Rosângela Rennó’s “document-monument” project takes as its point of departure an extensive collection of photographs downloaded from Internet: a singular display of photos of monuments to Vladimir Lenin, some of which have been destroyed and others not, from different eras. Monuments which were part of one of the most enduring brands of the Soviet socialist republics and a symbol of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Photographs as cultural artefacts are not only about their subject matter, but also have their own history. Rennó examines these photos as witnesses to a historical process and raises questions about how monuments become transformed into souvenirs. Erected as the symbol of communism, these monuments were subsequently destroyed, although their remains are still stored in those countries once making up the Soviet Union. There are also other monuments still dotted around the planet.
This curious assembly of photos, organized in accordion-style folded albums, like the old postcard travelogues sold as souvenirs of historical sites or cities, are an invitation to the spectator to revisit memories of a bygone age as a commemorative act. However, it is also up to the viewer to decide which of these monuments is a good apple and which a bad one — meaning, which one has been left standing and which one demolished. But there are also other uses and meanings which can be attributed to these pictures. The artist adds handwritten caption at the foot of these images to help resignify their meaning, in the context of the tension created between document and monument, past and present, institutionalized and new, reimagined meaning.
