Whoever visits the Memorial of Unfulfilled Promises has to duck to enter; the entrance is 1.5m in height.
A sign at the entrance instructing visitors to "Light a candle for the promise that should not be forgotten", encourages them to buy a candle and enter the memorial.
Inside, across from the entrance is a typewriter. The guest is invited to type in one of their own promises they have failed to keep.
The interior appears sacral. A convoluted quadratic cross-like architecture is borne out of the use of four exterior tower alcoves. Each wall is adorned with two black planks, each displaying an unfulfilled promise, resulting in 28 black planks. They are all illuminated by candles, much like a side altar in a church.
The unfulfilled promises adorning the black planks consist of political and religious statements, claims or assertions from public opinion or the law. These are affirmations and promises that have influenced our private and democratic decisions.
Statements like Barack Obama’s "Yes We Can" and Walter Ulrich’s "Nobody has the intention of building a wall" (shortly before erecting the wall in 1961 in the German Democratic Republic), are written on the planks. A promise of public opinion such as "it promotes equal opportunities" serves in exactly the same way a threat made by a prophet does, for example, "The world is coming to an end".
Martin Gut’s installation is intended to be a place of reflection. It is not intended to be a place of moral high-ground that exposes or points the finger at liars; it is simply a place of thought provocation against the oblivion of mankind and populated with statements.
Although one might be relieved that many promises have not been kept, the world might be more humane had some of the promises materialised.
Martin Gut’s "Memorial of Unfulfilled Promises" ultimately sings the praises of action than of empty words.
