Removed, Replaced, Wrapped, Remodelled: ‘Difficult Heritage’ and the case of Christopher Columbus

Dr. Johanna Spanke

In 2020, in the course of worldwide protests calling for the destruction of colonial monuments or their removal from public spaces, the figure of Christopher Columbus was a repeated focus of attention. Once revered as a visionary explorer and a personification of enlightenment and progress, Columbus is now regarded mainly as the initiator of a history of genocide, forced missionary work and enslavement. In the course of this shift in perception, various strategies have emerged to deal with monuments originally erected in honour of the Genoese navigator. These range from vandalism and removal (whether through monument toppling or official orders), to replacement and relocation, and finally to various forms of artistic redesign. These latter instances of the artistic reframing of monuments to Columbus  – which integrate elements of these historically burdened structures and at the same time dismantle the traditional narratives they represent through visual contradictions  – have yet to be systematically examined by researchers. Columbus is a particularly interesting case, since he continues to play an important – albeit highly contested – role in the construction of identity in numerous countries and for numerous groups around the world. And yet Columbus is hardly a monolithic figure; instead, his differing significance for various localities must be taken into account when addressing his sculptural representations. Based on analyses of individual case studies, a systematic approach will be developed for the purpose of better understanding the complexities of memorial culture and identifying potential solutions that are capable of preserving publicly visible traces of a ‘difficult’ history while respecting, representing and assigning agency to those who continue to be affected by colonialist systems.