Abstract
FOURTH PLINTH PROGRAM: CONTEMPORARY MONUMENTS OF THE EMPTY PLINTH
Since 1999, London’s famous Trafalgar Square has been hosting The 4th Plinth Program, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of contemporary art. This program is a call for artists to propose contemporary monuments to be situated on the empty plinth of the square. Every two years a different proposal is realized on the plinth. Sharing the same space with the permanent monuments, these works of art have different ways of relating with the social memory. This article aims to study the ways in which the 4th Plinth projects reveal the layers that make up the memory of the square the void of the plinth. How each artist interprets the emptiness of the plinth will be a means of reconsidering the meaning of monuments today in the context of this unique program.
Keywords
Trafalgar Square, Plinth, Monument, Contemporary Art, Collective Memory, Sculpture