ILLUSIONS OF THE ETERNAL NATALIE IMRAN MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS SCAD 2016
Illusions of the Eternal: The Palimpsest of Boundary A Thesis Submitted to Faculty of the Architecture Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture at Savannah College of Art and Design
Natalie Imran Savannah, Georgia Š August 2016
Scott Singeisen, Committee Chair Huy Ngo, Committee Member Geoffrey S. Taylor, D.Des., Committee Member
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scott Singeisen Thank you for such an incredible and serendipitous
journey. You have taught
me to test new methods of acquiring knowledge, and think differently about what architecture is and can be. I cannot thank you enough for your meaningful contribution to this thesis, and for our inspirational conversations about anything from Jill Stoner’s work to Dr. Seuss. Thank you for being such a wonderful professor, supporter, and friend during every step of this ongoing investigation. Geoffrey Taylor Thank you for your endless support, expertise, and wisdom. Your meticulous and thoughtful critique not only helped shape the direction of this investigation, but also encouraged me to challenge my own ideas. Your continual motivation and guidance is what pushed me to discover a new way of looking at the city, and I am truly thankful that I had the honor of having you on my thesis committee. Huy Ngo Thank you for your wonderful support and advice. You encouraged me to visit Rome without any preconceived notions of the city, and I believe that this is what led me to such an unexpected and unforgettable experience. Thank you for always having high expectations of me, and for believing in me every step of the way.
Hsu-Jen Huang Thank you for advising me on creative and graphic processes, inspiring me to explore new methods of architectural representation. You have been a wonderful professor, advisor, and friend, Julie Varland Thank you for your sincerity, patience, and wisdom. Your guidance during the research stage of this thesis provided me with the foundation to begin this exploration. Susan Falls Your class had such an incredible impact me, and significantly influenced this investigation. Thank you for teaching me to think differently about the way our world works.
TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT
1 5
01 WRITING PALIMPSEST 1.1 ARCHITECTURE AND PALIMPSEST
12
An Introduction to Architectural Palimpsest
13
Architectural Narrative
17
Case Study | Archaeological Museum
19
Case Study | Kolumba Museum
22
Case Study | Holocaust Museum
24
1.2 THE POLITICS OF THE PALIMPSEST
28
An Introduction to Narrative Politics
31
The Unreliability of Memory
33
Architecture and Collective Memory
35
Collective Memory and Reality
38
An Obsession with the Past
45
The Permanence of the Past
Case Study | Rome’s Palimpsest under Fascism
51 53
02 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST | ILLUSIONS AND REALITIES OF ROME A Poem for the City 2.1 INTRODUCTION: CONSIDERING A TALE OF TWO CITIES
59
63
Rome and Palimpsest
62
2.2 THE ILLUSION: THE GRAND NARRATIVE OF THE HISTORIC CENTER
72
Setting the Stage: The Historic Center
75
The Grand Narrative
77
Tourism and Receptions of the City
83
The Amnesia of the ‘Eternal’ Monument
97
2.3 THE REALITY: THE ‘UNSUNG’ NARRATIVE OF THE MODERN PERIPHERY
100
The Absence of the Periphery
101
A Fractural Archipelago
103
The Capital of Evictions
107
Occupied Space: A New Urban Geography
111
Case Study | Teatro Valle
113
2.4 THE MASQUE: THE PALIMPSEST OF BOUNDARY
120
The City in Disguise
121
Fragments of Truth
129
Boundary and Masque
131
Case Study | The Berlin Wall
135
Case Study | The Aurelian Wall
141
03 REWRITING PALIMPSEST 3.1 NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR
A Note on Disegno A Note on Ephermerality
150 151 153
3.3 A VISUAL MANIFESTO
156
Site and Context
158
The City as Theater
165
The Masque
167
House of Oppression
175
House of Eviction
181
House of Estrangement
187
House of the Commons
193
04 CONCLUSION A Kaleidescope of Realites
203
BIBLIOGRAPHY
209
202
LIST OF FIGURES 01
FIGURE 1.0 FIGURE 1.1 FIGURE 1.2 FIGURE 1.3 FIGURE 1.4 FIGURE 1.5 FIGURE 1.6 FIGURE 1.7 FIGURE 1.8 FIGURE 1.9 FIGURE 1.10 FIGURE 1.11 FIGURE 1.12 FIGURE 1.13 FIGURE 1.14 FIGURE 1.15 FIGURE 1.16 FIGURE 1.17
An Overlap of History and Memory (Author) Photo and edits by Author, Palimpsest of a Roman Wall Overlap Rome: Past & Present (2013) (Kowalski, 2015) Manuscript as Palimpsest (The Archimedes Palimpsest Project, 1998) The Analogue City (1976) (Rossi, 1984) Archaeological Museum (2007), Sergio Sebastian, (Wong, 2013) Kolumba Museum. Peter Zumthor (Hélène Binet, 2007) Kolumba Museum. Peter Zumthor (Hélène Binet, 2007) Holocaust Museum (1988-1998), Daniel Libeskind (Hill, 2013) A Map of Narrative (Author) Palimpsest and Erasure (Author) The Observer and the Observed (Author) The Faded Memory (Author) The Constructed Memory (Author) Architecture and Memory (Lebbeus Woods, 1996) Flooded Florence, Superstudio (1972) (Ramo and Upmeyer, 2011) A Disappearing Monument, Jochen Gerz (Stubblefield, 2011) Mussolini Rebuilding the ‘Eternal City’ (Painter, 2005)
7 9 11 14 15 19 21 22 23 25 27 29 34 36 39 47 51 55
02
FIGURE 2.0 FIGURE 2.1 FIGURE 2.2 FIGURE 2.3 FIGURE 2.4 FIGURE 2.5
A Tourist’s Walk (Author) A Juxtaposition of Reality and Illusion (Lucarelli, 2011) A Tension Between Center, Wall, Periphery (Author) The Center and the Periphery (Author) P arallel Realities: Historic and Contemporary Space (Author) A Grand Rome Indeed (Author)
60 61 66 67 69 71
2
FIGURE 2.6 FIGURE 2.7 FIGURE 2.8 FIGURE 2.9 FIGURE 2.10 FIGURE 2.11 FIGURE 2.12 FIGURE 2.13 FIGURE 2.14 FIGURE 2.15 FIGURE 2.16 FIGURE 2.17 FIGURE 2.18 FIGURE 2.19 FIGURE 2.20 FIGURE 2.21 FIGURE 2.22 FIGURE 2.23 FIGURE 2.24 FIGURE 2.25 FIGURE 2.26 FIGURE 2.27 FIGURE 2.28 FIGURE 2.29
Diary of a Tourist (Author) Many Faces of the City (Author) The Panorama (Author) Vestigi dell’Arco di Settimio Severo (1607–20), Étienne Dupérac (Russel, 2014) A Monumental Zoo (Author) An Archipelago of Monuments (Author) Faded Eternity (Author) The Monument Suspended in Time (Author) The Illusion (Author) Evicted from Eternity (Author) From Stratified Palimpsest to Projecting Surface (Author) Eternal Evictions (Author) The Borgate Archipelago (Author) Illegal Dwelling (Author) Roma Evicted (2009)(Amnesty International, 2013) The Global Village, Occupied Social Center in Testaccio (Author) Occupied Rome, (Sharon M., 2014) The Reality (Author) A Grand Wall (Author) Duplicity (Author) A Layering of Connections, Divides, and Fragments (Author) “Running Fences”, Christo and Jeanne-Claude (1972-76) (Russel, 2014) Liminal Moments (Author) Deconstructing Boundary (Roger, 1996)
73 81 83 88 90 92 93 96 97 99 102 104 105 108 109 112 114 117 119 122 130 132 1 33 135
3 FIGURE 2.30 On top of the Berlin Wall (1989) (University of Minnesota, 2014) FIGURE 2.31 The Curtain (Author) FIGURE 2.32 Expansion of Rome’s Walls (Author) FIGURE 2.33 The Masque (Author)
03
FIGURE 3.0 FIGURE 3.1 FIGURE 3.2 FIGURE 3.3 FIGURE 3.4 FIGURE 3.5 FIGURE 3.6 FIGURE 3.7 FIGURE 3.8 FIGURE 3.9 FIGURE 3.10 FIGURE 3.11 FIGURE 3.12 FIGURE 3.13 FIGURE 3.14 FIGURE 3.15 FIGURE 3.16 FIGURE 3.17 FIGURE 3.18 FIGURE 3.19 FIGURE 3.20 FIGURE 3.21
Transitions (Author) Disegno Folio Series 2 (Author) An Armature of Moments (Author) A Wall, A Curtain, A Masque (Author) Fragment of the Abandoned Slaughterhouse (Author) A Dynamic Site (Author) A Fragment of the Aurelian Wall (Author) A Fragment of the Global Village (Author) The Theater of the City (Author) Scrim and Spectator (Author) Scrim and Wall(Author) A View from the Historic Center (Author) An Ephemeral Site Plan | The Spectacle (Author) House of Oppression (Author) House of Oppression (Author) A Temporary Location Plan | House of Oppression (Author) House of Eviction (Author) Movement and Instability (Author) A Temporary Location Plan | The House of Eviction (Author) House of Estrangement (Author) Occypying the Poche A Temporary Location Plan | House of Estrangement (Author)
138 1 41 143 145 149 152 154 155 157 160 1 61 163 166 167 169 171 173 175 179 180 181 185 186 187 189 190
4 FIGURE 3.22 Operating within the Masque (Author) FIGURE 3.23 House of the Commons (Author) FIGURE 3.24 A World without Boundary (Author) FIGURE 3.25 A Temporary Location Plan | The House of The Commons (Author) FIGURE 3.26 Observation Pods for Evicted Squatters (Author) FIGURE 3.27 A Kaleidoscope (Author) FIGURE 3.28 Final Exhibition Boards (Author) FIGURE 3.29 Final Exhibition Boards (Author)
191 193 197 198 199 201 205 206
5
ABSTRACT Illusions of the Eternal: The Palimpsest of Boundary Natalie Imran August 2016
At any given moment, the city is a palimpsest – a topos of layered memories continuously written and rewritten to tell the narratives of human life. As the built environment is continually redefined, a city’s palimpsest is subject to a series of forces and boundaries that alter the image and our perceptions of the city. Recognizing that the world is infused with both fact and fiction, it is therefore impossible to discern reality from illusion. Applying the study of architectural palimpsest to Rome, this thesis challenges us to search for reality behind the layers of conventional perception and thought. Representations of Rome frame the metropolis as the ‘Eternal City’, an urban archetype and palimpsestouous landscape, however, this image of the city is an illusion. This grand narrative and falsified version of the city is bound to its past, represented through the city’s historic center and monuments that impose their history. In this elision of reality and illusion, the Aurelian wall—the monument which divides the grandeur of Rome’s center from the corruption of its modern periphery—has taken the role as the ‘masque’ of the city. Placing a veil over reality, the wall conceals stories of the city’s present, which lay dormant and waiting to be excavated behind the confines of its boundary. The lived reality of the modern periphery is not found on the Roman post-card, but rather, is one rife with contradiction, paradox, and uncertainty. In an investigation of architectural palimpsest, this thesis becomes a visual manifesto for understanding the city. It urges us to rethink representations of the city, proposing an ephemeral reading which unearths the unsung stories of the moment, fragments of greater realities that lie behind the masque.
keywords: Rome, Aurelian Wall, architectural representation, boundary, collective memory, ephemeral, illusion, monument, narrative, palimpsest, reality, stage-set
6
FIGURE 1.0 An Overlap of History and Memory (Author)
CHAPTER 1
WRITING
PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 1.1 Palimpsest of a Roman Wall (Author)
11
FIGURE 1.2 Overlap Rome: Past & Present (2013) (Kowalski, 2015)
12 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST
1.1 ARCHITECTURE AND PALIMPSEST
“
FOR, INDEED, THE GREATEST GLORY OF A BUILDING IS NOT IN ITS STONES, NOT IN ITS GOLD. ITS
GLORY IS ITS AGE, AND IN THAT DEEP
SENSE OF VOICEFULNESS, OF MYSTERIOUS SYMPATHY WHICH WE FEEL IN WALLS THAT HAVE LONG
BEEN WASHED BY THE PASSING WAVES OF HUMANITY.” 1
—John Ruskin
1. John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (New York: Dover, 1989), 186.
13
2. The word palimpsest is derived from the Greek palímpsestos, meaning “scaped again.” Traditionally, a palimpsest is known as “a parchment or other writing surface on which the original text has been effaced or partially erased, and then overwritten by another; a manuscript in which later writing has been superimposed on earlier (effaced) writing.” “palimpsest, n. and adj.”. OED Online. June 2016. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view (Accessed July 1, 2016). While the surface is altered and reused, it still bears visible imprints of its earlier form.
