The classical version of the monument, carved of marble or even gold-plated, associates with the respect, as it comes - Lenin or the peeing boy. In the tourist maps the monuments play a secondary role in line with architectural chef-d’oeuvres and toilets. However, it is negotiable what do Americans choose to visit - the Hill of The Tree Crosses, or the monument for Frank Zappa?

Maybe there are too many monuments built if the questions, are they all worth of attention, appear? Does the Lithuanian nation need the soviet occupation busts? It only remains to put one‘s nose into the park of Grutas, where the attributes of the soviet occupation period is stored: few versions of proud Lenin sculptures, few of Stalin, etc. Those are the monuments to remember the black history of Lithuania. So the dilemma where to put the comma appears in the sentence: „to preserve impossible to ruin“. Still, the monument destruction is like a women, who tries to hide her age.



If the old monuments leave you cold, for whom would you build the new one?

Simona Štrimaitytė
Translated by Erika Lastovskytė