IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Today, certain buildings are erected or selected to become monuments, to be preserved for eternity and transmitted to future generations, while others, devoid of value, without apparent collective memory, are abandoned, destroyed and reduced to rubble. In fact, a culture of memory takes place in the face of various intentional destructive processes. Therefore, this paper discusses how, since the 1960s until today, the field of architectural preservation has developed in parallel to its demolition. However, it interrogates how the valuation of buildings, especially their disqualification, cannot be reduced to a simple dichotomy. Beyond institutional criteria determining what becomes cultural heritage, this paper investigates the role of contemporary art as mediator of unseen narratives embodied in architecture and as a catalyst to favor critical engagements. How does art draw the attention on neglected, destroyed and forgotten buildings? How does it renegotiate what is perceived as culturally significant? Hence, this paper analyzes artistic interventions on sites meant to be destroyed, as a means to reveal the memory of the place and to question the destructive act (e.g., G. Matta Clark and L. Ramberg). It further explores works bringing into dialog heritage and waste as well as memory and oblivion by valuing rubble (e.g., D. Pikionis, W. Shu and L. Wenyu, Rotor Collective), or the pollution removed from the facade of a restored monument (J. Otero-Pailos). To conclude, this paper analyzes artistic practices exploring the built society through what is intentionally not preserved: they transform unwanted sites and by-products into monuments in order to unveil repressed histories. The aim is to question the notion of classical monumentality and the idea of permanence, certainty or beauty inscribed in its materiality. It blears the boundaries between art and preservation and reveals the need to constantly reinvent and update the monument through new aesthetic means.