This master’s thesis examines cultural policy as a framework that shapes the conditions and regimes for the creation of public monuments in Slovenia, and public sculpture as an object in which these conditions materialize. I treat public monuments as material expressions of broader political, social, and cultural processes, whose significance is also shaped by decisions regarding their creation, funding, installation, maintenance, and integration into public space. I am particularly interested in how cultural policy shapes the conditions for the creation of monuments, who can participate in this process, and which interpretations of the past become publicly visible and socially recognized. I pay particular attention to how the organization of monument creation both reflects and shapes social relations, power dynamics, and opportunities for social participation. By comparing the political and social upheavals of 1918, 1945, and 1991, I demonstrate how, in addition to the political order, the ways in which collective memory is created, managed, and legitimized also change. The creation of monuments thus emerges as a social and cultural practice that not only reflects existing social relations but also actively participates in shaping them.
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