An Introduction to Architectural Palimpsest Our built world is a materialization of
The rich and complex layering present
both memory and time. It is continually
in the palimpsest can be read as both
coded and recoded with narrative,
the easily legible and the trace of the
and imbued with the evidence and
absent (Figure 1.3).3 This process of
value of human life. At any given
layering also necessitates a degree
moment, the city is a palimpsest.2
of partial erasure, however, implies
As palimpsests, buildings and sites
that complete erasure is impossible.
become the biography of society, one
After a new layer is woven into the
that undergoes an ongoing process
fabric of the city, visible traces of
of transformation that allows the past
previous layers remain, even if only as
and present to coexist. Architecture,
fragments of a larger chapter. As past
therefore, becomes an embodiment of
and present overlap synchronically,
history, as our awareness of the past
palimpsest requires us to think in
is founded in the memories which
terms of multiplicity, recognizing that
are continually inscribed onto the
there are a plethora of meanings that
landscape of the city.
are generated within a single image.
The concept of palimpsest relies on the notion of superimposition, in which narratives are continually overlaid over one another, written and rewritten with the passage of time.
14 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST
3. The Archimedes Palimpsest is a medieval work containing seven works by the Greek mathematician. It was copied onto parchment in the 10th century and overwritten in the 13th century as a Byzantine prayerbook. Beginning in 1998, “The Archimedes Palimpsest Project” began as an effort to reveal the hidden manuscript, uncovering the secrets of the ancient texts. For more information, see “The Archimedes Palimpsest.” Accessed August 7, 2016. http://www. archimedespalimpsest. org. Photo Source: Reviel Netz et al., eds., The Archimedes Palimpsest Volume II: Images and Transcriptions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
FIGURE 1.3 Manuscript as Palimpsest (The Archimedes Palimpsest Project, 1998)
15 4. In The Architecture of the City, Aldo Rossi describes the city as a “locus” collective memory, in which the citizens play a role in designing the city and crafting its predominant image. In his 1976 collage, “The Analogue City”, Rossi constructs a new reality for the city based upon subjectivity. Building upon fragments of the existing urban reality, Rossi creates a world where one reality cannot exist objectively, as its acquired meanings are bound to concept, rather than fact. This imaginative reading of the city, relies upon the notion of collective memory, as the value of the city becomes comprehensible only within a group who shares the same collective memory. For more information see: Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of The City (Cambridge, MA, and London: The MIT Press, 1984).
FIGURE 1.4 The Analogue City (1976) (Rossi, 1984)
16 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST Applying this metaphor of palimpsest
that we are able to reconcile our past,
to architecture, we may understand our
understand the evolution of a place,
built environment as a topography of
give meaning to the present, and
stories and fragments—a constructed
envision possibilities for the future.
composition where history, memory, and time intersect (Figure 1.4).4 It is through this series of overlapping layers that architecture
houses
memory,
contributing to the morphological and cultural evolution of the city. As built space is encoded with memory, it may provide us with windows into the past, while simultaneously, be redefined to manifest meaning and functions reflective of the present. The ephemeral condition of palimpsest —one that maintains evidence of the past, yet provides pages for new histories to be written—is ultimately what allows us to
understand the
world. It is through this knowledge
17
Architectural Narrative Life is a volatile and curious thing.
of communication and understanding.
While it is human nature to seek
Rem
all-encompassing
commonalities
exceptionally 5. Tom Porter, Archispeak (London: Spon Press, 2004), 101.
6. Ibid., 101.
7. Largely developed by German philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, Phenomenology is a broad study in philosophy on structures of consciousness as experienced from a subjective, or first-person point of view. The study places emphasis on the meanings of experience through sensory perception—as a way of being which involves imagination, thought, emotion, events, action, the self, and other factors.
answers, life is
multifaceted,
full
of
Koolhaas
storytelling
draws
upon
between and
the
narrative
architecture,
ambiguity, complexity, paradox, and
comparing the unfolding of spatial
contradiction. In an effort to better
sequence to elements used in film-
comprehend life and our place in the
making, such as montage and plot.6
world, the use of narrative allows us
Both the practice of space making
to understand our past and anchor
and the practice of writing possess
ourselves in the present. Narrative
formal
can be defined as “a spoken or
which ultimately,
visual commentary, account or story
level of understanding. Architectural
of unfolding, connected events or
narrative, however, is eminently unique
experiences.”5 This telling of story,
in this duty as buildings and sites are
both
relies
able to narrate through both bodily
upon the notion of transformation, in
movement and sensory experience
which a series of events allows one
that
to unearth a greater understanding, or
space. Unlike other forms of narrative,
perhaps, ‘revelation’. As embodiments
spatial narratives encompass non-
of
linear
factual
human
forms
of
and
memory
fictional,
and
time,
narrative—written,
all
patterns
unfolds
in
and
structures,
contributes to our
three-dimensional
arrangements
that
allow
oral,
the user to experience storytelling
theatrical, cinematic etc.—are modes
actively through phenomenology and
18 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST its relationship between time and space.7 This analogy between architecture and narrative contributes to a broader understanding
of
how
a
society
acquires meaning and how cultural meaning
is
spatially
constructed.
Integrated space with storytelling, establishes our level of understanding and allows for a relationship between
“
WHAT SURPRISES ME MOST IN ARCHITECTURE, AS IN OTHER TECHNIQUES, IS
A PROJECT HAS ONE LIFE IN ITS BUILT STATE,
THAT
BUT ANOTHER IN ITS WRITTEN OR DRAWN STATE.” 8
the designer and the user. After a work is designed, the reception of its
—Aldo Rossi
space is out of the architects control, and
it
is
ultimately
through
the
unfolding architecture narrative that the design intent is communicated. As the narrative evolves in space, the user may be provoked and engaged, allowing
one
to
both
judge
discover the richness of the story.
and
8. Aldo Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1981), 55.
Case Study | Archaeological Museum The Archaeological Museum in Daroca, Spain is an example of how sites can become manifestations of palimpsest, merging
past
memory
with
new
use (Figure 1.5).9 In this instance, incomplete fragments were excavated, integrated, and reinterpreted in an architectural narrative that preserved the character of the place, while accommodating a changing society. Designed by Spanish architect Sergio Sebastian in 2007, this project explores the notion of palimpsest in order to redefine the past of the Spanish town of Daroca, and incorporate discovered ruins into the present urban fabric. In 2006, the history of Daroca was questioned FIGURE 1.5 Archaeological Museum (2007), Sergio Sebastian, (Wong, 2013)
when
archaeological
remains, dating back to when the city was founded nine centuries before, were unearthed in the construction
20 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST of a parking lot. During excavation,
much more than a form or building—
they unearthed the walls of medieval
It can foster a dialogue between old
Islamic buildings, a Roman causeway
and new, understands the city as an
from
some
overlapping of layers, and create a
2nd
distinct sense of place with windows
the
Celtiberian
1st
century,
ruins
from
and the
century.10 These historic findings gave
into both the past and present.
birth to an opportunity for Sebastian to reprogram the space and redefine the city’s new architecture in relation to its archaeological past. The proposal became a palimpsest of narrative that exposes the layers within the city, with each layer representative of a different time period in history. In this way, layered sites can reveal and celebrate a city’s rich history. Architecture has the ability to protect the history of a city, while at the same time, revealing the spirit and character of its present conditions. As such, architecture can be imbued with narrative and evidence of the past, and by doing so, becomes
9. Liliane Wong, “Rememberance of Times Past,” ed. Markus Berger and Liliane Wong, IntAR Interventions and Adaptive Reuse, no. 4 “Difficult Memories: Reconciling Meaning”, (2013), 77.
10. Ibid.
FIGURE 1.6 Kolumba Museum. Peter Zumthor Hélène Binet (2007)
22 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST
Case Study | Kolumba Museum Designed by architect Peter Zumthor,
Romanesque Church of St. Columba
the Kolumba Museum presents a
are incorporated into the new facade,
contemplative
space
while scale, materiality, pattern and
archaeological
site
multiple
pasts
and
living
which
layers
with
the
light
become
sculptural
materials
present
that imbue the museum with an ever-
(Figure 1.6 and 1.7).11 The museum
changing environment that speaks to
merges diverse fragments of history
values of the historic site.
into a rich architectural narrative that respects the site’s history and preserves its essence. Located in Cologne,
Germany,
a
city
nearly
11.
with the introduction of a building
Hélène Binet, “Peter Zumthor’s Architecture Through the Eyes of Hélène Binet,” Phaidon, 2007, accessed August 20, 2016 http://www.phaidon. com/agenda/architecture/ picture-galleries/2011/ june/21/peter-zumthorsarchitecture-through-theeyes-of-helene-binet.
skin that dialogs harmoniously with
12.
completely destroyed by World War II, the museum is situated on the ruins of a late-Gothic church, along with destroyed fragments of the chapel for the ‘Madonna of the Ruins’.12 Zumthor’s design celebrates its historical context,
the archaeological remains, and with elevated galleries that rise above the existing ruins. Remnants of the
FIGURE 1.7 Kolumba Museum. Peter Zumthor Hélène Binet (2007)
David Dernie and Jacopo Gaspari, Material Imagination in Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2016), Part V.
23
FIGURE 1.8 Holocaust Museum (1988-1998), Daniel Libeskind (Hill, 2013)
24 | 1.1 WRITING PALIMPSEST
Case Study | Holocaust Museum Daniel
Libeskind’s
Jewish
is one of countless instances where
13.
exemplifies this use of architectural
carefully
narrative as a way to understand
elements
tragedy,
remembrance,
capable of emboding memory of a
and restore a lost identity (Figure
people, time, and place. It is through
1.8).13 As one wanders through the
this use of architectural narrative and
fractured and uncanny spaces, the
spatial design that the memory of
John Hill, “Deconstructivist Architecture, 25 Years Later,” World-Architects, January 28, 2013, Accessed August 26, 2016. http://www.worldarchitects.com/de/pages/ insight/deconstructivistarchitecture-25.
architecture itself, rather than the
people and place can be reconstructed
artifacts, narrates the story of Jewish
and represented authentically, not
history and culture before, during, and
through
after the Holocaust.14 The museum
through poetic readings and free-
becomes a house of memory meant to
flowing interactions with space. As the
embody the sense of ‘unhomeliness’
‘storyteller’ of architectural narrative,
experienced by those driven from a
the architect has the ability to curate
Berlin and estranged from its past.11
and structure these lived experiences
Through
defamilarization,
that connect with our memories and
instability of orientation and boundary,
perceptions, allowing us to imagine.
stimulate
spatial
and an oppostion conventions,
of
Museum
architectural
Libeskind’s
museum
excavates the supressed history of the Jewish past, uncovering the memories buried beneath the surface.15 This
designed perform
linear
architectural narrative
arrangement,
duty,
but
14. For more on Libeskind’s Jewish Museum see: James E. Young, “Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin: The Uncanny Arts of Memorial Architecture,” Jewish Social Studies 6, no. 2 (2000): 1-23.
15. For more on the notion of the ‘uncanny’ and the ‘unhomely’ see: Sigmund Freud and Hugh Haughton, The Uncanny, trans. David McLintock (New York: Penguin Classics, 2003). See also: Anthony Vidler, The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomel y (London: The MIT Press, 1992).
FIGURE 1.9 A Map of Narrative (Author)
27
FIGURE 1.10 Palimpsest and Erasure (Author)
28 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
1.2 THE POLITICS OF PALIMPSEST
“
HUMAN MEMORY IS A MARVELOUS BUT FALLACIOUS INSTRUMENT... THE MEMORIES WHICH LIE WITHIN US ARE NOT CARVED IN STONE; NOT ONLY DO THEY TEND TO BECOME ERASED AS THE YEARS GO BY, BUT OFTEN THEY CHANGE, OR EVEN GROW, BUT
EXTRANEOUS FEATURES.” —Primo Levi
1
INCORPORATING
1. Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, trans. Raymond Rosenthal, reprint (New York: Vintage International, 1988), 23.
