Anti-Monument project

Anti-Monument is a project Michele Liparesi has been developing and producing in the last few years in collaboration with Yulia Tikhomirova e the TIST Collective, working on the concept, graphic project, performance and video documentation.

The idea of a “monument” as the ultimate expression of an artistic process, where an art object is finally designated to eternity, is the goal all the students of art schools are taught to pursue. “Monument” is intended here in a large sense: not only as a concrete art-item but also as an idea or a concept meant to be conserved in a museum, sold at the art fair, granted the status of art and thus emptied of its potential explosivity.

According to the “shark business” approach that we see behind grant and prize system, only few artists would be able to achieve the status of “monumentum”, of eternal (or promised as such) remembrance, of memorial to their individual “genius”, thus accentuating an already fierce competition.

The Anti-Monument seeks to undo this myth. Apparently a classic monument, like those present in all Italian city-squares (untouchable, unmovable and impossible to relate to), the Anti-Monument doesn’t provide any fabricated memory or a presumed content of value. It’s apparent artistic status is an empty shell open to be used, lived by community, filled up. It’s sense is in continuous transformation, it’s living is constantly temporary.

The Anti-Monument on wheels travels through cities and communities and gathers ideas on how to build an alternative to what oppresses us in art, suggestions for manifesto and contacts for the map of a parallel art world. All the inputs can be left inside the monument and will be later added to the manifesto (on web or paper) in an attempt to reinforce the direct democratic participation and horizontal discussion process.