Public Controversy and Commemorative Failure: Tel-Aviv's Monument to the Holocaust and National Revival

Drawing on the academic literature on public art conflicts and public memory controversies, the article examines the controversy over the design for Tel-Aviv's Monument to the Holocaust and National Revival, and its failure to perform its commemorative function. It argues that underlying the controversial character of the design and the failure of the monument to perform its commemorative function was a public art conflict: the abstract design selected for the monument elicited public opposition as unfitting to represent the monument's commemorative theme.