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Forum for Modern Language Studies 2008 44(2):185-198; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqn003
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved

The Afterlife of Communist Statuary: Hungary's Szoborpark and Lithuania's Grutas Park

Paul Williams

Program in Museum Studies
New York University
New York, NY 10003
United States


  Abstract

Following the "Autumn of Nations" revolutions in 1989–1991, cities throughout Eastern Europe were presented with a problem: what to do with their communist-inspired sculptures. Working with the idea that their continued presence in situ was unacceptable, but that their destruction would forgo the opportunity to teach others about the style and content of the political ideology, two key sites – Hungary's Szoborpark ("Statue Park") and Lithuania's Grutas Park – emerged as a novel response. This article argues that these privately-run semi-rural parks, which contain almost comically condensed collections of sculptures and monuments, only semi-effectively demonstrate the current irrelevance of communism.

Key Words: Grutas Park • Szoborpark • statue parks • communist statuary • post-communism • public art • memory • tourism • liminal space

The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532


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