“MYTH FIGURE 1.11 The Observer and the Observed (Author)
IS THE INFANCY
30 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
OF
NARRATIVE” —Tom Porter
2
31
An Introduction to Narrative Politics Narrative manifests comprehensive
city’s visible palimpsest, as our world
knowledge. However, we must also
is rife with contradiction, control, and
acknowledge that there are both
fallacy which may easily go masqued
intrinsic and extrinsic concerns within
amongst the presence of a grand
narrative that significantly affect our
narrative.
understanding of the world. Inherently,
2. Porter, Archispeak, 101.
3. In Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, Arjun Appadurai considers isomorphic flows and the “landscapes” of globalization which have a huge impact on the way we operate and the way we imagine ourselves and those around us. For more information, see Appadurai Arjun, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Public Culture 2, no. 2 (1990): 1–24.
our perceptions are subjective and
Recognizing these concerns within
highly perspectival, contingent on both
narrative, this thesis acknowledges
lived experience and one’s position
that
within the landscape of society.3 As a
inconsistencies loom in all facets of
human construct, narrative may also
life. However, it also recognizes that it
be produced and reproduced through
is the very presence of these fictional
a
characteristics
that
ultimately
ideological lens. It is most often the
drive
and
imagination.
dominant world view and hegemonic
Architecture represents a weaving of
discourse that affect the way narrative
both reality and fiction, which not only
is constructed and presented to us,
evokes creative response, but is what
and as such, both collective memory
allows each of us to build our own
and history itself are subject to a
unique perception of the world. These
multitude of bias and distortion. It
overlays of fact and fiction are crucial
is therefore wise to acknowledge
in the organization of a city, along with
questions of
the construction of collective memory
particular,
and
often
myopic,
authenticity within a
a
plethora
creativity
of
fictions
and
32 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST and public consciousness.
working together, communicate what is valued by a culture. Therefore,
Understanding between
the
relationship
history,
we must embrace the ephemeral
memory,
and
and the subjective and design for a
fundamental
to
multiplicity of interpretation. To do so,
Architecture
architectural practice must renounce
has the ability to meld reality and
any meta or grand understanding of
illusion—both inherent elements of a
history, memory, and time, and rather,
city’s palimpsest—with one another in
become a dynamic elision between
an evolving narrative that reflects the
reality and fiction, narrating these
transformations of society. However, in
stories that wear an ever-changing
order to keep the architectural practice
masque.
narrative architectural
is
practice.
of making from entering a
state of
disillusionment, we must acknowledge the forces that influence
narrative,
and more importantly, we must accept that society can never be defined through a singular perspective. Rather, architecture
should
be
employed
as an instrument through which we may see the world as a scaffolding of fragments and moments, which
33
The Unreliability of Memory All
is
are only reductions of the original
established through memory, however,
perception: the wax may adopt the
human memory is both subjective
imprint of the stamp, however one
and fleeting. The malleability and
cannot see if the image was made
unreliability of memory often produce
with gold or bronze.5 Therefore our
intentional and unintentional modes
memories, working like wax, can form
of forgetting—a process of ‘editing’
the resemblance of an object, but only
which
the
as a recreated and fractured image—
stories we are told. As each individual
never the object itself. These mental
internalizes his or her own unique lived
images are absorbed in the brain as
experience, individual memories are
forms “without matter”, as imprints
constantly being reconstructed and
that are both transient and malleable.
rearranged in the memory archive.
The remembered image arises piece
In Aristotle’s theory of memory, he
by piece, never as a perfect clone
described the brain and memory as
of the original, but as a collage of
5.
a soft wax tablet, or writing surface
fragments that poses as a complete
Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle’s De Anima in the Version of William of Moerbeke and the Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Kenelm Foster and Silvester Humphries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), 340.
that could be erased and reused.
and unscathed recollection.
4. Douwe Draaisma, Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas about the Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 25.
knowledge
of
undoubtedly
the
past
affects
He writes that experience, engaged through the senses, leaves an image
It is within this re-constructive process
in our memory, just as a stamp leaves
that the potential for misconceptions
an impression on wax.4 As Aristotle
and false authenticity within narrative
suggests,
lies. As suggested in Museum Making:
these
memory
images
34 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions,
of
images—an
evasive
instrument
narrative is based upon retrospective
that cannot be fixed in human life, nor
and subjective memory, and therefore
secured by its monuments.
necessitates “a process of exclusion and editing with all the accompanying risks of bias and distortion.”6 It is this fleeting quality of memory that produces intentional and unintentional modes of forgetting, distancing it from the confines of fact. Socrates further suggests this uncertainty of memory by describing thoughts as birds flying in and out of an aviary, where some remain housed for a time, and others pass through consciousness in flocks
6.
or in solitude.7 The human mind is an
Suzanne Macleod, Laura Hourston Hanks, and Jonathan Hale, Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions, Museum Meanings (New York: Routledge, 2012), xxii.
unbound aviary or a wax tablet that is imprinted, effaced, and written over
again
(Figure
1.12).
Memory,
therefore, can be understood as a reconstructive process that involves a constant sculpting and re-assemblage
FIGURE 1.12 The Faded Memory (Author)
7. Douwe, 27.
35
Architecture and Collective Memory While the subject of individual memory
expands
plays a role in understanding the
collective memory as “what remains
elusiveness of the mental apparatus,
of the past in the lived reality of
this
concerns
groups, or what these groups make of
of collective memory, and how it
the past.”9 It is, therefore, ultimately a
intersects with the production and
thread of socially constructed memory
reproduction of dominant narratives of
that defines a groups ‘reality’.
thesis
focuses
on
on
this
notion
defining
society, culture, and history. Memories, individuals
The built world is what allows us
separately, are a part of a social
to construct collective, or cultural,
framework that is linked with collective
memory.
experience and thought—a framework
constituted by architecture, as the
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, ed. and trans. Lewis A. Coser, First Edition, Heritage of Sociology Series (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
in which societies construct memories
places
that are shared among groups of
ideology and cultural
people. Maurice Halbwachs contends
allow us to form identity in relation to
that this scaffold of shared memories
place. Nora studied how the meanings
is what binds people together in the
we invest in places constitute our
9.
form of cultural identity.8 The process
understanding of history, identifying
of defining and establishing collective
the appearance of lieux de memoire—
memory and identity often entails a
or, “sites of memory”—where memory
reinterpretation
is reincarnated in places where shared
although
8.
Quoted in Jacques Le Goff, History and Memory (1977), trans. Steven Rendall and Elizabeth Claman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), 95.
carried
and
by
reconstruction
of the past (Figure 1.13). Pierre Nora,
Collective we
create
representations
of
memory both
the
is
embody
value, and
past
once
36 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 1.13 The Constructed Memory (Author)
37 existed. The memories fastened onto
this
these sites can forge both nostalgia
and collective identities are molded
and national identity. However, while
by the city. With this understanding,
construction creates sites of memory,
it is also important to question the
it may also be argued that artificial
process by which the built world is
reconstructions of memory—any form,
altered or preserved and if these
place, or event in which memory is
alterations
crystallized—supplant
the past and present reality. Perhaps
real
‘living’
understanding.
Our
authentically
individual
represent
de
collective memory becomes a social
mémoire exist because there are no
construction shaped by the needs,
longer milieux de mémoire, settings
understandings, and ideologies of the
in which memory is a real part of
present—an object to be designed.
memory.
Nora
states:
”Lieux
everyday experience.”10 The city is a field of memory—a topography continual
which
process
undergoes of
a
preservation
and demolition, remembering and 10.
forgetting. It is our understanding of
Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” Representations, no. 26 (1989): 1.
the past which informs our existence in the present, and it is that which persists around us in which we form
38 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
Collective Memory and Reality Collective
memory,
history,
and
politics have a direct effect on our
fact limited to the memories of those who write it.
collective consciousness, and it is ultimately through this understanding
The
of ourselves which we perceive and
past may allow for adaptation and
conceive
This
progression, however, this process of
thesis recognizes that while collective
editing and exclusion may also become
memory may be an opportunity for
an instrument for ‘collective amnesia.’11
defining and redefining a city, it may
In his book War and Architecture,
also be instrumentalized in order to
Lebbeus Woods develops guidelines
reproduce
worldview.
for rebuilding post war cities by
Crafting collective memory through
envisioning the future.12 Discussing
a simplistic lens may in fact lead
the restoration and reconstruction of
us
authentic
post war cities, Woods contends that
remembrance, and more towards a
restoring a city to its original state
state of illusion. As representations
denies the conditions and needs of
of
seldom
the present. However, the remnants of
determined and created collectively,
violence must not be washed away,
In Pierra Nora’s book Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, he argues that memory may be displaced in order to encourage collective amnesia. See: Pierre Nora, Symbols. vol 2. of Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
but
through
replacing memories of tragedy with
12.
the eyes of those in power, this
untainted narratives and a false sense
thesis questions the
authenticity of
of solidarity. Rather, by redefining a
collective memory, arguing that it is in
city’s collective memory with respect
Lebbeus Woods, War and Architecture, Fifth Edition, Pamphlet Architecture 15 (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996).
notions
a
further
cultural rather,
of
‘reality’.
dominant
away
from
memory
are
constructed
notion
of
reconstructing
the
11.
39 to its historical past and present alike,
the
stimulate
built
environment
remembrance,
may
restore
a
lost identity, and understand tragedy. In this instance, Woods presents a way of looking at the city that builds upon collective memory without a detachment from history or a rejection of reality— a city that wears the visible scars of its past may transform, not erase, heal, not forget (Figure 1.14).13 However, as Nora contends, collective memory may also be used as a tool to detach from the past, as it may become a direct reflection of the needs of the present and the will of 13. Lebbeus Woods, War and Architecture, Fifth Edition, Pamphlet Architecture 15 (New York:Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), 15.
those in power. For example, many traditions are established in order to
remember
and
commemorate
certain events in history, yet, others are deliberately disregarded in their
CHAPTER 01 WRITINGPALIMPSEST PALIMPSEST 04 |REWRITING 40 | CHAPTER 40
FIGURE 1.14 Architecture and Memory (Woods, 1996)
41 entirety. Monuments and memorials
reminder of his victory, Cicero saw it as
are erected as reminders of collective
a monument to a patriot, while many
memory and experience, however,
other Romans saw it as a reminder of
the memories they reinforce may not
the cruelty and violence of those who
authentically represent the past, or the
had defeated the Gracchi family.14 In
greater society, but in fact, may serve
this way, monuments and other sites of
the purpose of establishing authority,
memory are in a volatile state, able to
reproducing
and
be debated and reinterpreted through
conventions, and even maintaining
memory politics in order to craft
social control. For example, Roman’s
the culture of a city. While collective
have used sites to constitute memory
memory
since it’s very founding, however these
those in power are the conductors of
sites are not bound to the memories
collective memory and are able to
of the past, but rather to the needs
reconstruct the past in order to fit a
of the present. For instance, the Hut
grand social narrative. The memories
of Romulus on the Palatine served
of those people and events which do
as a reminder of the city’s earliest
not conform are disregarded, only to
beginnings. According to Plutarch,
be forgotten over time in the form of
14.
Opimius built the Temple of Concordia
collective amnesia.
Amy Russell, The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 20.
to memorialize his success and victory
dominant
norms
creates
social
that
identity,
over Gaius Gracchus in 121 BCE.
Understanding
collective
However, while Opimius built it as a
memory is a fluid and ever-changing
42 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST phenomenon,
made
ideology or dominant set of ideas in
aware of the revisionary processes
society—we may better understand
within cultural memory and how these
the intersections between collective
processes entail a degree of bias,
memory, architecture, and politics,
distortion, or delusion. As the past is
and how collective memory acts as
subject to revisionist storytelling, our
an object and apparatus of power.
understanding of it may often be a
Therefore, this thesis argues that it
collection of misunderstood truths,
is unwise to cling to memory, with all
selected fragments, and, reconfigured
its mystery and fallacy, to explain and
events re-told through a singular
determine humanity. B.S Johnson, an
perspective. Recalling the instance
English experimental novelist, once
of rebuilding cities devastated by
wrote: “Life does not tell stories. Life
war, what elements of the physical
is chaotic, fluid, random; it leaves
and immaterial landscape are worthy
myriads of ends untidied, untidily.
of preservation? Which should be
Writers can extract a story from life
forgotten? May collective memory,
only be strict, close selection, and this
through
selective
must mean falsification. Telling stories
reconstruction,
is really telling lies.”15 As we create,
become an instrument of governance
rewrite, and rearrange narrative, are
15.
and control? By looking to concepts of
we distancing ourselves further and
ideology and hegemonic discourse—
further from the truth?
Bryan Stanley Johnson, Aren’t You Rather Young to Be Writing Your Memoirs? (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1973), 14.
a
construction
we
must
process and
of
be
the latter defined as the prevailing
43
“
HAS IT NOT BEEN ACCEPTED – EVER SINCE KANT – THAT THERE IS AN
UNBRIDGEABLE GULF BETWEEN
REALITY IN ITSELF AND REALITY AS IT APPEARS TO US?
44 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
...THAT OUR POSSIBILITIES OF KNOWING HAVE
MORE TO DO WITH
OUR OWN APPARATUS THAN WITH THE
NATURE OF REALITY?”
16
—Elia Zenghelis 16. Elia Zenghelis, “Text and Architecture: Architecture as Text,” in Exit Utopia: Architectural Provacations, 1956-76, ed. Martin van Schaik and Otakar Macel (Munich: Prestel Publishing, 2006), 55.
45
An Obsession with the Past While
destruction
memory
as the question of what to abandon
from the city, we must also be made
and what to erase. Which past should
aware of extremism in preservation,
we keep? When is the ideal moment
which too may dilute the authentic
that a past is worthy of preservation?
remembrance of the past. Unlike acts
Which elements of a city’s past are
of demolition—as portrayed by the
‘worthy’
disembowelment of Rome during the
which are able to undergo change?
Fascist regime—, preservation does
In architectural palimpsest, it is an
not constitute an irrevocable erasure
accumulation of heterogeneous times
within a city’s palimpsest. However,
within a landscape which constitutes
extreme preservation may be just
meaning and value. Therefore, traces
as detrimental to the coexistence
of the past should remain present;
between past and present and our
however, it is crucial that we do not
understanding
While
fall into an obsession of the past,
architectural preservation benefits the
which may only lead to a stagnation
enrichment of a city, it also paints a
of time and void in a city’s palimpsest.
picture of unattainable permanence—
In understanding this balance between
an illusion of eternity that idealizes
past and present, old and new, it
selected
past.
is wise to question means of both
Within the layering of a city’s strata
preservation and destruction, and that
over time, the question of what to
which is sacrificed with extremisms in
preserve becomes just as important
both processes (Figure 1.15).17
of
erases
reality.
fragments
of
the
of
being
preserved,
and
46 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
“
WE SAID THAT, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO RESTORE THE SITUATION,
WHY JUST RESTORE TO THE 19TH CENTURY? WHY NOT RESTORE THE RENAISSANCE SITUATION? IF YOU DO THAT, WHY NOT THE MEDIEVAL SITUATION? IN FACT, WHY DON’T YOU GO BACK TO THE ROMAN SITUATION?
