unstable creations repression begets art
memorials | eastern europe by gaston soucy
ar t creativity
change power communication
Sitting in a café in Prague on a placid autumn afternoon I gaze at the art painted on the wall across the street— on a highway in the shape of the infinity symbol a series of alternating bulldozers and tanks symbolises the eternal struggle of construction and destruc- tion that has historically affected this region. In Budapest a few weeks earlier I was looking at the statues around the Millennium Memorial at Heroes’ Square. At the base of the cen- tral column are seven imposing sculptures representing the proud Magyar chiefs that founded the Kingdom of Hungary, a nation that since its creation has gone through a series of dramatic changes instigated by different political and religious interests. Nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule were followed by the First World War, a brutal Nazi occupation during the Second World War, the Hungarian Rev- olution of 1956 and the ensuing vicious communist invasion by the Soviet Union. These are the kinds of events that have sketched the passage of time on Eastern Europe’s regional canvas. In Budapest, as in most places around this region, the scars of history are traced on the urban landscape. The Central Memorial for the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence by the Hungarian creative group I-ypszilon is placed where a statue of Stalin stood before being knocked down by enraged crowds. This memorial is made of multiple rectangular rusted iron pillars that gradually merge into a sharp and solid stain- less steel mass symbolising the demonstrators and their unity. As an alternative to the physical presence of art and architecture, Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 transmits the sorrow and trag- edy of separation in war. The second movement was based on a message written by a young woman on the walls of a Gestapo cell during the Second World War. It speaks of the despair, not of her- self but of her mother who might never see her again. This delicate melodic composition is so heartbreaking and moving that it has the capacity of transmitting to the listener every single emotion of the painful experience without ever being there. In the rural setting of north-eastern Slovakia, cannons alternate with rows of pear trees growing by the side of a road near the bor- der with Poland. This ghostlike, surreal landscape of abandoned tanks and artillery in the vicinity of Dukla Pass serves as an eerie reminder of the path of destruction that took place during the end of the Second World War. Not far from there a beautiful and modest
burial ground and memorial for Austrian-Nazi troops hides behind a Greek-Catholic Ruthenian church.
What is it about human suffering that produces such powerful forms of art? It is the same element that drives a people to react against repressive systems where individual talents need to be suppressed to preserve the established order. Repression of creativity and indi- vidualism are a perfect way to inhibit social change, but because it goes against the essence of human nature – against the spirit and the will to move forward and aspire towards better conditions for both personal and collective interests, it inevitably leads to a reac- tion. The result is the manifestation of those repressed feelings and emotions through diverse and powerful forms of expression. I think of more stable, liberal societies where artistic substance seems unable to find that strength. In a stable and harmonious sys- tem, social organisation depends on the preservation of order, but without the violence and intimidation often found in totalitarian systems. If the state is not actively forcing a new ideology onto the population, creativity does not react in the same manner as it does in a dictatorial environment. As I finish my drink, I can’t help but remember The Third Man where Harry Lime, the character played by Orson Welles, asserts ‘Remember what the fella said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Ren- aissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.’ 1 C
1 The Third Man . London Films Productions - 1949. Directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, produced by Alexander Korda
below left: Equestrian statues of the seven conquering Magyar chiefs, part of the Millenary Monument , designed in 1896 by Albert Schickedanz on Hosek ter (Heroes Square) in Budapest. 1896 was the 1000th anniversary of the conquest of this territory by the Hungarians. below: Central Monument of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence , Budapest 2006, the 50th anniversary of the revolution. The starting point of the design by I-ypszilon was a well-known photo of un- dergraduates from the Polytechnic University marching arm-in-arm to the sculpture of Jozef Bem on October 23 1956.
Gaston Soucy is an architect and urban designer in Toronto.
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