Surprisingly, the Gramsci monument was made almost entirely of 2x4s and plywood – of some sort of thickness that I don’t quite remember – that seemed to hold far more than I thought. Of my own experience with carpentry, I would never in my aesthetic mind use plywood as the exterior especially because it is engineered wood designed to be a support cheap enough for one to use often. But because the artist did so, instead of following conventional ideals about art, Gramsci’s monument appealed more in that stripping the piece from visual pleasure highlighted the inner workings that fall behind what is supposed to be shown. Much like how a government represents its people, the monument stripped indirect representation and instead revealed the people.

“Gramsci discussed politics, but was not a politician.”

Ramanpreet Chand