AND IF YOU GO BACK THAT FAR, WHY DON’T YOU GO BACK TO THE PLEISTOCENE SITUATION? IN THE PLEISTOCENE SITUATION, 18
FLORENCE WAS A LAKE!” —Adolfo Natalini, Superstudio.
17. Beatriz Ramo and Bernd Upmeyer, “Deadly Serious –Interview with Adolfo Natalini (Founder of Superstudio and Natalini Architetti),” MONU, no. 14 “Editing Urbanism” (2011).
18. Ibid.
FIGURE 1.15 Flooded Florence, Superstudio (1972) Ramo and Upmeyer, 2011)
48 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST In
contemporary
Western
society,
globalization and cultural acceleration have led to a memory boom, in which a surplus of narratives about the past have arisen out of a fear of forgetting and desire for temporal stability.
As
temporal
boundaries
have become less evident with the speed of society, we have developed a fear of forgetting in which we “turn to memory for comfort.”
19
Strategies
of preservation and memorialiation within architecture—most notably seen in the recent boom of World Heritage Sites —have come out of this fear of forgetting and a desire to “anchor ourselves in a world characterized by an increasing instability of time.”
20
Hermann Lubbe, a German philosopher of the early 1980’s, uses the term “musealization” to explain this shifting sense of temporality and our way of
19. Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory, First Edition, Cultural Memory in the Present (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 25.
20. Ibid., 8.
49 compensating for acceleration and
monumentalizing the past was a way
the loss of lived tradition. According
to “give meaning to the present and to
to Lubbe, we cope with the speed of
envision the future.”22 On the contrary,
postmodern innovation, objects and
today the idea of memory has become
practices of everyday life by turning
a form of re-representation that is
to hyper-preservation. The illusion of
separating us from the experiential
permanence provides us with cultural
dimension of space and “belonging
stability, and places us in a world where
ever more to the present.”23 As a
the past is not fleeting, but finds a
fear of forgetting leads to hyper
home within the ‘eternal’ monument.21
preservation, along with a process of over-archiving, we are experiencing
Preservation is not a new phenomenon,
the past in the present unlike ever
21.
but
our
before, and it is this phenomenon that
Peter McIsaac and Gabriele Mueller, eds., Exhibiting the German Past: Museums, Film, and Musealization. (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 2015).
environment is preserved in relation
blurs the lines between teller and told,
to memory has seen a recent shift,
fact and fiction.
22.
believed that memory was directly
Huyssen, Present Pasts, 2.
associated with experience and bound
23. Ibid., 3.
the
degree
to
which
as a dedication to remembrance has turned into an obsession. the
Romantic
period,
During
Romantics
us to our past. It was the assumption that one learned from history, and
50 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
The Permanence of the Past Architecture,
as
a
vehicle
of
Yet, an illusion of eternality is
often
remembrance, has the unique ability
placed upon sites that are meant to
to institute public remembering and
house the past ‘forever’. There is a
build a foundation of collective identity.
prevailing issue with this presumed
However, the notion that culturally
permanence: society preserves what
constructed and shared memories
it values; yet, cultural values are
must live permanently within the
neither permanent nor static. In The
built environment is an assumption
Architecture of the City, Aldo Rossi
which
discusses this relationship between
immobilizes
time—
an
act
which subtracts from the ephemeral
historical
conditions
relevance. He states: “A monuments
of
a
city’s
palimpsest.
importance
cultural
Hyper-preservation denies the passing
persistence
of time to bear visible traces on the
result of its capacity to constitute
landscape,
the
and
furthermore,
may
city,
or
and
its
permanence
history
and
is
art,
a its
25
allow for a manipulated and altered
being and memory.” Therefore, as
exhibition of the past.
society’s
values
transform
with
time, continually reflective of past Sites
of
cultural
rituals,
such
as
and present, architecture too must
monuments and memorials, contribute
have
the
opportunity
to society’s sense of collective memory,
synchronously. As such, we must be
no matter the degree of attachment to
made aware of extremism in the realms
the object’s preservation(Figure 1.16)24
of
destruction
and
to
evolve
preservation,
24. Thomas Stubblefield. “Do Disappearing Monuments Simply Disappear? The Counter-Monument in Revision.” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism 8, no. 2 (2011): 1-11.
25. Rossi, The Architecture of The City, 60.
51 forgetting 26. During the era of modernism, the notion of the tabula rasa—or, blank slate—wipes history clean, erasing all that came before in a form of cultural amnesia, The modern city, free of history, sought out one universal truth and a radical forgetting—a desire to annihilate the multiplicities of life and start new. In his plan for Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City), Le Corbusier encouraged progress through the obliteration of tradition. In his city of the future, vernacular European cities would be demolished, and replaced by a new city that would break its bond with the past,and erase memory from the city. See: Le Corbusier, The Radiant City: Elements of a Doctrine of Urbanism to Be Used as the Basis of Our Machine-Age Civilization, trans. Pamela Wright, Eleanor Levieux, and Derek Coltman (New York: Orion Press, 1967).
and
remembrance.
Preservation may prevent a loss of historical
consciousness,
however,
and obsession with the eternal proves to be just as detrimental to a city’s palimpsest as an act of erasure, or tabula rasa.26 As Huyssen warns, “this strongly remembered past may turn into mythic memory...and may become a stumbling block to the needs of the present rather than an opening in the continuum of history.”27 By redefining preservation, this thesis is in an attempt to reassess the idea of eternality, in order to stimulate and support the contemporary city.
A
city’s collective memory must not be crystallized nor bound to form, but rather, the functions of all architecture must in
be
order
continually to
reinterpreted
participate
in
the
FIGURE 1.16 A Disappearing Monument, Jochen Gerz (Stubblefield, 2011)
“
WE INVITE THE CITIZENS OF HAMBURG AND VISITORS TO THE TOWN, TO ADD THEIR NAMES HERE TO OURS...AS MORE AND MORE NAMES COVER THIS 12 METER TALL LEAD COLUMN,
IT WILL GRADUALLY BE LOWERED INTO THE GROUND. ONE DAY IT WILL HAVE
DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY, AND THE SITE OF THE HAMBURG MONUMENT AGAINST FASCISM WILL BE
EMPTY. IN THE END, IT IS ONLY WE OURSELVES 28 WHO CAN RISE UP AGAINST INJUSTICE.” —Jochen Gerz
52 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST 27. Andreas Huyssen, “Monument and Memory in a Postmodern Age,” in The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History, by James Young (Munich and New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1994), 250.
28. An inscription found in Hamburg, Germany, on the site where the “Monument Against Fascism, War, and Violence-and for Peace and Human Rights”once stood. Designed in 1986 and fully ‘sunken’ by 1993, this disappearing monument speaks out against Fascism in a way that is both ephemeral and reflective of its use and the level of engagement by its visitors. Its lack of attachment to place alludes to the absence fascist history in German post-war public discourse. Today, all that remains is this inscription, along with the top of the monument now level with the ground.
53
Case Study | Rome’s Palimpsest & Fascism Rome’s
transformations
the
which a series of carefully selected
Fascist regime help us comprehend
restorations, excavations, demolitions,
the extent of which a city’s palimpsest
and erasures rearranged layers of time,
can be selectively reordered and
founding a new past that conformed
reconfigured in order to legitimize a
to the regimes mental image and
new empire, conform to a new reading
visual culture.30 Mussolini’s alterations
of the city, and construct cultural
to Rome’s palimpsest were an effort
memory. During the Fascist era, the
to express the Fascist world-view, and
‘third Rome’ underwent significant
it was he who determined what was
transformations
worth remembering, and what should
that
under
drastically
altered the city’s urban palimpsest, in order to create a different dialogue with the city’s idealized past and 29. For a comprehensive study on the Fascist layer within Rome’s palimpsest, see: Aristotle Kallis, The Third Rome, 1922-43: The Making of the Fascist Capital (Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014).
30. Ibid., 15.
support a new ideology and hegemonic discourse.29 Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, saw his regime as a way of reforming Rome, modeling the city’s present after its ancient past, and constructing a culture that embodied values of Italian Fascism. Rome saw a new “engineered” layer of the visible palimpsest, in
be forgotten. The
Fascist
reading
of
Rome’s
palimpsest visually altered the city in several ways. For instance, Benito Mussolini’s
obsession
with
ancient
history,
most
by
Roman
Forum
the
Rome’s
exemplified and
ruins
around the Capitoline Hill, led him to conduct a process of sventramento (disemboweling) in the 1920s, in an attempt to “free” the ancient ruins
“
54 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST
IT IS NECESSARY TO
FREE
OURSELVES FROM THE
MEDIOCRE DISFIGUREMENTS OF THE OLD ROME, AND AT THE SAME TIME ALONGSIDE THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
WE MUST CREATE THE MONUMENTAL ROME OF THE 20TH CENTURY.”
31
—Benito Mussolini at his citizenship ceremony, April 21, 1924 on the Capitoline in Rome
31. Borden Painter, Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (Macmillan, 2005), 4.
55
FIGURE 1.17 Mussolini Rebuilding the ‘Eternal City’ (Painter, 2005)
56 | 1.2 WRITING PALIMPSEST that had lain beneath urban growth.
street as a visual connection between
Among
the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia,
buildings
the
churches
that
were
and
public
destroyed
actually
paved
over
eighty
five
during the ruins ‘exhumation’, 5,500
percent of the ancient fora that had
dwellings were demolished, forcing
been excavated after the housing
tens of thousands of people from their
demolitions.
homes and into rapidly built borgate
attempt to exhume Rome’s ancient
in Rome’s periphery.32 In addition to
past also became a form of cultural
instrumentalizing the ruins, Mussolini
forgetting. While this appropriation of
created a new avenue—what was then
monumentality led to a devastating
known as Via dell’Impero but is now
reworking of the city fabric, it can be
known as Via dei Fori Imperiali—as
argued that Mussolini’s alterations
a straight line and visual connection
nonetheless added a new layer to the
from the Coliseum to Piazza Venezia
city, and thus, still contributed to the
32.
The creation of the
notion of palimpsest. However, layers
street, which required the demolition
of Rome’s palimpsest were erased,
of the entire Pantano neighborhood,
while much of the city’s
first appeared to be a celebration
collective memory was replaced by
John David Rhodes, Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 4–5.
of Rome’s ancient past. However, as
a new field of memories bound to the
33.
Rhodes points out, the creation of the
Fascist vision. This form of demolition
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, cover page.
new avenue actually “suppresses as
does not leave traces of the past, but
much as it valorizes.”34 Quiet ironically,
rather, assaults the past, producing a
Mussolini’s decision to create the
form of irrevocable cultural amnesia.
(Figure 1.17).
33
As
such,
Mussolini’s
existing
34 Ibid., 27.
CHAPTER 2
CONTEXTUALIZING
PALIMPSEST
59
A Poem for the City For a moment, I have escaped time. Like the ruin, unchanged and forever running from senescence, I am exempt from the hour, Denied of reality. Doubt dissipates. A freshly bought gelato vanishes from my hand. I am transported, a visitor of ancient Rome. Unreality is welcome. The escape is short lived. The tourists swarm in a ritual dance, a gladiator waves his sign. Forgotten iced cream drips down my blouse, My fantasy, now dismissed. The neighboring ruin receives its annual face-lift, The couple takes turns with the Kodak. I have come back into reality, Tethered to the familiarity of 2016. The ruin and I assume our masks, Taking our place in the spectacle of the city.
FIGURE 2.0 A Tourist’s Walk (Author)
61
FIGURE 2.1 A Juxtaposition of Reality and Illusion (Lucarelli, 2011)
62 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
2.1 INTRODUCTION:
“
CONSIDERING A TALE OF TWO CITIES
ROME IS TODAY THE NARRATIVE OF TWO CITIES.
THE CITY OF THE HISTORIC SPACE, KEPT IN A CRYSTALLIZED IMAGE, OBJECT OF A KITCH RESIGNIFICATION BY THE TOURISM INDUSTRY, THE MONUMENTAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREAS CONVERTED INTO A FERTILE GROUND FOR EXPLOITATION BY VIRTUE OF THEIR OWN SPECIFIC SUSPENSION, THEIR ABSENCE FROM TIME.
AND THE ‘LIVING CITY’, ON THE RUN FROM THE CONDITION OF PERIPHERAL CAPITAL, LOOKING FOR THE MODERNIZATION OF THE COMMUNICATION FLOWS, SUBJECT TO RAPID DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE. THE ROME OF THE FLIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS FROM THE CENTER, OF THE JOBS IN THE SUBURBS, OF THE VEHICULAR TRAFFIC.
