“Anti-monument: The Way to a Forgotten Historical Event”. Participation as a Tactics for Creating New Memory

Abstract

In this text, I will address historical memory as an ethical obligation and a means of intervening in the process of social change, with a particular emphasis on the problem of excluding women from main historical narratives. My analysis is set in relation to the marginalized historical episode of the political camp for women in Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur. I will explore how tactics of socially engaged artistic practice can effectively bring this forgotten historical episode into public focus and integrate it into institutional frameworks. Special attention will be given to the concept of the anti-monument as an innovative critical approach to the memorialization practices of violent heritage. The anti-monument involves the public in the process of memory transmission, allowing everyone to seek information and respond according to their own interest, and by building their own memory, become carriers of memory, and take responsibility for the future.

For the purpose of this paper, I will refer to the case study “850 Women for 850 Women”, which I initiated and have been leading since 2021 within the artistic project “You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It”, as a concrete example of participatory building of a collective anti-monument and repositioning towards memory. This participatory practice indicates how artistic interventions can actively transfer memory from the past through present collective action into the future. The paper provides insight into ways artistic tactics establishes connection with marginalized histories and strengthens collective memories with the idea of historical justice and inclusion.