ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Statue Park, which comprises three related themes: situating the museum within the cultural trail of Budapest and the Hungarian story; a critical evaluation of the museum itself; and theoretical models of audience reception to help establish the complexity of meaning. The emphasis shifts to highlight notions of commodification, memory and brand in relation to Statue Park and Budapest, which comprises four related concerns: the museum signifying the consumption of communism; national governance encouraging the transformation of public space in Budapest; the convoluted reconstitution of memory; and a conceptualisation of visitors that befits the re-branding of the city. Postmodernism represented by cool cosmopolitan 'irony' may suggest a socially liberal 'openness' of interpretation, but it overlooks the ideological encryption of these values within a 'free' market philosophy of economic liberalism which corresponds to the commodification of Budapest.
