November 10 – December 3, 2016
Memory Disarmed is the show featuring documentation of the project of transforming the Arc de Triomphe in Paris into the World Institute for the Abolition of War.
The project of transforming one of the largest and most important war memorials into a monument that would become an institution acting on behalf of the abolition of war was first presented in the text “Arc de Triomphe: World Institute for the Abolition of War,” published in 2010 in the Harvard Design Magazine. In 2011, the artist presented blueprints, a visualization, and a model of the proposed design at the Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie in Paris. The idea was discussed in greater detail in the book The Abolition of War (London, Black Dog, 2012).
In the presented project Arc de Triomphe is perceived as a war memorial and symbolic ideological machine that reinforces, and perpetuates the memory of war, tragic and heroic memories of past wars. Krzysztof Wodiczko proposes to disarm this war memorial of its triumphalistic memory. In his design he attachs a transparent scaffold-like structure to the Arc de Triomphe. A monumental construction of the World Institute forthe Abolition of War encompasses the entire Arc de Triomphe. Monument is encased with a system of ramps, and mobile walking platforms allowing the viewer to persue the monument, it sculpted decoration, iconography, and its historical, ideological narratives.
As the artist says, “the idea is to expose the whole ideological machine that perpetuates and preserves the memory of wars. To allow the viewer to examine all those reliefs and inscriptions, and to interpret the arch’s narrative in a more analytical way. To start a discussion on how much this narrative is part of national narratives that underpin the culture of war. And to reflect on what these narratives leave unsaid, namely the devastating consequences of wars.
But the Institute’s agenda goes beyond education – it also provides for setting up an institution charged with the task of “disarming” memory through cultural, philosophical, psychoanalytical, political, etc. projects that would free us from the culture of war. That would teach us to transform conflicts through open, democratic, discursive practices to prevent accumulated tensions from exploding into wars. Attracting millions of tourists and countless school groups, the Arc de Triomphe could be a place to challenge a culture of war, a memorial of non-war rather than one that reproduces the armament of memory.”
The show in Profile Foundation is organised in conjunction with the exhibition featuring new project of Krzysztof Wodiczko and Jarosław Kozakiewicz: Disarming Culture. Józef Rotblat Institute for Disarmament of Culture and Abolition of War Project presented in Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.
