In this article, you can read which makers have already made a work in the past on the theme of (Un) monumenting. This program line was started in 2021 by the NDSM-werf Foundation and has had many interpretations since then. In chronological order, do you remember?

Breathing the city: Frerara

In 2021, the Frerara collective — Frederick Calmes, Raquel van Haver and Raul Balai — was invited to make the Drawing Task 2020, which they realised for Amsterdam City Archives, visible at the NDSM shipyard. In (Un) monumenting #1, Frerara presented images from Breathing the City, which focuses on underexposed Amsterdammers and their stories.

The three artists bring together themes such as the archive, transition, art and culture and the city's signature in their work. To do this, they are researching the residents of the city of Amsterdam and specifically into continuing the tradition of keeping the city alive as a ritual. For example, the drawings show a different face of Amsterdam and create a temporary 'monument' for a number of understudied townspeople.

This work questioned the role of monuments in contemporary society: who are monuments really for, and can they actually form a stage for underexposed people, subjects, or images?

For (Un) monumenting #2, Sijben Rosa created a temporary and performative monument; terms that conceal a strong contradiction. The central question was: is it still up to date to make a monument to eternity?

Not Forever was an ode to what NDSM was, is, and the future interpretation that is under pressure from temporality, a changing city and climate change. The object, which is reminiscent of a large boulder, was built from the remains of the demolished building of Sexyland Society.

The monument becomes visible only when it is removed — Sasha Pevak

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The work spent a month and a half wandering around the shipyard, each time with a new destination and “guardian” who had to ensure that the object was visible for a short period of time and that nothing happened. After the journey, the object was demolished and the parts were recycled, in line with the title of this work. Not forever raised questions about what makes monuments monumental: is it the image or, on the contrary, the experiences and context with the object that make the soul? “Just like if you were to completely dissect a person, you won't find one piece that contains the soul or identity, it's in your whole being.” — According to Sijben Rosa.

Monument: Manaf Halbouni

Monument was created in 2017 by the Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbouni. The work originally referred to the war in Syria, where a widespread media image showed civilians in Aleppo hiding behind three sniper buses.

The work referred to war situations and experiences in Syria, but also in the rest of the world, and what that means for societies in times of peace. “I wanted to show how war and peace can change very quickly,” says Halbouni. “And there is always war, but there is also reconstruction.”

This work was about the role of peace or war memorials in public space: a place where you can reach many people at the same time, but also a place where people don't explicitly ask to see art (after all, that's what a lot of people go to a museum for). The work called many comments received from spectators at the NDSM shipyard, but also in other places such as Dresden where the work was located. These reactions, both positive and negative, raise questions: are monuments allowed to take up space in public places, and if so, how and for whom?

Landed Rock: Clinton Kabena

It looks like this car crashed with a bang. The first participating work by (Un) monumenting: The Future Should Always Be Better, will be the installation from October 5, 2023 Landed Rock on display by designer and visual artist Clinton Kabena. In addition to the car that appears to have crashed face down into the ground, Kabena also fills the NDSM Billboards with three visuals.

This work challenges the viewer to think about the fantastic nature of borders, constructed as they are from the collective imagination of societies. The confrontation of the grandeur of these monumental structures with the fragile threads of unity that they are trying to preserve.