Memorial War Landscape: From Realism to Metaphor

War is not a pleasant phenomenon that it’s remembrance for society would be desirable. But beyond the dark and bitter aspects of each war, there are also white aspects to notice and even remind it to new generations. Undoubtedly every battle has faced prowess, sacrifice and patriotism of the people who devoted their lives for these values. In this case, the remembrance of war in format of memorials should bold memories of these people, evocative places and innate and human values related to war.
War memorials as symbols in daily life of new generations, are supposed to keep the memories of war alive. But how these symbols should be? Is the straight expression of a war artwork, for example a statue of a fighter, a good answer to matter of “remembrance”?
Various examples have been performed with this theme all over the world. This article studies these examples and tries to find a correct answer through them for this question.
The results of the study indicate that on the subject of war memorials, we encounter a spectrum that on one side has realistic and museum view and on the other, metaphorical and abstract view. Although realism communicates faster with audiences, permanence of artwork in audience’s mind would be low because of its simplicity. On the opposite side, memorials which have more complicated layers and are interpretable would perform better as a memorial artwork though they may be infirm at initial attraction for audiences.
Therefore it seems that war memorials corresponding to epic aspects and national values must be presented by allegorical and metaphorical expression and the works that are associated with remembering memories can use realistic expression. Surveying examples states that choosing the proper approach to the subject of memorial, would be more successful at attracting audiences and transferring message to new generation.