Function, Form & Spray-Paint

In this paper we trace the historical shifts in the appropriations of, and transformations of the Soviet Army Memorial in Sofia after the collapse of socialism. Throughout the 1990s the strong anti-communist movement, embodied by the coalition United Democratic Forces (UDF), that took office in 1997, pushed for the demolition of all the socialist monuments. Their largest achievement was the destruction of the mausoleum in Sofia in 1999. Nevertheless, due to legal and political reasons, they failed to dismantle the Soviet Army Memorial in Sofia. The UDF, after having implemented harsh austerity measures and mass privatization, were not reelected and were never able to win a majority in elections ever since, thus leaving the more committed anti-communists without a strong political representation that would allow them to dismantle the monument. This forced them to look for other methods of dealing with the monument that pushed the anti-communist struggle from the ‘state’ into the domain of civil society. A similar process occurs on the left with people who reappropriate the maintenance and care for controversial socialist heritage since the socialist party (even when in office) has abandoned them.

On the other hand, there are activists (i.e. street artists) searching for "pragmatic utilization" of the monument or its transformation into a vehicle for the circulation of exchange value. For instance, proposals to turn all socialist monuments into museums or commercial establishments.

We will follow the gradual “democratization” of anti-communism and its displacement into the depoliticizing sphere of civil society.