THE CITY THAT SEEMS TO FORGET HIS PAST, BUT THAT HARDLY REACHES MODERNITY.” 1
—Fosco Lucareli
1. Fosco Lucarelli/ MICROCITIES, “Rome: A Tale of Two Cities,” in Building the Common Space, edited by Luca Galofaro with Fosco Lucarelli and Fabrizi Mariabruna (Paris: ESA Atelier D6, 2011), [14], Accessed February, 2016 http://www.microcities. net/files/COMMON-SPACELO.pdf
63
2. The history of identifying the city as eternal dates to the poets of Ancient Rome. Ovid proclaims the apotheosis of Julius Caesar as placing his name amongst the stars for “as long as Rome is the Eternal City”, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XV, translated by Horace Gregory (New York: Viking Press, 1959), 452. The theme was certainly popularized by Hall Caine’s early twentieth century novel which in the title page’s epigram associated the city’s origins not with a she-wolf and abandoned brothers, but with the eternal: “He looked for a city which hath foundations who builder and maker is God”, see The Eternal City (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1901).
Rome and Palimpsest Applied to the city of Rome, the
dependent on the city’s eternality
metaphor of palimpsest is used to
and its classical past, and it is Rome’s
explain the layers of the city’s built
historic center that maintains the
environment and urban morphologies
memory and global presence of the
that have developed through the
city. This image of the past is one
course
so,
that has always labeled Rome, and
Rome is perhaps one of the world’s
its valorization is protected through
most quintessential palimpsestuous
the monuments and ruins frozen at
landscapes, with each of its eras visibly
the time of their story—a still frame
stacked on top of the last and with a
waiting to be captured by the camera
history that has never languished.
lens.
of
time.
Undoubtedly
It is a place where the past exists in the present and where all eras seem
While there is no doubt that the
to exist synchronously. Over time, this
richness of Rome’s palimpsestuous
ideal vision of Rome has been molded
space has made the city a meaningful
through representations of the city,
entity to be incessantly studied, this
which dominantly consist of images
thesis argues that the city can no
of the ‘Eternal City’— Rome’s vertical
longer be characterized solely by its
palimpsest that is both crystallized
history, as a valorisation of the past
within its historic center and protected
is often accompanied by illusion, and
by its ancient walls. 2 Today, hegemonic
subsequent neglect for the present.
cultural representations of Rome are
It argues that the grand narrative
64 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST of Rome is a myopic and limited
diverse, and politically conflicted than
approach to the city, one that does
Rome’s
not understand the city as palimpsest,
depict. As these two ‘realities’ run
but rather reads it solely through its
parallel to each other, very real and
façade—as a flattened image or ‘post-
present conditions of the periphery
card’ to consume.
orbit surreptitiously around the city’s
traditional
representations
historic walls, unseen by the awed and Bound to its pre-WWII topography and
fleeting tourist.
preserved within the city center, Rome’s vertical palimpsest is not true of Rome
Arguing the presence of a “void” at the
everywhere. What Rome’s classical
end of Rome’s classical palimpsest, this
image does not take into account is
thesis renounces the notion of a meta-
the city’s vast expansion during the
narrative that defines the city, and
20th century, in which another ‘Rome’
acknowledges that reading the city
developed, and continues to sprawl
palimpsestuously must also involve
well beyond its historic Aurelian Wall.
studying its construction, boundaries,
The creation of the periphery altered
limitations, and illusions. It questions
the city’s physical and idealogical
the extent to which it is possible to
strata, and today, the ‘Eternal City’ is
represent ‘reality’ in a world where
sharply juxtaposed against the ‘lived’
history itself is overlaid with perpetual
city— a reality in constant flux, that is
fictions. 3 As such, this thesis identifies
far more ambiguous, volatile, culturally
the city as an infinite spectacle: with
3. For information on the distinction between memory and history, and history as an assembly of fiction see: Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Enterainments (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996).
65 the historic center as the stage and
meaning both a physical attribute, as in
the “Illusion”, the Aurealian wall as the
location, and as a psychological sense
“Masque”, and the periphery as the
of ‘othering’ which is often associated
backstage and the “Reality”
with being evicted beyond physical and idealogical boundaries. To conclude
In order to break the illusion of Rome’s
this chapter, section 2.4, investigates
ancient palimpsest and un-masque the
the physical and psychological effects
realities of its contemporary present,
of
Chapter 2 investigates the spatial and
identifiying the Aurelian Wall the
mental layering Rome’s illusionary
masque—a conjunctive and disjunctive
historic center, the modern reality of
line between reality and illusion, By
the periphery, and the masque that is
discussing these elements of center,
the dividing wall—each having their
periphery, and wall which are relevant
own
distinctive
to this thesis,
find
themselves
palimpsest
within
palimpsest,
this investigation
and
seeks to decrypt and deconstruct
overlapping at moments throughout
the traditional archive. It proposes a
the city. Section 2.2 will first discuss
woven narrative of inner and outter
the historic center and the constitution
city, and an unearthing of the living
of Rome’s grand image. Shifting focus
realties
to the outskirts of Rome, Section
narratives of the periphery that often
2.3 begins to unveil the realities
go masqued behind the grand illusion
of
of Rome.
peripheral
intersecting
which
boundary
Rome—”peripheral”
of
the
cityscape—micro-
66 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.2 A Tension Between Center, Wall, Periphery (Author)
67
FIGURE 2.3 The Center and the Periphery (Author)
68 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
69
FIGURE 2.4 Parallel Realities: Historic and Contemporary Space (Author)
70 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.5 A Grand Rome Indeed (Author)
72 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
2.2
THE ILLUSION:
THE GRAND NARRATIVE OF THE HISTORIC CENTER
“
ROME IS THE CITY OF ILLUSIONS, IT IS NOT A CHANCE THAT THE CHURCH, GOVERNMENT, AND CINEMA, ALL THINGS THAT
PRODUCE ILLUSION,
AS YOU DO AND AS WE DO, ARE HERE. WHICH PLACE BETTER THAN THIS CITY, WHO DIED MANY TIMES AND
MANY TIMES WAS REBORN... THE IDEAL PLACE TO SEE IF THE WORLD WILL END OR NOT.”
1
— “Roma” by Federico Fellini, 1972
1. Federico Fellini, Roma, 1972.
“A CITYSCAPE
THE CITY BECAME A FIXED POINT IN THE COSMOS,
LAYERED AND RE-LAYERED
FIGURE 2.6 Diary of a Tourist (Author)
WITH MYTH AND HISTORY,
A THEATRE OF MEMORY AND AT THE SAME TIME
A STAGE ON WHICH ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS OF 2 ROMANS WERE DESTINED TO PLAY A PART.”
2. Edwards and G. Woolf, “Cosmopolis: Rome as World City,” in Rome the Cosmopolis, edited by C. Edwards and G. Woolf (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 8.
75
Setting the Stage: The Historic Center For 2000 years, Rome has occupied
“Now let us by a flight of imagination,
a primacy in the heart of Western
supposed that Rome is not a human
imagination,
urban
habitation but a psychical entity with
cultural,
a similarly long and copious past – an
historical, and political core of the
entity, that is to say, is which nothing
Italian
history,
that has once come into existence will
cultural representations of Rome—
have passed away and all the earlier
“from ‘Caput Mundi’ or the ‘Eternal
phases of development continue to
City’, to the ‘Divine City’ of Christendom
exist alongside the latest ones.”4
archetype
as and
nation.
both as
an
the
Throughout
or the ‘City of Ruins’ of the Grand Tour”—have become an integral part of Roman political culture, signifying 3. Dom Holdaway and Trentin, Filippo, eds., Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape (New York, NY: Routledge, 2016), 16.
4. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, ed. James Strachey (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005),44.
the city’s physical and symbolic value, embodiment of time, and ubiquitous historical
presence.3
In
his
1930
book, Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud famously likened the topography of modern Rome to the human mind, where many levels of memory and multiple pasts can be experienced simultaneously in the same physical space:
For
Freud,
this
palimpsestuous
city,
synchronous symbolized
Western culture, and this concept is one that has prevailed throughout Rome’s history.
From the city’s role
as head-of-empire and “cosmopolis” (world
city),
to
the
monumental
qualities of the classical city, to its position as an ‘outdoor museum’ at the forefront of the tourist industry museum’, Rome has maintained a
76 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST global cultural primacy in relationship to time and memory. However, in order to maintain the meta-narrative of the city, Rome’s grand vision has excluded many of the realities of the lived city— realities referred to by Holdaway as “disturbances that go against the
‘eternal’
archiving
principle”.5
Rome’s historic center is a stage “playing on all its pasts”, as Michel de Certeau contends, whose cultural representations have been used to guide the city’s archive, altering its image, its reception, and its acquired meanings.6
5. Dom Holdaway, “Roman Fever: Anarchiving Eternal Rome, from Roman Holiday to Petrolio,” Journal of Romance Studies 14, no. 3 (December 1, 2014): 1.
6. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. by Steven Rendall (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 90.
77
7. The recent collected essays by scholars of the ancient city treat Rome not merely as a singular artifact, but as an encompassing world view structurally extending from the center across the nostro mare, see C. Edwards and G. Woolf, editors, Rome the Cosmopolis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
8. Ibid., 3.
The Grand Narrative How has the city of Rome endured as
The vision of ancient Rome represents
an unparalleled archetypal imaginary?
both a city and an empire. Edwards
How has its image as the ‘Eternal City’
and Woolf
maintained an ongoing presence and
of Rome as a ‘cosmopolis’, or world
unwavering role in the construction
city, is one in which Rome absorbed
of modern identity? Does the city’s
the world and the world itself was
devotion for nostalgia erase the layer of
concentrated in Rome. Likening the
present life from its palimpsest? In order
status of the city to the world itself,
to understand how Rome’s dominant
ancient Romans founded a sense
narrative came to be produced and
of
reproduced—an
has
operated at a global scale. Ovid, a
arguably been consumed—this thesis
Roman poet who lived during the reign
investigates how meanings of the city
of Augustus, comments:
image
that
describe this metropolis
7
unprecedented
centrality
that
have been constructed by discourse and valorization of the city’s ancient and classical past.
Romanea spatium est urbis et orbis idem
While today, Rome’s image and cultural
“The world and the city of
identity continue to give meaning to the
Rome occupy the same space”
Western urban imaginary, receptions of
(Fasti 2.684)
8
the city’s eternality and cultural primacy can be traced back to ancient Rome.
Within the confines of the ancient city,
78 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST were representations and displays
the physical fabric of the city should
of the entire world, and ubiquitous
reflect and affirm Rome’s authority
physical reminders throughout the
and its relationship with the world. In
city reasserted ancient Rome’s role as
his Ten Books on Architecture he states:
world-conqueror. An inscription on an obelisk—taken from Heliopolis and then
“ut
re-erected by Augustus in the Campus
aedificiorum
Maritus—helps us to understand the
auctoritates”
maiestas
imperii egregias
publicorum haberet
its relationship with the world. The
“that the splendor of public buildings
inscription obelisk reads: “Aegvpto in
should bear witness to the ma jesty of
Potestatem Popvli Romani Redacta”,
the empire.” 10 (De arch. I. Pr. 2)
translated as “Egypt having been Roman
people.”9 Along
with
the
Ibid., 2.
10. Vitruvius, Vitruvius: ’Ten Books on Architecture’, ed. Ingrid D. Rowland and Thomas Noble Howe, trans. Ingrid D. Rowland (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 21.
11.
power of the city’s ancient image and
brought under the dominion of the
9.
Rome’s ancient buildings, referred to by Elder Pliny as miracula, or ‘marvels’,
fragments of Rome’s empire inscribed
characterized
this
greatness
and
in the city, the ancient city’s buildings
architectural grandeur of the city.11
and monuments are some of the
It’s architectural splendor was not
strongest testament to Rome’s status
merely a site to be seen, but rather
as a city whose marvel, splendour, and
a spectacle to be apart of. Rome’s
power was incomparable. During the
Colosseum, along with the gladiator
1st century BC Vitruvius expresses that
fights and events that would take
In 75 A.D, Roman historian Pliny the Elder commented on the remarkable buildings of Rome. He wrote: “[In great buildings] as well as in other things the rest of the world has been outdone by us Romans. If, indeed, all the buildings in our City are...thrown together in one vast mass, the united grandeur of them would lead one to imagine that we were describing another world, accumulated in a single spot.” William Stearns Davis, Readings in Ancient History: Rome and the West (Boston, New York, Chicago: Allyn and Bacon, 1913), 232.
79 12. In 80 AD, the poet Martial describes the vast variety of foreign spectators gathered in the arena. As thousands from culturally diverse backgrounds were attracted to the spectacles, the diversity of Rome’s population itself became one of the city’s greatest marvels. Martial’s poems broaden the concept of ancient Rome as a cosmopolis, a city representing both itself and the world. Martial’s poems also suggest a unity between all of Rome’s spectators, eroding the distinction between foreign and Roman. He writes: “The varied voice of the peoples sounds, which then is one, when you are hailed true father of the fatherland.” For a comprehensive study the poet and his works, see: William Fitzgerald, Martial: The World of the Epigram (London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007).
place within the spectacular structure, demonstrated Rome’s power as a
While continuously reinterpreted the
world-city, as thousands from across
topos of Rome as the ‘Eternal City’
the world would flock to the metropolis
and center of universal value lies in
to take part in the ancient spectacles.12
the city’s relationship with its past.
