Memorial to the Victims of Communism

The idea of the memorial reflects the cancerous nature of communism, which infiltrated society over its 40 years of existence. The main motif is reflection. The burden of deciding who is a victim and who is a tyrant is transferred to everyone who approaches the memorial. Each person is forced to look themselves in the eye. The appeal to personal responsibility transcends into the present and future. The intangible appearance contrasts with the massive monuments of the past; the memorial attempts to redefine its typological kind. It is not a political gesture, but an intersection of art in public space and park architecture.
The object, measuring 3.2 x 4.5 x 0.7 m, is composed of two mirrored panels of coated glass with a thickness of 18 mm (each weighing approximately 800 kg) set into a steel frame. At its base, a mirrored inscription is recessed into the pavement, readable in reflection: "seek within yourself whether you defend, honor or limit freedom". The memorial is located at the center of the park, at the crossroads of pathways, and is compositionally complemented by three 10 m long park benches made of glued wood. Indirect lighting crowns the surrounding trees, enhancing its ethereal character.
The artistic design of the memorial builds on the competition proposal for the Memorial to the Victims of Totality in Prague's Újezd (Petr Janda, Aleš Kubalík), which won 3rd place in the competition in 2000. For the competition proposal in Liberec in 2003, the original idea was revised and adapted to the confined situation of a part of the castle park at Guttenberg Street. In the subsequent years, in response to the change in the balance of political representation at the Liberec city hall, the location in the park designated by the competition proved to be unfeasible. Through the initiative of the authors and part of the Liberec city hall, a site for the memorial was found in 2003-06 in the park along Jablonecká Street, where it became the dominant feature. Here, in its final position, its intangible character stands out—interweaving reflection and transparency, which connects park visitors with its idea as well as with each other through their view of it.