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Silent Monumentalism and the Question of the Lost Monument

Some monuments are destroyed. Some disappear. Some collapse. When that happens, the question is not only whether we can rebuild them, but what it means to remember them . The Silence Monument  project shows one way of responding: through multimedia, digital reconstruction, and AR, it brings back the image and presence of a lost monument without rebuilding it physically. It works with memory, history, and technology to keep the monument visible in culture. My work begins from a different place. I am not interested in rebuilding what is gone. I am interested in what remains when something is gone . Mukurob (God’s Finger) no longer stands. Its absence is real. Instead of replacing it with a copy, Silent Monumentalism asks: What if a monument does not have to be a thing? What if a monument can be a presence, a structure, a space to stand in front of ? What if absence itself becomes part of the monument? Silent Monumentalism is not about representation. It is not about illustrat...
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Writing Notes about the Dialogue - Pieter Lategan | Silent Monumentalism

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Page P5 (Dialogue) Instead of: “What does it mean?” it becomes: “What is happening to me while I am looking at this?” That is the difference. Why will this be a psychological matter? It is quiet, open, non-demanding. The nervous system can settle. You breathe slower, look longer, notice more. You think less in words and more in feeling / perception. Silent Monumentalism Pieter Lategan 19 Feb 2026, 12:58 pm Pretoria, South Africa Ref: p13, p4, p11, p12, p3, p4 Page P4 How form and space coexist is my unique contribution. Why does the image do no explanation? Because then the meaning stands before the form. For the viewer, in Silent Monumentalism, it is to exist in front of them. There is no message. The viewer meets a presence. They must sit with no decode. This is attention. Not information. Silent Monumentalism Pieter Lategan 19 Feb 2026, 12:58 pm Pretoria, South Africa Ref: p13, p4, p11, p12, p3 Page P3 This makes my work different and gives people a language to en...
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Pieter Lategan Dialogue about Silent Monumentalism - 19 February 2026

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  Silent Monumentalism — A Dialogue with Form, Space, and Presence Pieter Lategan, Silent Monument (Structural Study) , digital image, February 2026 by Pieter Lategan Silent Monumentalism is not a style. It is a way of thinking — a way of seeing before there is a picture, before there is narrative, before there is explanation. I did not start with images. I started with questions : Why do forms matter? Why does space matter? What happens when meaning does not rush in to explain? In my work, form and space are not separate. They are one conversation . The form is shaped by space, and the space becomes visible because of the form. They exist together, not as object plus background, but as presence — a presence that invites the viewer to simply be . This is not a story. This is not decoration. This is not a message. This is what happens when art stops speaking and begins to stand . Presence Before Meaning Most art pushes toward explanation — this is what it is, this is...
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