While ancient Rome can be identified as the locus of its master narrative, this reading of Rome as the central and universal foundation of the world, has been ingrained in receptions of the city from its ancient past, to its contemporary present. From a broader temporal perspective, Rome’s layered histories have undergone countless transformations, re-constructing the city’s collective memory, and altering receptions of the city in relation to history and time. As such, the grounding of the city’s hegemony and status as the ‘Eternal Rome’ is itself a palimpsest.
During the Renaissance, a zealous interest and investigation into Rome’s past—fueled
by
the
monumental
nature of the classical city—gave rise to the image of Rome as the grand city. This notion was furthered during the Age of Romanticism, which saw a monumentalizing of the past in order to learn from history and give meaning to the present. This valorization of Rome’s past was quickly adopted by European travelers who flocked from all over the world to see the city’s picturesque ruins during the Grand Tour of the eighteenth century. The Fascist era, with its revival of Romanita, or
“Romanness,”
saw
a
careful
80 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST orchestration
of
the
past—which
eternal. This paradigmatic legacy of
through the process of
sventramenti
the past is a reading of the city which,
(“disemboweling”), drastically altered
arguably,
Rome’s palimpsest in an effort to
from its palimpsest, and allows it to be
revive its ancient culture and history.
dislodged from both time and reality.
negates
Rome’s
present
In reaction to the Fascist destructions of the twentieth century, the decision
On
to preserve the city’s historic center
relationship
has
allowed the vision of Rome as the
between
city,
‘Eternal City’ to maintain its ubiquitous
imagination of its monuments, and
omnipresence. While the preservation
hegemonic readings and ideologies.
of Rome’s historical center ensured its
Whether considering Rome’s Ancient,
perceived permanence, layers of the
Classical,
Roman countryside were erased to
contemporary palimpsest, the vision
make way for the new housing blocks
that has always labeled Rome is one
and rapidly built borgata —elements
of its grand eternality and its glorious
of the Roman periphery which will
past— a vision that dismisses reality
be discussed in the following section.
and allows those who visit the city to
Today, Rome’s palimpsest continues
feel as if they possess its glory. As Spiro
to be fashioned by the grand narrative
Kostof typifies it: “Rome is“everybody’s
of its past, as the fetishization of the
city. Its monuments and its great
city’s monuments renders the city
public spaces have been a staple of
a
grand the
temporal
Baroque,
scale,
always the
a
existed
collective
Fascist,
or
81 the Western experience, like the Bible and the plays of Shakespeare,”13 This view of the city certainly validates the perceived grandeur of Rome, typified across history from the Colosseum’s ancient spectators, to the tourists of the twenty-first century. 13. Spiro Kostof, The Third Rome, 1870-1950: Traffic and Glory (Berkeley: University Art Museum, 1973), 8.
14. In the 1953 film, Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn is given a tour around Rome’s famous monuments. The imagery of the film portrays the archetypal Western view of Rome, a grand urban palimpsest with opulent monuments. The discussion of the cinematic experience of the city is extensive, for a recent review see Holdaway, Roman Fever (2014), 5–22.
82 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
“
WHICH OF THE CITIES DID YOUR HIGHNESS ENJOY THE MOST?
EACH, IN ITS OWN WAY, WAS UNFORGETTABLE. IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO ...
ROME!
BY ALL MEANS, ROME. I WILL CHERISH MY VISIT HERE IN MEMORY AS LONG AS I LIVE.” 14
—(Audrey Hepburn [as Princess Ann]
FIGURE 2.7 Many Faces of the City (Author)
83
Tourism and Receptions of the City In a short story by Luigi Malerba titled “Consuming the View,” tourists sitting atop the Gianicolo Hill complain as the Roman panorama appears blurry through the lenses of their telescopes. The agitated tourists try repeatedly to wipe their lenses clean, only to find that the haze is not from debris on their glasses, but that this muddled view of Rome appears this way through their naked eye. The narrator soon reveals the cause of the obscured image: “The Roman panorama was being slowly worn away by the continuous gaze of tourists, and if no action were taken, it would soon be entirely used up.”15 As the tourists trickled out of the
15. Luigi Malerba, “Consuming the View,” in Italian Tales: An Anthology of Contemporary Italian Fiction, ed. Massimo Riva (New York, London: Yale University Press, 2008), 6.
city during the less desirable winter weather, the view slowly retuned and the air began to clear as the crowd dwindled (Figure 2.8).
84 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.8 The Panorama (Author)
85 Practices throughout
at
work
tourism,
to objectification—a process which
framework
frames the city as both permanent
palimpsest and
and authentic –the tourist experiences
image are constructed. Tourism in
a world that is part reality and part
Rome also helps us understand how
fantasy.
to
understand
in which a city’s
history,
image. As the city becomes subject
help
us
Rome’s
in
the
representations of the city may be 16. The idea of walking the city recalls the medieval visits to Rome, in which pilgrims and tourists would use the Mirabilia Urbis Romae to guide themselves through the city. The document, written in the mid 12th century, listed Rome’s main features and ancient monuments, including the Aurelian Wall which was used as a place of orientation and guiding line through the city. For an extended study on the document, see: Eileen Gardiner, Master Benedict, and Francis Morgan Nichols, The Marvels of Rome: Mirabilia Urbis Romae, 2nd ed. (New York,: Italica Press, 2008).
framed through carefully selected
Tourism
imagery — for instance, the notion of
representations of the city throughout
Rome’s eternality has been produced
its history. During their pilgrimages
and reproduced throughout its history
to Rome, generations of medieval
of tourism, from the Grand Tour to
tourists
practices of contemporary tourism.
Urbis Romae (The Marvels of the
Today, Rome’s monumental quality and
City of Rome), a historical guide to
enduring legacy have made it a place
the city which listed and described
where one can visit multiple pasts—
monuments and relics of the past, so
Classical,
Renaissance,
that the pilgrim could orient herself in
Baroque, Fascist—yet, as Malerba’s
the cityscape.16 Unlike contemporary
story
commodification
tourist guidebooks and maps, these
and visual representations of the
medieval representations of the city
city reduce the complexity of Rome’s
were
palimpsest to a single layer and static
interpretations that relied on myth
Christian,
suggests,
not
in
Rome
employed
concrete,
has
the
but
shaped
Mirabilia
cognitive
86 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST and imagination. The descriptions of
monuments
in
the
guidebook,
referred to by Fabio Benincasa
as
“skeletal”,
of
absence
maintained and
were
a not
sense
restricted
by accurate historical knowledge.17 Rather,
these
representations
of the city dealt with a level of imagination and fantasy assembled from fragments that did not rely on context. In this way, understanding the ancient city involved ephemeral patterns of movement which relied on discovery and experience, rather than a consumption of imagery and visual culture.
17. Fabio Benincasa, “The Explosion of Rome in the Fragments of a Postmodern Iconography: Federico Fellini and the Forma Urbis.” In Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape, edited by Dom Holdaway, and Filippo Trentin (New York: Routledge, 2016), 39–57.
18. A vedute, meaning “view” in Italian, is an iconographic and pictorial representation of the city, often depicting monumental spaces. Beginning in the sixteenth century, prints set the scene for the memory of the city and the academic literature is extensive. Contemporary websites continue to utilize these prints as the imagined and remembered spaces of the city. As a singular, but representative example, the University of Chicago’s on-line digital archive of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae marries the prints to academic essays, or itineraries, see http:// speculum.lib.uchicago.edu/ index.html. Considering the role of vedute as momenti, Russel looks to Duperac’s engraved representation of the Roman Forum and the monuments of the Arch of Septimus Severus and S. Adriano, both staging the scenic city in contemporary Rome. Amy Russell, “Memory and Movement in the Roman Fora from Antiquity to Metro C,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 73, no. 4 (2014): 481.
19. Russell (2014): 481.
During the 17th and 18th century Grand
the vedute preserved only a static
Tour of Europe, representations of
and visual mode of experience—a
Rome shifted from this elusive quality
medium which Amy Russel contends
towards the romantic idea of Rome
“privileges the experience of standing
as “Eternal”. This image was meant to
still at a scenic point to take in the
attract an elite group of royalty and
view.”19 According to Russel, those
aristocrats who travelled to Rome
places that were visually reproduced
in order to expose themselves to its
were given prominence in the city’s
classical past and the cultural legacy of
cultural
the Renaissance. The visual experience
tradition and the static depictions of
of
realistic city views supplanted the
ancient
architecture
began
to
memory.
The
vedutismo
flourish during the Grand Tour, and the
medieval representations, as
cultural pilgrimage quickly became a
in the Mirabilia Urbis Romae, which
way of visually assessing the city. Upon
symbolically
leaving Rome, tourists who wished to
and allowed for an ephemeral and
preserve their memories of the city
experiential discovery
would often take a vedute with them as a memento to recall the splendors visited during the tour (Figure 2.9).18 While these engravings and paintings of the city were an attempt to capture experience in a ‘permanent’ form,
represented
the
seen city
88 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.9 Vestigi dell’Arco di Settimio Severo (1607–20), Étienne Dupérac (Russel, 2014)
89
20. On tourism and authenticity see: Dean MacCannell, “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings,” American Journal of Sociology 79, no. 3 (1973): 589–603.
21. Joshua Hagen, Preservation, Tourism and Nationalism: The Jewel of the German Past (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006), 78.
Today, the consumption of visual
seek escape through the search for
culture has an unprecedented and
‘real’ experiences that are outside
adverse effect on the quality of
of themselves.20
experience within a city. Tourists check
escapist flight from modern society,
the destination ‘hot spots’ off of their
Joshua Hagen contends that tourists
lists, and line up to capture a still frame
are willing to ‘negotiate’ authenticity.
of the monument in the distance. As
He argues that tourists are often
‘post card’ representations of the city
conscious of “packaged experiences”,
take primacy in our collective memory,
or fake elements of the city, but it is
a city’s palimpsest is stripped of its
this component of make believe that
layers, understood primarily through
tourists seek within their experience.21
its surface.
The desire for new and authentic
However, in this
experience results in the institution of Paradoxically, contemporary tourism,
habitual and inauthentic elements to
as a practice of cultural production, relies
the city, along with stage-set qualities
on the construction of ‘authenticity’
which
within a
palimpsest. Among
of the meta-narrative (Figure 2.10).
the theories surrounding escapism
Accepting the inauthentic as authentic,
and
tourism,
the tourist becomes both a consumer
Dean MacCannell argues the tourists
and actor within the city. Tourist maps
suffer from anxiety and pressures
and
within one’s society, and therefore,
histories should be consumed, while
city’s
authenticity
within
maintain
guidebooks
the
reproduction
determine
which
FIGURE 2.10 A Monumental Zoo (Author)
91 those who find themselves allured
authentic, yet conceals the passing
by their depictions participate in a
of time. While the reoccurring image
routine of predictable and pre-planned
of scaffolds and barricades floods
experience—as if the tourist book is
Rome’s
the script to be rehearsed.
Russell
monuments stand as backdrops to be
touches on the habitual movements
understood from a distance, rather
of the tourist, contending that we
than experienced as through a process
“follow tour guides in a ritual dance
of active wandering and discovery.
from monument to monument.”22 This
The obsession with sites of memory
commodification
monument
and nostalgia objectifies the history of
reduces the ‘carrier of memory’ into
Rome, binding the city to the Eternal,
a truely un-monumental object. An
while ruthlessly forgetting the present.
of the
ungrounded image dislocated from the palimpsest (Figure 2.11). In an effort to preserve the histories of those ‘worthy’, many of Rome’s monuments are now gated off and inaccessible, while an endless cycle of 22. Russell, “Memory and Movement in the Roman Fora from Antiquity to Metro C,” 502.
restorations provides the monument with a fresh facade of eternality—a layer of the palimpsest that poses as
historic
center,
the
city’s
92 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.11 An Archipelago of Monuments (Author)
93
“
THESE ARE THE MONUMENT’S
SUSTAINING ILLUSIONS, THE PRINCIPLES OF ITS SEEMING
LONGEVITY AND POWER...
FIGURE 2.12 Faded Eternity (Author)
94 | 2.1 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
BUT IN FACT...NEITHER THE MONUMENT NOR ITS MEANING IS REALLY
EVERLASTING. BOTH A MONUMENT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE ARE CONSTRUCTED
IN PARTICULAR TIMES AND PLACES, CONTINGENT ON THE POLITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND AESTHETIC
REALITIES OF THE MOMENT.”
23
—James E. Young 23. James E. Young, “Memory and Counter-Memory,” Harvard Design Magazine 9 (1999): 6.
