Violence, landscape and languages of memorialisation

Abstract

On 15th March 2019 the unthinkable happened. The quiet city of Christchurch became a place of violence, with a terrorist killing 50 people during their Friday prayers in the city’s two mosques. Many of the questions surrounding violence and landscape response suddenly became very vivid. We have researched responses to violence through landscape interventions in a wide range of settings, including field work in places which have experienced genocide (Cambodia and Rwanda); war memorials (United Arab Emirates); violent conflict (Mexico and Colombia); and mass shootings (Columbine and Christchurch). Through our research we have identified a number of themes, and we explore how these different approaches respond to violence: 1. Transformation: Colombian artist, Doris Salcedo, turned 8,000 AK-47 machine guns that had been used to kill 220,000 people, into floor tiles. Her goal was to make a monument to peace out of the machines of violence. 2. Preservation: In Cambodia the preserving of evidence (sites of atrocity, human remains) was initially required by the War Crimes Tribunal, but even now are still being preserved. 3. Adaptation: In post-quake Christchurch road cones became places of memorial, where on the anniversary of the quake flowers were placed in cones. Now, in the wake of the Mosque shootings, this local practice was adapted for another tragedy with the cones again becoming neighbourhood memorials around the city. 4. Absence: The representation of absence is a powerful way of marking loss. Christchurch’s 185 Empty Chairs was developed as a temporary memorial, and after the terrorist attack 50 Pairs of Empty Shoes was a spontaneous memorial created by a local church. 5. Exhibition/Education: The display of aspects of violence can be enlisted as a memorial expression. The Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda has 3 permanent exhibitions that document, and educate visitors about genocide, including not only the Rwandan experience but across a range of genocides. 6. Anchoring: At The Center for Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation, in Bogotá Colombia, handfuls of soil were brought to the site from places of violence, and incorporated into the structure of the building, anchoring it into the network of violence across the country.