Public Memory

Minus Two Edition

Public Memory

David Okoye

Public Memory is a series of site-specific sculptural interventions in Berlin's public spaces, exploring how monuments and memorials shape collective memory and whose stories are told in the urban landscape.

Okoye installed a series of temporary sculptures in prominent public spaces across Berlin, each one responding to the existing monuments and memorials in its vicinity. The works took the form of abstract bronze and concrete forms that echoed the visual language of traditional public sculpture while subtly subverting its conventions.

Each sculpture was accompanied by a series of engraved plaques that, instead of commemorating historical figures or events, presented personal memories contributed by local residents — fragments of everyday experience that are typically excluded from the official narratives of public space.

Installation at Alexanderplatz
Installation at Alexanderplatz - David Okoye

The juxtaposition of monumental form and intimate content created a productive tension that invited passersby to reconsider the relationship between public space and private memory, between official history and lived experience.

The project sparked significant public discussion about the politics of memorialization in Berlin, a city uniquely shaped by the presence and absence of monuments. Several of the works remained in place beyond their intended exhibition period by popular demand, and the project is now considered a landmark in the contemporary public art discourse.

Engraved plaque detail — personal memory
Engraved plaque detail — personal memory - David Okoye

David Okoye

David Okoye is a Nigerian-British sculptor and public artist whose work engages with questions of collective memory, public space, and postcolonial identity. His monumental sculptures and site-specific installations have been commissioned for public spaces in London, Lagos, and Accra. Okoye studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art and was a fellow at the British School at Rome.

David Okoye