Contested Memories and Acts of Counter-Commemoration as Temporary Utopian Spaces

This reflection on counter-commemoration as temporary utopian spaces stresses the importance of distinguishing between a conservative, or anti-utopian, and a progressive, or utopian, use of memory – the latter acquiring also a social and ethical dimension. Whereas commemoration advances the official version of events according to the dominant culture at a given time, thus serving the specific purposes of the political power, acts of counter-commemoration function as sites of opposition and contestation that challenge one particular vision of how a problematic past has been interpreted and memorialized and can open up temporary utopian spaces. The essay takes the form of an unusual ‘journey’ through European contested memories: from Budapest through Paris to Bologna. Examples of acts of counter-commemoration are interspersed with some reflections about contested memories, their (more or less) appropriate acts of commemoration, and the importance and significance of symbolic objects, in an attempt to show why acts of counter-commemoration are all the more important today and provide a utopian answer to our dystopian times.