Monumentaries is a multi-modal, collaborative artwork created by Friends of the Orphan Signs (FOS), a public arts organization in Albuquerque.
This project was created for the exhibition Countermapping at 516 ARTS, Fall, 2021.
About the Project
The project Monumentaries features stories recorded by students and artists who call Albuquerque home. We do this in the hopes of bringing intimate understanding to shared space—to move away from a denotation of geographic space to a connotation of place—framing an individual and ultimately collective identity.
Monumentaries are stories of the city. Through the use of symbolism, storytelling, and imagery we are creating intimate and ephemeral monuments to our memories throughout Albuquerque. Each monumentary includes a countermap, an audio component and the supplement.
These experiences rooted in place range from the quotidian to the momentous. We invite you to take part in this narrative, to share your story, to help us all experience the familiar like never before.
The term Monumentaries was coined by Jorge Otero-Pailos (1) to refer to alterations made to historic buildings or sculptural objects in order to influence the current perception of them. As supplements to historic artifacts, Monumentaries are meant to protect and preserve them for the future, and to reconfigure the contemporary understanding of relics such as monuments to bring them into alignment with new information or alternative interpretations.
Here, we have borrowed the term Monumentaries to describe a series of recorded, personal reminiscences of local places solicited from a diverse group of people. We think of these stories as supplements to the understanding of specific locations.
(1) Otero-Pailos, J. Monumentaries: Toward a Theory of the Apergon. Eflux, October 2015, #66. Retrieved from https://www.e-flux.com/journal/66/60754/monumentaries-toward-a-theory-of-the-apergon/
How to Make a Monumentary
A Monumentary Includes
A Countermap: A countermap provides a unique and personal form of navigation to the memory location.
An Audio Component: An audio file provides spoken countermapping directions to the location, and includes the story of your memory in your own voice.
The Supplement: The supplement is an image that visually recreates the feeling and experience of the memory. The image tells your story visually.
To learn more about how to make your own monumentary, please see the following map.
Example Monumentary
Below is Faeryn Estrada’s Supplement for her memory from the Steelbender Brewyard parking lot.
Also included is Faeryn’s countermap and a quote from her story. This image is installed on an orphaned sign on Lomas near 1-25.
See this image on our sign on the South side of Lomas, just east of I-25 and West of University Blvd.
The Exhibition
This artwork was created for the upcoming exhibition, Countermapping, Opening October 16th, 2021, at 516 ARTS, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a part of our gallery installation we will feature roadsign relics, a light-up sign, and a free take-away paper map to guide the viewer’s journey into these personal memories. Viewers can access these stories and images via a QR code linked to this website on the maps and on community advertising.
Our inclusion in the 516 ARTS Countermapping exhibition involves:
A billboard at Cesar Chavez and 2nd Street, advertising the project and encouraging participation.
Artwork on an orphaned sign on the South side of Lomas, just East of I-25 and West of University.
An installation in the gallery that encourages participation in the project and includes links to the Monumentaries exhibited on this website
A printed map that includes directions for completing your own Monumentary, and locations with QR codes to other’s memories.
A unique light-up sign cabinet made for the project
This light-up sign will hang in the gallery for the Countermapping installation, above a diner set where people can sit and look at the Monumentaries map.
Monumentaries Map
This image is printed as a paper map that will be available to take away at the gallery.
Public Signage
At least one billboard and one roadsign--one at Cesar Chavez and 2nd street, and on Lomas just East of 1-25--will publicly advertise the project.
We will also have posters inside 4 local buses for the month of October, 2021. All city buses alternate their route daily, so that all buses drive every bus route in the city.
Therefore our advertising will been seen by people all over Albuquerque, encouraging participation in this project from a large audience.
This image advertising our project appears on a Clear Channel billboard at Cesar Chavez and 2nd Street. You will see it on the south side of the bridge, high in the sky, as you travel Bridge Street going east. It appears framed against the sky.
This image will be installed on the east-facing side of an orphan sign on the south side of Lomas, just East of I-25 and west of University.
This image will be installed on the west-facing side of an orphan sign on the south side of Lomas, just East of I-25 and west of University. This sign was previously a part of a car dealership, and the property now sits dormant and empty. Sometimes the sign gets overgrown with fast-growing Elm volunteers.
This image can be seen as an advertisement card inside 4 public buses in Albuquerque over the month of October, 2021. ABQ buses change route every day, so these cards will reach a large audience of public bus riders.
Land Acknowledgment
We wish to acknowledge the space on which the city lies: Tiwa land of the Sandia and Isleta Puebloans. While we map these memories, in which the momentary becomes monumental, we hope to defy monuments of conquest, the ongoing project of colonization, and the oppression of this land and its peoples.
These lands that hold our beautiful and intimate memories also hold legacies of violence and displacement. We dedicate ourselves to understanding these complexities, centering our Indigenous communities, and acknowledging the truths of our shared history. Our hope is to pay respect to the vastness of the Albuquerque experience—one moment at a time.
How to Submit
We invite the audience to add their own memories as part of a process of imbuing a map of Albuquerque with intimate, momentary and immaterial monuments.
To participate, follow the directions from the infographic “How to Make a Monumentary,” posted above. Create your countermap (photo), audio directions and memory (mp3), and supplement (photo artwork). Upload those documents on the JotForm provided.