Staging Memorialization

Abstract

This chapter explores the staging of memory in public architecture, emphasizing the spatial and temporal dynamics of commemorative performance. While we are familiar with post-terrorist space being redesigned to perform resilient nationalism, other affected terrain is “off-staged” by recovery planners into the realm of economic regeneration. The chapter reflects upon the spatial staging of 9/11 recovery in Manhattan which splits urban terrain into symbolic and economic zones, ‘off-staging’ the city’s prioritization of business interests during disaster management. Beyond these spatial divisions in the staging of terrorism memory, memorials also conceive of audiences in radically distinct temporal zones. Design teams are presented with briefs that identify their audiences in the contemporary moment but also 100, 150, and even 250 years into the future. The memorial is expected to perform the disaster event, to educate an audience of whom we have no knowledge. The chapter deconstructs this temporal leap, showing that memorializing for the future does not only serve an educational purpose but performatively mitigates anxieties about the erasure of the present from the world stage. By addressing a future audience, the terrorism memorial performatively stages a concern for us from future beings. The chapter analyzes this ritualized address to the future as transferring from burial necrogeography. The terrorism memorial– and its particular staging practices – respond to anxieties about the erasure of traditional foundations for political authority during globalization, which has led to an increased reliance on performative architectural objects.