Jurying Memorial Site Competitions

As an internationally recognized expert on public art and the memorial genre, James E. Young has served on juries for a number of prospective memorials, from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin to the National 9/11 Memorial in New York. In this interview, within the context of the Budapest memorial site project in memory of women who were raped in times of war, we touch on the specifics of the call for applications, the importance of selecting the right site for the memorial, the role of the jury, and the ways in which the commemoration process can continue. Drawing on his experiences as a member of various juries, Young views the memorial as an extended process, stressing that preparation and afterlife are as important, as elements of the meanings of a memorial, as the physical object or site themselves.