Lost memories: The transformation of monuments in contemporaneous Mexican cities.

Abstract

A monument emerges to perpetuate a memory of something, providing a collective with identity and representation. In recent times in Mexico, however, this concept of memory has been misinterpreted to the benefit of monuments as propaganda, without understanding their role in cities. Under this context, this work introduces the Mexican case of the “Chimalli Warrior” –a 70 meter tall megalomaniac sculpture– firstly showing the many changes experience by the concept of monument in the local context throughout the centuries, which are explained by deep social and cultural transformations. Subsequently, the consistency of the built outcome against the values of monumentality established in different modern and postmodern theoretical stances is discussed, where the typology is understood as the place for the confluence between architecture and sculpture, a reflection of the spirit of the epoch, with a unique impact as a builder of places and memory in contemporaneous cities.