Monument to a Lost Glove

The concept of the monument is a motif used throughout Kabakov’s oeuvre. Monument to a Lost Glove was a public project created in 1996 for Lyon, France to coincide with the G7 summit. Later in the year it was placed on the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street in New York. A red plastic woman’s glove is attached to the ground and around it is placed a semicircle of nine metal music stands, each engraved with a text from a different imaginary character and written in poetic form. The texts, written in four languages (French, English, German and Russian), are recollections of the woman inspired by the dropped glove. In a text separate from, but pertaining to, the public project, Kabakov explains his focus of attention for Monument to a Lost Glove. From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the ability to create a sonnet, eulogy, or epigraph was highly valued. By the end of the “iron twentieth century” the literary tradition had been lost. “To resurrect it is the goal of our project”, the artist declares. Therefore, the glove symbolizes the lost tradition of poetic verse and the ability to “shroud…thoughts in poetic form.”