Monumental Lies: dealing with 'problem' memorials
Robert Bevan in conversation
Wednesday 19 October 2022 6.30 - 8pm
The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
£15 / £9 conc
Friends of the RA book first
Join award-winning journalist and author Robert Bevan for the launch of his new book that shows how best to deal with memorials that commemorate our dark history.
Robert Bevan’s new book Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth About the Past (Verso, 2022) is an urgent report from the front line of the culture wars. It exposes the truths buried at contested heritage sites, and demands that we change the way we think about the historic environment. It argues that those who manipulate our cultural past are having a dangerous influence over our cultural future.
In this event, Bevan will be in conversation to discuss what happens when places promote political untruths and the role of architecture in evidencing this past. He argues that monuments, architecture and cities are the physical material of history, factual traces of past events, of previous ways of thinking, of politics and values. But also that undue honours should be challenged and sites transformed.
The conversation will cover a range of contested spaces including Civil War monuments, statues of slave owners, fascist memorials, and post-war reconstruction. It will question the authority of gatekeepers such as UNESCO and politicians and discuss how to best deal with problem memorials.
There will be time for discussion and questions at the end of the event.