Monumentality and Urban Myth: Labyrinth, Absence and Sacrality in Public Art

Site-specific interventions and the aesthetics of dislocation in the creative city

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62161/sauc.v12.6179

Keywords:

Public art, Critical monumentality, Counter-monuments, Collective memory, Urban labyrinth, Creative city

Abstract

This article examines a series of artistic interventions that critically reconfigure monumentality in contemporary public space. Through the analysis of five paradigmatic cases—Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Rachel Whiteread’s Nameless Library in Vienna, Gregor Schneider’s domestic installations, Anselm Kiefer’s monumental ruins, and SPY’s Golden Monoliths in Lille—the study explores how these works destabilize official narratives of memory and generate experiences of disruption within urban life. Findings show that these interventions do not resolve debates on memory but rather open them, addressing inhabitants through the body, affect, and liminal experience. The article concludes that a truly democratic creative city is not defined by the number of artworks it hosts but by their ability to interrupt, unsettle, and re-signify everyday urban experience.

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References

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Published

2026-08-30

How to Cite

Ramos-Fabra, L., & Pesqueira-Calvo, C. (2026). Monumentality and Urban Myth: Labyrinth, Absence and Sacrality in Public Art: Site-specific interventions and the aesthetics of dislocation in the creative city. Street Art & Urban Creativity, 12(4), 403–414. https://doi.org/10.62161/sauc.v12.6179

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 4 (2026)

Section

Research articles

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