Wodiczko, Bonder Memorial In Nantes, France Remembered

The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France, designed by artist Kryzsztof Wodiczko and Julian Bonder, RWU Professor of Architecture and ACSA Distinguished Professor, was remembered in the December 2025 issue of Observing Memories, the Magazine of European Observatory on Memories.  One of the key thoughts in the article, among many, by author Krystel Gualdé. 

“What the Memorial tells us—silently yet with profound force—is that the memory of the slave trade is not a page turned, but a light cast upon contemporary realities we would rather ignore. It is not about guilt but responsibility: to act, to prevent repetition, and to name the new chains, even if they are no longer made of iron….The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery…is a mirror held up to our age, a threshold toward ethical engagements. It reminds us that forgetting is complicity---and that only an active, living and shared memory can prevent the return of the worst. Freedom, that fragile conquest, must always be defended, reclaimed, and passed on.”