Paper short abstract:

Graves and monuments are suppose to have similar basic function: to remind the living of the dead. In public space, their function is modified; although they are often based on the event of death, they testify more about ideas and deeds, pushing the notion of death to the margins of memory patterns.

Paper long abstract:

Monuments have always served as means to create memories. They are markers of time, spatial separators, reflections of political ideas, teachers of morality and the highest value of a given epoch, instrumental artistic forms. This research is limited to so-called monumental sculpture, that is, to monuments dedicated to persons and events on the territory of Belgrade, capital of Serbia.

Two issues are of special interest: first issue revolves around ways in which a given time/epoch determines monuments, while the other revolves around ways in which monuments testify to the latent contents of a given time/epoch. This is because monuments do not testify only about what is being made but also on people who ordered them.

The displacement of death from collective memory patterns is presented as a process which corresponds with the development of modern society in Serbia. This multi-layered process speaks about secularization of collective memory and place, and the role that the phenomena of death had in construction of desirable and mobilizing identity of the nation.