Deconstruction of the monumental. From monument-symbol to postmonument-simulacrum
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2025-3-116-135
Abstract
The article considers a monument as a form of monumental art and as a cultural form. A monument is a priori a symbol because it embodies those highest values that belong to the transcendental world in the space of everyday life. In the second half of the 20th – 21st century, radical transformations occur in public consciousness and culture. Those changes pose the researcher with the question: are simulative forms of a monument possible? Behind that question lies not so much an artistic-aesthetic dilemma, but rather an issue of a philosophical and cultural-anthropological nature, related to the change in human attitudes towards the transcendent and the sacred. In the article, the author gives a comparative analysis of the categories of “symbol” and “simulacrum” in monumentalism, the analysis shows the differences and similarities of such cultural phenomena.
A thesis is put forward and justified that during the historical development of the monument as a cultural form, a postmonument emerges at the turn of the 20th to 21st centuries a post-monument emerges as a deconstruction of a monument-symbol, which after reassembly turns into a postsymbol (monumental simulacrum).
About the Author
E. Yu. Lekus
Stieglitz Saint Petersburg State Academy of Art and Design
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena Yu. Lekus, Cand. of Sci. (Culturology)
bld. 13, Solyanoi Alleyway, Saint Petersburg, 191028
References
1. Baudrillard, J. (2015), Simulacra et simulation, Kachalova, A. (transl. from Fr.), POSTUM, Moscow, Russia.
2. Baudrillard, J. (2000), Simvolicheskii obmen i smert’ [L’Échange Symbolique et la Mort], Zenkin, S.N. (transl. from Fr.), Dobrosvet, Moscow, Russia.
3. Belova, N.Yu. (2009), “Analysis of the methods for interpreting artistic imagery based on the specifics of the structure of the consciousness image”, Bulletin of Novosibirsk State University. Series: Psychology, vol. 1, iss. 1, pp. 32–43.
4. Castoriadis, C. (2003), Voobrazhaemoe ustanovlenie obshchestva [L’institution imaginaire de la société], Volkova, G. and Ofertas, S. (transl. from Fr.), Gnozis, Logos, Moscow, Russia.
5. Deleuze, G. (1998), “Plato and the Simulacrum”, Intentsional’nost’ i tekstual’nost’. Filosofskaya mysl’ Frantsii XX veka [Intentionality and Textuality. Philosophical thought in France in the 20th century], Vodolei, Tomsk, Russia pp. 225–240.
6. Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (2010), Kapitalizm i shizofreniya. Tysyacha plato [Mille Plateaux. Capitalisme et Schizophrénie], Svirskii, Ya.I. (transl. from Fr.), Kuznetsov, V.Yu. (ed.) U-Faktoriya, Astrel, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Russia.
7. Derrida, J. (1992), “Lettre à un ami japonais”, Garadzha, A. (transl. from Fr.), Voprosy filosofii, no. 4, pp. 53–57.
8. Eliade, M. (1994), Svyashchennoe i mirskoe [Le sacré et le profane], Garbovsky, N.K. (transl. from Fr.), Izd. MGU, Moscow, Russia.
9. Flier, A.Ya. (2015), “Culture as a symbolic activity. The stage of formation”, Kul’tura kul’tury [Culture of Culture], no. 1, available at: http://cult-cult.ru/culture-as-asymbolic-activity-the-stage-of-formation/ (Accessed 20 March 2023).
10. Florensky, PA. (2000), Collected works. In 4 vols., vol. 3 (1), Mysl, Moscow, Russia.
11. Grechko, P.K. (2013–2014), “Postmodern constructionism”, Voprosy sotsial’noi teorii, vol. VII, no. 1–2, pp. 25–42.
12. Gubanov, O.A. (2012), “Artistic symbol and simulacrum. Aesthetic confrontation”, Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie (Terra Humana) [Society. Environment. Development (“Terra Humana”), no. 3 (24), pp. 103–107.
13. Jameson, F. (2019), Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Gaidar Institute Publishing House, Moscow, Russia.
14. Jung, C.G. (2008), Simvoly transformatsii [Symbols of Transformation], AST, Moscow, Russia.
15. Jung, C.G. (1994), Libido, ego metamorfozy i simvoly [Métamorphoses et symboles de la libido], Vostochno-evropeiskii in-t psikhoanaliza, St. Petersburg, Russia.
16. Lekus, E.Yu. (2022), “Beauty in art: Synthesis of the beautiful and the ugly”, World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, vol. 2 (13), available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/44KLSK222.pdf (Accessed 10 November 2024). DOI: 10.15862/44KLSK222,
17. Losev, AF. (1995), Problema simvola i realisticheskoe iskusstvo [The Issue of Symbol and Realistic Art], Iskusstvo, Moscow, Russia.
18. Lotman, Yu.M. (2002), “Symbol in the system of culture”, Articles on the semiotics of culture of art, Academicheskii Proekt, St. Petersburg, Russia, pp. 211–225.
19. Pelipenko, AA. And Yakovenko, I.G. (1998), Kul’tura kak sistema [Culture as a System], Yazyki russkoi kul’tury, Moscow, Russia.
20. Rea, N. (2019), “What Do the French Truly Think About Jeff Koons’s Divisive Gift? We Camped Out by the Sculpture for Three Days to Find Out”, Artnet, available at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-tulips-poll-1682545 (Accessed 14 October 2024).
21. Taylor, C. (2010), “What is the Social Imaginary?”, Neprikosnovennyj zapas: Debaty o politike i kul’ture, no. 1 (69), pp. 19–26.
22. Takho-Godi, AA. (1980), “The term ‘symbol’ in ancient Greek literature”, Obraz i slovo. Voprosy klassicheskoi filologii [Image and word. Questions of Classical philology], iss. 7, pp. 16–57.
23. Turchin, V.S. (1982), Monumenty i goroda. Vzaimosvyaz’ khudozhestvennykh form monumentov i gorodskoi sredy [Monuments and Cities. The Relationship of Artistic Forms of Monuments and the Urban Environment], Sovetskii khudozhnik, Moscow, Russia.
24. Uvarov, M.S. (1998), Arkhitektonika ispovedal’nogo slova [Architectonics of the confessional word], Aleteiya, St. Petersburg, Russia.
25. Winter, J. (2014), Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Canto Classics), Canto Classics, Cambridge, UK.
Review
For citations:
Lekus E.Yu. Deconstruction of the monumental. From monument-symbol to postmonument-simulacrum. RSUH/RGGU BULLETIN. Series Philosophy. Social Studies. Art Studies. 2025;(3):116-135. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2025-3-116-135
Views:
7
Email this article 