2016
video, 15’01”
photo, 60 × 40 cm, 360 × 222 cm
István Szabó: Demolition of a Monument, 20 March 1990 (detail)
Collection of Méliusz Juhász Péter Library, Local History Collection and the Collection of Photo Archive

“I grew up not far from this place, and as a child, I often asked my mother to come here, because there was a statue here I loved. The work was unveiled in 1961, and for almost thirty years—until 20 March, 1990, to be precise—’blocked out’ the main building of the university. The former monument stood on what is now an empty traffic island: István Kiss’s Proletarian was a six-metre tall bronze statue on a three-metre tall base, and defined the structure of this space, as well as the view that unfolded. (…) The way I get to grips with a problem is always complex, and this is true of both the media used and of the approach to the given subject. I consider it important for my works to speak to many people, whether owing to the ideas they embody or their visual appeal. In the current case the starting point was a personal memory, a visual sign in public space, which may be a memory with others as well who live in Debrecen. Of course, the message that a public statue is the vehicle of is broader than that of its aesthetic form and presence, because it is the dense symbol of a period in history or politics. (…) The 1989 political transition, however, sealed the fate of the statue, which was removed from the square. I delved into the history of the statue by consulting visual and textual archives: I got hold, for instance, of a contemporary newsreel about the unveiling, and a television news item on the removal. I was interested in the appearance and meaning of the artwork, but the most pronounced strand in my work was throwing light on the process and workings of remembering.”^[1] PSzP

Péter Pettendi Szabó’s photograph and video documentary entitled Monument deals with a well-known, 6 metre high bronze statue on a 3 metre high architectural structure in Debrecen and with its history. The Proletariat (Monument to the Soviet Republic) by István Kiss, was inaugurated on 20 March 1961 on what is now known as King Louis the Great Square (formerly known as 21 March Square) on the occasion of the 600^th anniversary of Debrecen’s declaration as a ’mezőváros’ (market town), and was a dominant feature of the city for almost thirty years until 20 March 1990.

After the demolition of the sculpture he documented the stump as an element of the changing city. In 2016, the recollection of the brutal process of the monument’s removal inspired the re-enactment of the figure of the emblematic statue. Different generations have different meanings and experiences of the material, symbolic, or even directly political or propaganda memories/monuments and buildings of the past regime. Pettendi Szabó has been influenced by the sculpture since his childhood—as he grew up not far from it—it has been a defining point of orientation and visual reference for him.

The evocation of a monument that has been de-legitimized after the regime change is a translational process, i.e. a context-changing operation. Personal memories and archival recordings are fused and embodied in the performative event of re-enactment, through the artist and through the artist’s gestures, thus the ‘body’ of the public symbol, originally of noble sculptural material, becomes a virtuously revived memento. However, it is questionable how far this recontextualization is able to dissolve and subvert the sedimented layers of meaning of the ideologically charged public sculpture, which undoubtedly has fine art qualities.

In doing so, it allows us to relate to the correlations between urban space and collective memory and it deals with the issues of the relationship between personal historical experience and the public sphere.

^[1]    Pettendi Szabó, Péter: Thinking about remembrance, interview with Peter Szabó Pettendi, interviewer: János Áfra, in: Uhl, Gabriella – Áfra, János: Imprinting, International Artist in Residence of Debrecen, MODEM, 2016, pp. 51–53.