95
The Amnesia of the Eternal Monument The monument, perhaps the most
static form, this translation becomes
apparent marker of memory in a city,
more closely tied with forgetting than
is taken as a collective cultural artifact,
remembrance. Rather than extending
whose meaning is fixed in the time
the life of the memory, the monument
and in the landscape. This presumed
in fact relinquishes our obligation to
permanence of the monument does
remember.
not ensure the survival of its meaning, but rather, expedites its inevitable
James E. Young remarks that once a
amnesia. According to Pierre Nora,
memory is transferred to monumental
once memory begins to fade or stops
form, we have a tendency to assume
being experienced from within, we
that its meaning is now fixed in the
‘design’ memory in our physical world,
landscape for eternity. The monument
allowing them to exist through “exterior
therefore becomes “oblivious to the
signs.”24
essential mutability in all cultural
museums,
artifacts, the ways the significance in
and buildings of historic relevance are
all art evolves over time.”25 The status
often understood as manifestations
of the monument which does not evolve
of memory, thought of as narrators
with
of historical meaning and images of
from time, forever a snapshot of one
cultural tradition and value. However,
historical moment. With this absence
once we attempt to assign a memory
of time, static ‘carriers’ of memory will
—inherently volatile and fleeting—to
eventually fall out of the living cycle
scaffolding Monuments, 24. Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire,” 13.
25. Young, James E. 1999. “Memory and CounterMemory.” Harvard Design Magazine, 6–13.
and
outward
memorials,
society,
remains
quarantined
of memory, which can by no means be tethered form (Figure 2.13). The monument whose narrative does not evolve with change, becomes truly oblivious to everyday life—a backdrop to the spectacle.
FIGURE 2.13 The Monument Suspended in Time (Author)
97
98 | 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST FIGURE 2.14 The Illusion (Author)
FIGURE 2.15 Evicted from Eternity (Author)
100 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
2.3
THE REALITY:
THE UNSUNG NARRATIVE OF THE MODERN PERIPHERY
“
... ENCLOSED BY A RING OF TRAFFIC, BY MOUNTAINS OF HOUSES THAT DON’T FOLLOW THE COURSE OF THE RIVER ANYMORE; HOUSES THAT ALL LOOK THE SAME, WITH DOORS AND WINDOWS, PILED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER.
ROME ISN’T ROME EVERYWHERE. THE CIRCLE OF STREETS AND BUILDINGS OF ITS OUTSKIRTS
SURROUND THE CITY OF SOUVENIRS AND MEMORIES: WITHOUT ANY EXCHANGE, WITHOUT ANY WORDS.
LIKE AN OLD MAN AND A BOY, SITTING ON A BENCH WITH NOTHING TO SAY.” 1
—Jordana Sebastian
1. Sebastian Jordana, “Rome City Vision Architecture Competition Winner / Weekend in a Morning Architects,” ArchDail y, October 17, 2010, Accessed January 2, 2016. http://www. archdaily.com/82148/ rome-city-visionarchitecture-competitionwinner-weekend-in-amorning-architects/.
101
The Absence of the Periphery Despite the seemingly eternal qualities
Understanding that our concept of
of the city, the Roman condition is rife
reality is itself construed through a
with
exclusion, impermanence and
string of fragments, this section will
instability. From the Fascist regime
begin to unveil real conditions of the
to present day, realities of forced
Roman periphery—both historic and
nomadism
the
contemporary— through a series of
historic center have transformed the
micro-narratives and snap shots of
city’s palimpsest from a vertically
a larger narrative.
oriented layering to one of horizontal
illusions
outward
ripple
realities of absence and estrangement
projecting outwards on the surface
understood by those ‘evicted from
(Figure 2.16). Rome’s stratified historic
Eternity’. Liberating receptions of the
center
collective
city from false distinctions of the past,
memory of the city, yet, the absence
we may discover the contradictory,
2.
of the periphery in representations
ambivalent, and fragmented city—the
As defined by Goodman, a city’s periphery can be understood as “any occupation on the fringes of a city which is neither fully urban nor fully rural in character.” See Penelope Goodman, The Roman City and Its Periphery: From Rome to Gaul (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 1.
of the city goes unnoticed.2 The
city behind the masque.
and
eviction
sprawl—as
maintains
if
the
from
a
Roman coin displays a recognizable monument housed within a walled circuit—a symbol of local identity— and Yet, only 100,000 of Rome’s 2.6 million inhabitants currently reside in the city center.
of
the
The maintained
city
trump
these
102 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.16 From Stratified Palimpsest to Projecting Surface (Author)
3. Borgate, derived from the word borgo (meaning ‘district’), is a term denoting the mass housing projects built outside Rome’s center during the fascist era. Italo Insolera writes that “Borgata is a subspecies of borgo: a piece of the city in the middle of the country, that is no really one or the other.” For more on the establishment of the Roman periphery see: John David Rhodes, Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007) and Insolera, Roma Moderna: Un secolo di storia urbanistca 1870-1970 (Turin: Einaudi, 2001).
4. Rhodes, Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome, 5.
5. Borden Painter, Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City, 1st ed. (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 94.
A Fractural Archipelago In the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of
Mussolini declared his ‘success’ in a
Romans were evicted from homes
New York Times report, “in directing
in the city center during Mussolini’s
the population toward the hills and
sventramento,
which
the sea we are clearing away all the
entailed the obliteration of entire
unwholesome hovels, purging Rome,
neighborhoods in order to isolate
letting in air, light and sun.” 5
Rome’s ancient monuments in pursuit
to perfect the fascist visual culture
of Romanita, or “Romanness”. In an
and alter Rome’s historic center to be
attempt to rid the historic center of its
predominantly bourgeoisie, Mussolini’s
“squalor”, as Rhodes characterizes it,
establishment
those displaced by the fascist regime
‘official’
were evicted beyond the confines
physical line of separation between
of the Aurelian Wall to rapidly built
center and periphery, inside and out,
borgate in Rome’s periphery.3 While
within and beyond. Ruthless acts of
‘unofficial’
present
expropriation and eviction not only
in Rome’s periphery prior to the
altered Rome’s physical urban fabric,
fascist era, Mussolini’s ‘revival’ of the
but
ancient past saw an unparalleled
effects on the ideological landscape
level
of
of
a
borgate
process
were
displacements,
with
over
had the
of
borgata
the
periphery’s
sharpened
significant city,
In order
and
undoubtedly
the
adverse altering
5,500 dwellings demolished and the
the identity and memory of those
forced evictions of tens of thousands
displaced beyond the wall (Figure
of people into the Roman periphery.4
2.17). With the eviction of the city
CONTEXTUALIZINGPALIMPSEST PALIMPSEST CONTEXTUALIZING 104 | CHAPTER 10402 | 2.3
FIGURE 2.17 Eternal Evictions (Author)
FIGURE 2.18 The Borgate Archipelago (Author)
1. Primavalle 2. Trullo 3. Tor Marancio 4. Gordiani 5. Quarticciolo 6. Prenestina 7. S. Maria del Soccorso 8. Pietralata 9. S. Basilio 10. Tufello 11. Val Melaina 12. Acilia
106 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST center inhabitants and the borgate
the city center independently.7 While
strategically located in the Roman
Rome’s
periphery, the city center could now
otherwise, this new configuration of the
be imagined as a single entity and a
city could no longer be characterized
“spatially and socially sealed whole.”6
by a finite cosmological model, but
Yet in reality, the unity that once
rather, as a polycentric landscape of
characterized Rome—the ‘cosmopolis’
scattered fragments (Figure 2.18).
capable of blending all of the world’s diverse cultures into one voice— was expunged by a new polycentric system and subsequent sense of ‘otherness’ felt by those ousted to the periphery. As the boundary separated the center from the periphery, the preserved center of Rome no longer functioned as a connective node to the rest of the city. Contrary to the unified model that had formulated receptions of the city, Rome had now become a polycentric system, in which “isolated nuclei”—as characterized by Leslie Caldwell— assumed the traditional functions of
grand
narratives
suggest
6. Pierluigi Cervelli, “Rome as a Global City: Mapping New Cultural and Political Boundaries,” in Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, ed. Isabella Clough Marinaro and Bjørn Thomassen (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014),49.
7. In Walkscapes, Francesco Careri also compares this type of discontinuous urban spaces to that of a “fractural archipelago.” These fragments within the city periphery are interconnected by open space, which according to Careri are often misrecognized as “urban voids.” See: Francesco Careri, Walkscapes, vol. 1, Land&Scape (Naucalpan, Mexico: Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.L., 2002).See also: Lesley Caldwell, “Centre, Hinterland and the Articulation of ‘Romanness’ in Recent Italian Film,” in Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape (New York, NY: Routledge, 2016), 78.
107 9.
The Capital of Evictions The era of Fascism saw the deliberate
occupy shanty towns without public
exclusion of the “others” that went
services,
against
model,
through illegal squatting.8 With the
establishing a cartography reflective
excuse of efficiency, the Roman public
of these power relations—a divided
administration currently allows private
palimpsest. Almost a century later,
interests to flood the city, yet is unable
8.
spatial
to provide an adequate solution to
In 2011 alone, 6700 evictions were ordered, with an average of 2850 evictions per year since 1983. In 2011, Italian politician, Gianni Alemanno, oversaw evictions from 4 unauthorized encampments, in Tiburtina and Vicolo Savini, most of whose residents were Roma—one of the largest miniorites in the city today. For more on the severity of evictions in the contemporary city, see: Pierpaolo Mudu, “Housing and Homelessness in Contemporary Rome,” in Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, ed. Isabella Clough Marinaro and Bjørn Thomassen (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014), 69.
‘othering’ remain present as active
the
layers within the city’s palimpsest,
crisis. In response, Rome’s residents
both buried and exposed. If the Fascist
have developed an illegal process
vision required the spatial segregation
of building (abusivismo), a practice
and building of the borgate, the vision
of ‘self-making’ of the city (Figure
of the contemporary landscape is a
2.19). Today, more than one third of
continuation of selectively framed
Rome’s population lives in areas which
views, reflective of social hierarchies
violate public land use regulations—
and meta-narratives.
dwellings of “illegal origin.”9 The city’s
Alessandro Coppola, “Evolutions and Permanences in the Politics (and Policy) of Informality: Notes on the Roman Case.,” ed. Carlo Cellamare, Urbanistica Tre, Rome, “SelfMade Urbanism,” no. 2 (May 2013): 35–43.
the
fascist
models
of
visual
exclusion
and
or
city’s
current
find
accommodation
contemporary
urban
development—with
“Rome is Italy’s capital of evictions”,
an
as typified by Pierpaolo Mudu—a
private and public— has not only
landscape
prevailing
weakened the public sector, but has
boundary continues to oust thousands
been constructed in way which truly
from their homes, leaving them to
facilitates control and surveillance.10
where
the
intensified
housing
boundary
between
108
FIGURE 2.19 Illegal Dwelling (Author)
10. Michel Foucault refers to this spatial system as “disciplinary”, in which techniques of hierarchical observation and ideological use of space are used as methods of control. In his essay “What is an Apparatus”, Agamben investigates Foucault’s notion of the “apparatus”, a powerful instrument of governance and subjectification. As a ubiquitous set of mechanisms which power over us, the apparatus plays a significant part in how different societies get oppressed. See Giorgio Agamben, “What Is an Apparatus” and Other Essays, trans. David Kishik (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009). and Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Random House Inc., 1977).
“
MY LITTLE ONE KEEPS ASKING: ‘WHEN DO WE LEAVE HERE? WHY DO WE NOT HAVE A HOUSE?’ I AM AN ITALIAN CITIZEN... WE CANNOT LIVE LIKE THIS. WHAT SHOULD I TELL MY SON?
THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE BETTER THAN US?” 11
- Miriana Halilovic, a resident of Salone authorized camp, Rome, June 2013
FIGURE 2.20 Roma Evicted (2009) (Amnesty International, 2013)
110 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
11. Amnesty International, Ital y Double Standards: Ital y’s Housings Policies Discriminate against Roma (London: Amnesty International ltd, 2013),5.
111 12. With theoretical origins in the Marxist workerism (operaismo) movement, the Social Center Movement (Centri Sociali) developed as an anti-fascist reaction to deprivation and unemployment. With the aim of addressing social malaise, and challenging the political corruption of a hierarchical society, Roman activists today are redefining pubic space and the ‘right to the city’. Creating a new layer on the city’s contemporary palimpsest, Rome’s marginalized communities have expressed dissent through established political squats, or ‘Social Centers’, These counter-hegemonic acts of resistance and cultural occupation balance on the lines between legality and illegality, while creating a truly common space. See: Hans Pruijt, “Squatting in Europe,” in Squatting in Europe: Radical Spaces, Urban Struggles, ed. by The Squatting Europe Kollective (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2013).
Occupied Space: A New Urban Geography Rome’s contemporary reality is an
‘Centri Sociali’— communally claimed
era
speculation,
dis-used buildings, transformed into
and massive budget cuts for public
cultural hubs (Figure 2.21).12 Through
spending
the development of a new collective
of
privatization, in
the
cultural
sector.
However, these controls on the physical
consciousness,
and cultural layering of the city, have
has
resulted in self-made practices which
contemporary city, establishing a new
have become an integral layer within
urban geography based on common
the city’s contemporary palimpsest. At
social activity. For many of Rome’s
the intersection between politics and
marginalized citizens, this form of
cultural development, occupied space
occupied space becomes a place
has become a new form of collective
for democracy, along with cultural
ownership and reaction to the prevailing
and social exploration—a space that
dichotomies in the city. Through urban
is neither public, nor private, but
squatting and the self-management
common.
of
space, participants confront the
dominant discourse, working toward dissipating and
marginalization.
creativity, and
boundaries, and
activists
exclusion,
Propelled
inclusion, have
by
artists
transformed
abandoned buildings into occupied
become
urban a
layer
squatting within
the
112 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.21 The Global Village, Occupied Social Center in Testaccio (Author)
113
Case Study | Teatro Valle
13.
