Fabricius-Rahbek, Hans

Færk, Aksel Peter

Gregersen, Troels Bach

Jensen, Casper

Kjældmand, Julie

This project examines the ongoing debate about the removal of historic monuments such as the Cecil Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town. The project seeks to inform the debate and expand it to include aspects as history and temporality as these seem to be excluded from the otherwise ethical debate. We are of the position that in order to fully comprehend the arguments presented on each pole of the debate, these aspects of history and temporality need to be included in understanding the ethical arguments presented on either side, and by including these aspects we get a fuller debate and an expanded possibility of qualifying certain arguments over other and coming to a consensus regarding the removal of certain historical monuments. Throughout the project it becomes increasingly clear that there is not one history, but rather a multitude of histories as well as pasts, that unify certain groups of people. These can be centred around past as well as present struggles, we especially see this with terms such as black history. The question is raised whether certain interpretations of history justify means of action in the present better than other interpretations of said history. Ultimately this begs the question; does it actually makes a difference if certain historical monuments are removed or not? What is the point if we can’t change the past? It’s concluded that while we may not be able to change the past with the removal of statues, we may very well change the way we interpret it and therefore how we move forward in the future, and the removal of certain historical monuments may very well be a useful tool in changing the course for the future

Future of the Monuments: Historical, temporal and ethical qualification

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Roskilde Universitet