Yugoslav Spomeniks and Parisien Follies

These Spomeniks (monuments), a collection of sculptures built across the land of former Yugoslavia as memorials to WWII could be compared with Tschumi's follies of Parc de la Villette in the sense that they are standalone objects in green space, with little or no practical purpose. However the key difference is way in which they were designed to convey meaning, the difference between signified and signifier, or so it was originally intended...

monument |ˈmɒnjʊm(ə)nt|

noun

a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a notable person or event. • a statue or other structure placed over a grave in memory of the dead. • a building, structure, or site that is of historical importance or interest: the amphitheatre is one of the many Greek monuments in Sicily. • an enduring and memorable example of something: recordings that are a monument to the art of playing the piano. ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a burial place): via French from Latin monumentum, from monere ‘remind’.

folly |ˈfɒli|

noun ( pl. follies )

1 [ mass noun ] lack of good sense; foolishness: an act of sheer folly. • [ count noun ] a foolish act, idea, or practice: the follies of youth. 2 a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park. 3 ( Follies )a theatrical revue with glamorous female performers: [ in names ] : the Ziegfeld Follies. ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French folie ‘madness’, in modern French also ‘delight, favourite dwelling’ (compare with sense 2), from fol ‘fool, foolish’.

...Tschumi's follies intentionally ignored their contexts, laid in a regular grid over a fairy irregular shaped park and each cube following rules of transformation rather than of use. Jacques Derrida's philosophy of deconstruction, disregard for hierarchy and order, allows new meanings to be read from the structures rather than imposing historical pre-conceptions.

The fate of the Spomeniks by their abandonment is the rejection and eventual loss of their original meaning and they now border on the side of the signifier, open to wider interpretation.

So do we let the memories of our history fade so that we can create Tschumi's dis-junctions, or do we aim to preserve the memories that create a readable, linear history?

More on this:
Spomeniks - http://www.meta-magazine.com/articles/spomenik-the-monuments-of-former-yugoslavia

Parc de la Villette - http://archidose.org/wp/1999/02/01/parc-de-la-villette/

Spomenik book preview - http://issuu.com/romapublications/docs/spomenik_preview