Letter on Statuary and Power. Statues As Political Statements
Articles Letter on statuary and power. Statues as political statements José Guilherme Abreu UCP/ CITAR coord. R3iAP, Portugal Through this attention to the activity of memorialization, we might also remind that public memory is constructed, that understanding of events depends on memory’s construction, and that there are worldly consequences in the kinds of historical understanding generated by monuments. James E. Young, The texture of memory, p. 15 Etymological approach Statuary, statue and statute all derive from the Latin verb In fact, the word monument derives from Latin nom statuere, meaning “to cause, to stand, to set up”, whose root monumentum, meaning “something that reminds”, which comes from the nom status, meaning “standing, position”. derivates from the verb monere, meaning “to remind, bring to (one’s) recollection, tell (of).”2 However, if we decide to look for even older origins, we will find out that all these words derive from the Proto-Indo- Being political statements, statues stand always for some European root stā-, meaning “to stand, set down, make or kind of apologetic narrative. Being historical testimonies, be firm.”1 monuments are dispositives meant to prevent the obliteration of memory, and appear as some kind of cult, So, from an extremely remote past, two main ideas are seeking eternity. deeply inscribed in the meaning of these words: On one hand, statues engage and promote coeval political 1 - The idea of something that is meant to be raised readings, as if their presence could assure that the facts, 2 - The idea of something that is meant to be established or narratives, they proclaim remain most effective.
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