Shadows of the past

Ralf Sander investigates the impact of public art, in this case the impact of missing or removed monuments. The absent, removed monument and the collective memory has become a focus of this investigation. The projects were each realized in different countries, Northern Ireland, Poland, Germany and USA. “Shadows of the Past,” created by artist Ralf Sander — a water and gel painting recreating the shadow of a removed or destroyed monument, oftentimes removed because of a change in political powers. The concept is to reconstruct their shadows and apply them to the ground with ephemeral materials that the shadow itself also disappears after some time. The context is Para-Sites , a distributed exhibition project where given modes of production, circulation, and consumption are “hijacked” or re-appropriated for creative purposes. It is a network of distributed practices that operate in the same time frame with a common theoretical and tactical approach. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of impact was discussed in the 2015 Para Site International Conference happened in Hong Kong and New York.