This paper examines the work of German artist Horst Hoheisel in Latin-America. I open the conversation by including Hoheisel’s provocative participation in the 2005 memory debates in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here, I introduce the nature of Hoheisel’s reasoning and the dialectical self-reflectiveness that is at work in his artifacts. In each project, I look for the way in which Hoheisel lays down the “memorialistic substance” of a specific site together with the self-critical rationality that characterizes his creation. The second part of this essay attempts to construct the theoretical parameters for the expansion of the definition of the countermonument. This expanded definition attempts to unlock the countermonument and the memorial from the therapeutic mechanics of repetition -at the level of the subject- and release its possibilities vis-à-vis the potentiality of the event of language. Using the insights of Alain Badiou and Giorgio Agamben, I discuss the work of two contemporary artists (Jochen Gerz and Krzysztof Wodiczko) who experiment with the use of space and language as a way to invent a new type of countermonument, one that is based on the notion of an active memory rather than a cathartic one.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / Ce mémoire propose d’étudier les caractéristiques thématiques, formelles, structurelles et fonctionnelles des monuments commémoratifs du XXe siècle. Basée sur un corpus précis d’œuvres exemplaires et illustratrices des tendances contemporaines de représentations, notre recherche portera sur la transformation idéologique de la commémoration en Occident. En effet, au cours de ce siècle, nous assistons au passage d’une célébration des victoires à la commémoration de drames, relatifs aux conflits mondiaux. Nous développerons en un premier temps notre réflexion en analysant le travail des artistes qui eurent la charge de cristalliser et de maintenir la mémoire collective, de l’Antiquité à la Première Guerre mondiale. En un deuxième temps, à l’aide des écrits de James E. Young, nous étudierons les perspectives nouvelles apparues au début des années 1980, du concept de contre-monument à celui du monument-musée, qui tentent de répondre à la crise de la représentation des évènements tragiques du siècle dernier. / This thesis proposes a study of thematic, formal structural and functional features of twentieth century commemorative monuments. Based on a specific corpus of exemplary and illustrative works about the contemporary trend of representation, our research will focus on the ideological transformation of commemoration in the Western world. During the last century, a shift from the celebration of victory to the commemoration of tragedies related to international conflicts has been observed. In a first instance, an analysis will be developed around works made by artists whose task was to maintain and crystallize collective memory. The works studied will cover the period from Antiquity to World War One. Then, using as case studies James E. Young’s works, we will study the new perspectives that appeared at the beginning of the 1980s. This period has witnessed a transition from the concept of counter-monument to the monument-musée, which offers an answer to the representative crisis caused by the tragic events of the last century.