Mediating memory: Strategies of interaction in public art and memorials

This article addresses how a selection of participatory art and memorial projects have engaged with public memory and interaction. The intention is to explore the tension between the artists’ strategies and the actual lifespan and use of the artworks by their audiences. The authors interviewed the artists Esther Shalev-Gerz, Alfredo Jaar and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (during 2008 and 2009) and examined specific works. In addition, one of the literally ‘groundbreaking’ works of process art by Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Woodshed, was included in the analysis of cases that have provoked interesting social or collective memory debates and community interaction around public art.