Ongoing Archives - Contested Histories

Cofiwch Dryweryn Graffiti and Copycats in Llanrhystud, Wales

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000

In 1965, the Tryweryn Valley was flooded by the English to create the Llyn Celyn Reservoir. The Valley was home to Capel Celyn, one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities. In the 1960s, Welsh culturalist Meic Stephens graffitied the words ‘Cofiwch Tryweryn,’ meaning ‘Remember Tryweryn,’ onto a wall outside Llanrhystud. This graffiti has been copied all over Wales since, becoming a symbol of Wales’ lost history and language. This monument has fallen victim to numerous acts of vandalism over the years, and there have been numerous attempts to protect it. For example, through attempts to make it a designated Welsh landmark. These formal attempts have been unsuccessful, however, and much has been left to the local community. This case study aims to illuminate how a simple message became a force of cultural resistance against English interference in Wales.

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Ratko Mladić Mural in Belgrade

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Painted on a residential building facade in Belgrade’s Vračar district in 2021, the image of Ratko Mladić, a convicted war criminal, quickly became the most controversial street piece in Serbia. To its supporters, Mladić is a national defender, but to many others, he is a symbol of cruel violence, traumatising war and blinding hate. The painted image sparked tensions and polarisation between the authorities, local activists, the general public and the ‘guardians of the mural’. This case study explores the difficult topic of dealing with a problematic recent past, unresolved memory politics, the failure to confront one’s own past and what a society can look like when it does not engage with its history in a critical way.

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Louis Faidherbe Statue & Landmarks in Saint-Louis

Paula — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

On September 5, 2017, a 126-year-old statue of Senegaal (Senegal) governor, Louis Faidherbe, collapsed after heavy rain and winds. The accident sparked a protest among activists and religious communities across Senegal. Minimising the extent of the protest, local authorities restored the statue within a few days, resulting in even more controversy, with debates on social media and in the local and international press. Demands to bring down the statue collided with local authorities’ fears of losing the UNESCO World Heritage Site status and subsidies from the French government.

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St. Vladimir Statue in Moscow

Paula — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

On November 4, 2016, a statue of Vladimir the Great or Saint Vladimir, as he is known in Russian, was unveiled by President Putin in Moscow during the millennium commemoration of Vladimir’s death (958–1015). Known as Volodymyr in Ukrainian, he is a major historical figure in both Russian and Ukrainian memory politics and understood, by each, to be the founder of their states. Upon its unveiling, Putin sought to emphasise Vladimir’s role as a uniter of the Slavic people, and implicitly placed Russia at its core. This enormous statue was evidently meant to rival the statue of the figure in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which has been there since 1853. This case study examines the significance of this monument in the context of memory wars with Ukraine and as part of the Russian state’s discourse of a 1000-year-old Russia.

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Dolinka Museum for the Commemoration of Victims of Political Repression in Karaganda

Paula — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The Karaganda Corrective Labour Camp (Karlag) was a Soviet forced labour camp located in the Karaganda region, in the central part of Kazakhstan, and operated between 1931 and 1959. The camp covered a vast area, at its largest, roughly the size of France. After its closure, the camp was left for the most part unfenced and unattended. The locals had reused many former camp buildings. After Kazakhstan gained independence, the government had little interest in commemorating former camps and also addressing the contentious Soviet legacy. In the late 2000s, an effort towards commemoration was made by the government with the creation of the two museums, Alzhir Museum and Karlag Museum in Dolinka. However, since then, the visitation levels have remained low, both for local and international tourists, arguably reflecting a lack of ownership and legitimacy given by other stakeholders, most importantly, local communities.

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Macdonald Statue in Victoria

Paula — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

In August 2018, the Victoria City Council’s decision to remove a statue of Sir John A Macdonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, from outside the City Hall sparked controversy due to the lack of transparency in the public consultation process. This case study explores how public consultation can shape the perception of controversial statues and how these decisions affect wider goals of historical reconciliation.

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Emancipation Memorial in Boston and Washington

Paula — Mon, 18 May 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The first Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedmen’s Memorial, was erected in Washington, D.C., in 1876. Funded by formerly enslaved persons, the statue celebrates President Abraham Lincoln. During the American Civil War, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, offering limited freedom to enslaved people. Shortly after the creation of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, a copy, known as the Emancipation Group, was installed in Boston, Massachusetts. Despite the memorials’ nod to emancipation, they have attracted historical and recent controversy for the positioning of the figures, mainly the sculpted enslaved person kneeling at Lincoln’s feet, and praise of Lincoln. In 2020, the City of Boston removed the Emancipation Group, and though the Freedmen’s Memorial in Washington garnered similar controversy, as of 2022, it remains in its original place. This case study examines the power of iconography and the impact of federal and municipal governments on decision-making regarding monuments within their jurisdiction.

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Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria

Paula — Mon, 04 May 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The Voortrekker monument is a large granite building which represents Dutch settler nationalism in South Africa. It was built as an attempt to construct a narrative of Afrikaner nationalist pride, tying it in with a complicated legacy of colonialism and racial prejudice. It has thus been subject to criticism over its place in modern South Africa. Since the fall of apartheid, a counter-monument of Freedom Park has served to re-contextualise in physical space the distinctions drawn between settler and African identities. However, the legacy of the Voortrekker monument remains controversial. This case study shows the challenges of reckoning with the material histories of colonialist regimes in postcolonial nations and the challenges of addressing legacies of racism in post-apartheid societies.

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Puente Aranda Murals in Bogotá

Paula — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The project ‘Open Museum of Bogotá: painting in the public space’ was organised by the District Institute of Arts (IDARTES) and Urban Development Institute (IDU), with the support of the Mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López. Part of the initiative aimed to decorate eleven bridges across Bogotá, using local artists selected by a public call. One of these murals, painted by Saint Cat Crew on a supporting column of the Aranda bridge at the crossroad of Avenue of Americas with Street 50 near the Military Club, provoked diverse reactions and criticism. Representing the cycle of violence on the streets, the mural depicted a policeman being awarded a medal over human skulls. Shortly after it was finished, Luis Mauricio Mayorga painted over the mural, which sparked debate regarding freedom of expression, censorship and misuse of public funds. This case examines the controversies surrounding artistic intervention in legacies of violence.

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Rumours of War in Richmond, Virginia

Paula — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Almost a century after the last Confederate monument was erected in the heart of Richmond, the state capital of Virginia, a new counter-monument was installed in 2019 by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Modelled after its neighbouring Confederate statues, the equestrian statue of a Black man is a rare addition that serves to re-contextualise a space rife with contested monuments. This case study explores the role counter-monuments can play in the diversification of artistic representations in public spaces.

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