Skip to main content
The Morning Star 2026 Conference
Architecture: Monumental choices
MICHAL BONCZA reviews an exhibition exploring the function of memorials and how we respond to them
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture [Brad Feinknopf]

David Adjaye: Making Memory
Design Museum
London W8

THE IDEOLOGICAL intent in “making memory” via memorials and monuments which relate particular architectural narratives demands nuanced consideration, quite aside from the mere aesthetics involved in housing such endeavours.

Where, for example, is the moral equivalence between the patriotic war memorials of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington?

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
International Brigade Memorial by Ian Walters, 1985 (restored 2012). Jubilee Gardens, Belvedere Road, Lambeth, London
Spanish Civil War / 24 June 2025
24 June 2025

LYNNE WALSH tells the story of the extraordinary race against time to ensure London’s memorial to the International Brigades got built – as activists gather next week to celebrate the monument’s 40th anniversary

DISTINGUISHED: Portrait of Hans Hess c1962 (photographer unk
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend

CONTESTED HISTORY: The Neue Wache (“the New Watchhouse”) was rebuilt by the GDR in 1957 and reopened in 1960 as a Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism — then, in 1993, it was rededicated to the ‘victims of war and tyranny’
Features / 26 May 2025
26 May 2025

JOHN GREEN observes how Berlin’s transformation from socialist aspiration to imperial nostalgia mirrors Germany’s dangerous trajectory under Chancellor Merz — a BlackRock millionaire and anti-communist preparing for a new war with Russia

Us President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his limou
Features / 1 April 2025
1 April 2025
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER