Memories are Resistance

Artists Susanna Marcus Jablonski and Santiago Mostyn invite you to become part of the city’s anti-racist monument, Master Narratives, by contributing to a collective memory process: 

Write down a personal memory or a private reflection and place it in the box. The collected contributions – which will not be shared or displayed for anyone else – will be placed into the ground beneath a new monument, becoming part of its foundation. 

Malmö is a city where many people have experienced racism, but Malmö is also a city where many people have come together to push back against racism. Without forgetting what has come before, and the tensions of today, let’s make our memories an act of resistance. 

The City Remembers

The human act of writing down a memory, a reflection, or a prayer, and then leaving it at a meaningful site, is found across all cultures, traditions, and religions. 

Likewise, experiences of racism, and the struggle against it, span generations and geographies. Together, we want to make an anti-racist monument that is grounded in Malmö’s individual and collective experiences. 

We, the artists, invite you to follow this tradition and take a moment to write down something personal – it could be a painful memory, a message to someone missing from your life, a sentence that says what you stand for. Place it in the box of memories, and know that your note will contribute to the monument that will stand against racism in the city. 

About Resistance

The physical sculpture appears to do something impossible: a massive block of stone is lifted into the air by a large number of slender bronze rods. The collective strength makes it technically possible to bear the stone’s immense weight. The gesture is simple, yet powerful: a great weight can be carried by many. 

Title

A “master narrative” is a widely accepted version of events – a single story that shapes how people perceive reality. The title of the sculptural monument, Master Narratives, reclaims and complicates this concept by making it plural, suggesting that each individual’s narrative is valid and contributes to the whole. 

Background to the Monument

The Anti-Racist Monument project was initiated by a prominent group of local activists: Manal Masri, Nicolas Lunabba, Showan Shattak, Daniel Diaz, and Robert Nilsson Mohammadi. The group pointed to the lack of public acknowledgment of the racist motives behind a series of shootings and murders that took place in Malmö between 2003 and 2010. 

Creating an anti-racist monument is a way of embedding the conversation about racism, and resistance to racism, into public space. In collaboration with the monument group, Malmö’s Cultural Department has facilitated the Anti-Racist Monument project since 2019.

The three-part project consists of, first, a series of public conversations held in 2021; a city-wide exhibition of temporary public artworks under the title The Whole City is a Monument in 2022 and 2023; and finally, the permanent public artwork Master Narratives by Susanna Marcus Jablonski and Santiago Mostyn, which will be installed in Jesusparken (Falsterboplan) in 2026. 

Master Narratives begins with the collective memory process in 2025 in collaboration with the artists, the Anti-Racist Monument group, Malmö Art, and you. 

Locations

You can find boxes for your memories at the following locations:
– Romsk Information- och kunskapscenter
– Lindängenbiblioteket
– Rosengårdbiblioteket
– Stadsbiblioteket
– Stadsarkivet
– Malmö konsthall

Questions

For questions about the artwork, email:
malmokonstkf@malmo.se

For questions to the association Antirasistiskt Monument, email:
antirasistisktmonument@gmail.com