden’s Holocaust Museum is the country's first memorial museum—a category of historical museums that actively address democracy and difficult heritage. This conceptualization of the museum is a direct result of the project’s research.
In cultural memory studies, the discourse on vulnerability can be enriched by concepts such as care, responsibility, and ethical accountability. It is when this line is drawn both theoretically and practically that vulnerability and fragile memories can be safeguarded.
Memory work should not be seen as a one-time intervention but rather as an ongoing, temporal commitment and process in order to be impactful.
The project's results encompass both popular science texts and presentations, peer-reviewed articles, and contributions to the concrete processes being studied. In November 2023, together with Public Art Agency Sweden, the project co-organized the conference Public Memory – Monuments and Difficult Heritages. In connection with this, the anthology Public Memory, Public Art: Reflections on Monuments and Memorial Art Today (eds. Enqvist, Modig, Katz Thor & Zawieja, Art & Theory (ENG) and Public Art Agency Sweden (SWE), 2022) was published.
In addition to this popular anthology, I co-edited an academic anthology on memory work and its relation to fascist legacies, authored a chapter for a textbook on the Holocaust, contributed to a popular history anthology on historical narratives, and published an essay in a German collection on monuments. I collaborated with the Goethe-Institut on a workshop, co-organized the MSA Nordic Biannual Conference 2024: The Art of Conviviality, and presented the project nationally in film studies, art history, and Critical Heritage at Stockholm University; aesthetics at Södertörn University; Jewish studies at Uppsala University; and at Tema Q & REMESO at Linköping University. Internationally, I presented the project at the University of Illinois, University of Texas at Dallas, Parrahesia Institute in Berlin, and House of Sweden in Washington, D.C.
In spring 2022, I was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the Department of English and Comparative Literature under Professor Marianne Hirsch. I presented my project at their Cultural Memory Seminar in dialogue with Professor Emeritus James E. Young. Public engagement has been central to this project—I have participated in podcasts, public conversations, radio broadcasts, and press interviews. I’ve also been involved in Holocaust research networks in Sweden, serve as co-chair of the Memory Studies Association Nordic, and have presented at conferences both domestically and internationally. In summary, the project has significantly contributed to the development of the field of cultural memory studies in Sweden.