Tracing the rhizomes of trauma: Psychogeographies of protest and grief in Grenfell Tower Commemoration [Abstract]

McCormick, Megan and Ntzani, Dimitra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9798-8873 2025. Tracing the rhizomes of trauma: Psychogeographies of protest and grief in Grenfell Tower Commemoration [Abstract]. Presented at: Spontaneous Memorials: Contemporary perspectives on their sociocultural, psychological and organisational impact, Manchester, UK, 12-13 June 2025.

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Abstract

On June 14 2017, in London's Kensington and Chelsea borough, The Grenfell Tower fire claimed 72 lives and left more than 70 injured, and 223 escaping. Seven years later, the lack of prosecutions, and the absence of memorial in the blaze’s ground, has left the community grappling with grief and injustice. However, the communal trauma still populates public and mass media discourses, fuelled by the release of the final inquiry report and the commissioning of a permanent Grenfell Memorial design. The multifaceted impact of the catastrophic event is evident in the numerous commemorative displays that spread around the tower. These Grenfell Disaster memorials bring forth unresolved sociocultural issues like racial and class discrimination and institutional neglect, which have all compounded to the disaster. These displays, both spontaneous and permanent, may represent collective mourning but also demands for justice, showcasing how traumatic memory haunts physically urban spaces. This research explores how trauma memory evolves in time, focusing on how commemorative displays, both grassroots and institutional, serve as mechanisms for grief and protest. To do so, it adopts a mixed methods approach which includes the fieldwork, urban photography and GIS mapping of memorials, and their thematic analysis according to permanence, commissioning stakeholders, materiality, and access. By capturing the thematic evolution of these displays, from the immediate aftermath in 2017 to their current state, is also observe how traumatic memorialisation has evolved and spread throughout the city. By mapping and thematically analysing the rhizomatic nature of traumatic commemoration of the Grenfell blaze, the study demonstrates how memorials can serve as both a form of protest and a tool for grief. The data collected contributes to broader academic discourses on public perceptions of Grenfell captured in the commemorative displays in the area. Furthermore, it explores how traumatic memory evolves and spreads across the city. By mapping grassroots and spontaneous commemorative displays across space and time the research brings forth the moments in space and time that protest and grief compete or merge in urban space to keep trauma memory routed in the present. Unlike institutional memorialisation, these bottom-up initiatives provide authentic, inclusive memorials that deeply resonate with the community, revealing not only sorrow and loss but also hope, resilience, and solidarity.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Architecture
Funders:	The University of Manchester, UKRI, AHRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 March 2025
Date of Acceptance:	17 December 2024
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/177145

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