Memories Come to the Surface: Pavement Memorials in Urban Public Spaces

Abstract

Memorials installed within public pavements are a recent, distinctive genre in terms of their forms, subjects, audiences and custodianship. Through international examples, this paper examines their varied materials and designs, and their differing placement in relation to the pavement surface, the location of the events commemorated and the wider cityscape. It analyzes the particular visual and tactile encounters they frame for the passing public. These commemorative installations sit in tension with the complex ownership, regulation, use and maintenance of the public right-of-way. They also engage with specific physical and representational opportunities that the public pavement presents for commemoration.

Acknowledgements

Quentin Stevens' work on this paper was supported by a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (project number FT0992254) and a Senior Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. Mirjana Ristic's work was supported by an Early Career Researcher Project Grant from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. The authors would like to thank Karen Franck, Ruth Fazakerley, Renia Ehrenfeucht, Gunter Demnig and anonymous referees for their contributions and advice on the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.