Both the COVID-19 pandemic and urgent debates around public heritage and monuments shape how Nuit Blanche Toronto is seeking to engage artists and viewers in remapping cities.
The political metamorphosis of Louis Riel illustrates one of the most paradoxical aspects of nationalism: how former enemies can be transformed into compatriots.
Monuments are testaments to how a society wants to remember. Now is the time to ask which monuments can withstand introspection. Artists are opening those conversations – sometimes hilariously.
Where do old Confederate statues go when they die? The former Soviet bloc countries could teach the US something about dealing with monuments from a painful past.
Standing 240m tall, the Statue of Unity celebrates India’s development. But jarringly, it towers over a divisive and environmentally damaging dam project.
Removing statues of historical figures may be important symbolic statements when it comes to reconciliation, but action on important Indigenous issues like land claims and education are needed more.
Australia has more than 200 Big Things, from the heritage-listed Pineapple to a giant Captain Cook. What are we to do with these structures as they age and decay? And should we be building new ones?
Many of our public commemorations honour people and incidents that brought great harm to others. We need to look at what that says about us, and how we build more inclusive public memorials.
The violence sparked by the removal of Confederate statues in the US shows the ideas that collect around historical monuments. Sometimes it’s better to remove them; yet they can be an important way of remembering trauma.
September is celebrated as heritage month in South Africa. How to get it right? A revisit to a national newspaper’s decade-old, ambitious project is a good yardstick to use.