The Teatro Valle, one of Rome’s current
abandoned theater was conceived
Sharon M, “Occupied Rome: Social Centres in Rome,” Romeing | Rome’s English Magazine, Events and Exhibitions in Rome, January 25, 2014, Accessed February, 4, 2016, http://www.romeing. it/occupied-rome-whereparty-revellers-are-worldchangers/.
squats in the historic center, is an
as a contemporary agora, and the
example of ‘occupying the commons’
occupiers soon began a process of
as
institutionalization,
a
layer
of
the
contemporary
in
which
they
palimpsest(Figure 2.22).13 Once an
transformed the historic venue into
18th century theatre and opera house,
a space for social, political, and
the Teatro Valle was closed in 2011 due
cultural
to the Italian government’s massive
the collective memory of the space,
14.
budget cuts for public spending in the
the occupiers dedicated the disused
Chiara Belingardi et al., “Spatial Struggles: Teatro Valle Occupato and the Right to The) City.” Accessed February, 4, 2016, https://www. opendemocracy.net/ can-europe-make-it/ chiara-belingardi-ileniacaleo-federica-giardiniisabella-pinto/spatialstruggles.
cultural sector. After rumors that the
theater to the idea of direct democracy.
theatre was to become privatized and
This once historic space of the past
converted into a restaurant, a group of
now houses bottom-up productions
protesters occupied the building and
reflective of the present, such as art
revolted against lack of government
events,
funding for artistic endeavors. The
and festivals. This institution of the
occupiers, primarily musicians, actors,
commons has transformed the theater
and the theatre staff, began the revolt
into a platform for the free movement
as a symbolic protest, with slogans
of ideas and opinions —a new layer in
such as “like air and water, culture
the palimpsest of the contemporary
is a commons” and “Teatro Valle is a
city.
15. An agora is, a political space in which the commons takes place— an open and communal space for civic and commercial activity relationships, social interactions, and sharing and conflicts.
commons” characterizing the space.14 In a form of collective action, the
practices.15
workshops,
Transforming
performances,
FIGURE 2.22 Occupied Rome, (Sharon M., 2014)
115
“
THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY IS ALWAYS ONE THAT LOOKS ON THE WORLD
AS FIT FOR CHANGE AND ON HIMSELF AS
AN INSTRUMENT
FOR CHANGE.” —Jacob Bronowski
16
116 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
16. Jacob Bronowski, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (London: Yale University Press, 2008), 122.
117 FIGURE 2.23 The Reality (Author)
118 | 2.3 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.24 A Grand Wall (Author)
120 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
2.4
THE MASQUE:
THE PALIMPSEST OF BOUNDARY
“
I THINK THE DRESSING AND THE MASK ARE AS OLD AS HUMAN CIVILIZATION...
THE DENIAL OF REALITY, OF THE MATERIAL, IS NECESSARY IF FORM IS TO EMERGE AS A MEANINGFUL SYMBOL, AS AN AUTONOMOUS CREATION OF MAN.” 1
—Gottfried Semper
1. Harry Francis Mallgrave, Gottfried Semper: Architect of the Nineteenth Century (New Haven and London: New Haven University Press, 1996), 300.
121
2. The use of the word “masque” alludes to the notion of “mask”—a cover used to disguise and/or conceal the face. Acknowledging that the city is a spectacle in which we all play a part, this thesis employs a variant of ‘mask’ as masque, as a greater form of concealment in performance and creative processes. The form of courtly entertainment popular in the 16th- and 17th-century, “Masques” often involved acting spoken in verse by disguised players representing mythological or allegorical figures. The mask—worn by the actor— therefore, is a component of the masque—both the spatial constructs of the spectacle, and the spectacle as a whole.
The City in Disguise In the inevitable game between reality
which allows the designer to conceal
and illusion, the masque becomes an
aspects of the design and facilitate the
perceptible layer within palimpsest.2
reception of the intended narrative.
Effacing the distinction between that
Applying this metaphor of the masque
which is real and that which is forgery,
to palimpsest, methods of ‘cloaking’
the masque is an apparatus of true
or ‘veiling’ act as layers which eclipse
deception—a seductive disguise and
the truth, rewriting one reality with
veil over reality.
another ‘reality’.
As an architectural, political, or social
While the masque is a construct of
construct, the masque is a fictive
deception and duplicity, it may also
element
of
manifest qualities of translucency and
separation, acting as a layer between
transparency, particularly in moments
fallacy and truth, inside and out, face
of confession. When the porosity of
and participant. Within architecture,
the masque reveals itself, one may
the masque frequently takes the form
create and gather
of a façade, scrim, screen, or other
which facilitate the construction of
filtering device with the ability to
new meaning and understanding—
frame a certain view or disguise that
paradoxically, a ‘deconstruction’ of the
which should not be seen (Figure 2.25).
illusion which is only made possible by
It may also function as a boundary,
the presence of a masque itself.
most notably in the form of wall,
With the ability to both conceal and
which
performs
acts
connections
122 reveal, the masque becomes an active contributor to both the production and reception of palimpsest, allowing for experiences of prevarication, yet also of mystery and discovery. It is when the masque confronts its own falsehood
that
it
becomes
much
more than an artificial surface or fallacious veneer. Rather, the masque becomes a composite—a participant in the palimpsest of a city, yet also a palimpsest in itself. Behind one disguise boundless
lies
another
disguise—a
layering of cloaks, each
passing through a series of phases until unearthed as a new face. As an actor within the spectacle of the city, the masque overlays one reality with another reality, in a incessant process of layering where the only Eternality of the city, is the presence of the masque itself.
FIGURE 2.25 Duplicity (Author)
123
124 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
125
126 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
127
128 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
129
Fragments of Truth As demonstrated by the investigation
experimented,
of the Rome’s palimpsest, it is inherent
separately. The resulting product is
in human nature to divide the universe
never a complete image, but rather,
into entities—inside/outside, public/
simply a “gigantic metaphor for that
private,
transparent/
part of the universe which we are
visible/disguised—separate
decoding.”3 Furthermore, this process
dark/light,
opaque, layers
which
distinguishable
wear
seemingly
masques.
Jacob
of decoding allows us to conveniently select what elements of the world are relevant to us and should be studied,
nature and process of division by
and disregard those which are not.
which we gain knowledge. According
Our
to Bronowski, the universe is “totally
is composed of nothing more than
connected”.
a
described
this
However,
law
because
concept
series
of
reality,
therefore,
fragments,
world in its entirety, one universal truth
deceptive substitute for a complete
or explanation of this connected world
universe—the masque.
the universe, we undergo a process of ‘decoding’, in which
we
divide
the world into relevant segments, each of which may be examined,
rearranged
selected,
distorted,
an attempt to study and comprehend
and
of
mankind is incapable of seeing the
may never be reached. Therefore, in
Bronowski, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, 70.
understood
of
Bronowski,
3.
and
into
a
130 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.26 A Layering of Connections, Divides, and Fragments (Author)
131
Boundary and Masque Analogous to the masque, which forms
not allow those on the ‘wrong’ side to
a layer between reality and participant,
uncover the face behind the masque.
boundaries
delineate
Within these moments of spatial
palimpsest.
interruption, an undeniable friction
entities
isolate within
Boundaries,
4.
as
and the
physical
or
visual
to live in the interface
between
elements which both confine and define
two worlds denoted as “different”.
space, meet the fundamental function
On the contrary, Pierre von Meiss
of
argues that boundaries do not create
delineating
space—distinctions
Christo and JeanneClaude’s “Running Fence”: an ephemeral boundary, followed the California hills for two weeks. The fabric of the fence alludes to the underlying issue of division and boundary, and for the artists, the ribbon embodied larger issues of human freedom and constraint. See: Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond (New York, NY: Flashpoint, Roaring Brook Press, 2008).
which may be accepted or contested,
interdependence
However, the meaning of boundary
but rather, provide a relationship
has proven to transcend the realm
between two places that is one of
of spatiality, allowing the memory of
both “separation and
a city to be defined
“interruption and continuity.”5 This
5. Pierre von Meiss, Elements of Architecture: From Form to Place. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013, 148.
and redefined
connection”,
form
exemplified by some of the world’s
boundary, not as a divide, but as a
most studied
boundaries— such as
liminal space that belongs to two
the Berlin Wall—spatial division often
spaces simultaneously. Within this
creates idealogical interruption and
co-dependence between division and
psychological tension. The adverse
unity, boundary becomes threshold;
effects of boundary become most
housing moments that are
evident
polarity and conflict, but of union and
its
permeability
is
controlled—a condition which does
transition.
thinking
dichotomy,
through its presence (Figure 2.27). As
when
of
and
contextualizes
not of
132 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.27 “Running Fences”, Christo and Jeanne-Claude (1972-76) (Russel, 2014)
133
134 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.28 Liminal Moments (Author)
135
FIGURE 2.29 Deconstructing Boundary (Roger, 1996)
136 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
Case Study | The Berlin Wall A wall is perhaps the most archetypical
form of mask, the wall itself became
element used to denote a boundary.
the confirmation of the differences
Walls construct limits that define
between East and West Germans. In
space. They divide, create edges,
his book The German Comedy: Scenes
isolate, and defend. Walls, and those
of Life After the Wall, Peter Schneider
thresholds between them, create the
states, “For it was the Wall alone that
demarcations that drive and define
preserved the illusion that the Wall
our world.
was the only thing separating the Germans.”7 The Wall, both a national
The
Berlin Wall,
exemplifies the
symbol and object of Germany identity
boundary
construction, acted as a veil which
and physiological consequences of
displaced any anxieties about the
symbolic
importance
of
a divided society (Figure
2.29).6 A
differences between East and West.
boundary which divided East and West Germany both physically and
In psychological sciences, the Berlin
politically, the Berlin Wall isolated
Wall was used as a resource to
families
6.
other
and
interpret, classify, and reflect on the
people
from
social and psychological conditions of
Viollet, Roger The Wall Under Dismantling. April 1990. Getty Images. Getty Images, Inc., July, 10 2016.
freedom. However, for many Germans,
the German people. Even after its fall
7.
the separation enforced by the Wall
in 1989, the shadow of the Berlin Wall
became
remained in the form of a new masque
Peter Schneider, The German Comedy: Scenes of Life After the Wall (London: I.B.Tauris & Co, 1992), 13.
separated
from the
an
each city’s
integral
resource
for
understanding Germany identity. As a
and
“mental
wall”—a
figurative
137 8. For more information on the Berlin Wall as both a metaphor for social distress and as a construct used in psychological sciences see Christine Leuenberger. “Constructions of the Berlin Wall: How Material Culture Is Used in Psychological Theory.” Social Problems 53, (2006): 18–37. Photo Credit: University of Minnesota, “Cracks in the Walls: 25 Years After Berlin, Organized by Sonja Kuftinec, Nov. 6, 2014,” Institute for Advanced Study, November 6, 2014. Accessed August 5, 2016, http://ias.umn.edu/2014/11/06/ kuftinec.
9. For more on “Ostalgie” see Elisabeth Mermann and Joseph F. Jozwiak, “The Wall in Our Minds?,” The Journal of Popular Culture 39 (2006): 780–95.
10. Joachim Trenkner cited in Aline Sierp, “Nostalgia for Times Past: On the Uses and Abuses of the Ostalgia Phenomenon in Eastern Germany,” Contemporary European Studies 2 (2009), 50.
concept
and
metaphor
malaise (Figure 2.30).8
for
social
Today, many
still suffer from the mental barriers and psychological effects brought on by the presence of the ‘invisible’ wall, while the present integration of East and West Germany has also brought about a rising prominence of “Ostalgie”, or, nostalgia for the old East Germany.9 Joachim
Trenker
German journalist, found
that
one
of three Germans often wished to reinstate the Wall due to feelings of estrangement—a
condition
felt
by
those who have always known the mask to be familiar, and the uncovered face unrecognizable.10
138 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 2.30 On top of the Berlin Wall (1989) (University of Minnesota, 2014)
“
(ARCHITECTURE) CONSTANTLY PLAYS THE SEDUCER.
ITS DISGUISES ARE NUMEROUS ...LIKE MASKS, THEY PLACE
A VEIL BETWEEN WHAT IS ASSUMED TO BE REALITY AND ITS PARTICIPANTS.
SOON, HOWEVER, YOU REALIZE THAT
NO SINGLE UNDERSTANDING IS POSSIBLE.
140 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
ONCE YOU UNCOVER THAT WHICH LIES BEHIND THE MASK,
IT IS ONLY TO DISCOVER ANOTHER MASK.” 11
11.
—Bernard Tschumi
Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction (London: The MIT Press, 1996),90.
FIGURE 2.31 The Curtain (Author)
Case Study | The Aurelian Wall Walls
materialize
continuity
both
and
ideological
discontinuity.
Manifested through the city’s walls, the
notion
of
masque
maintains
both presence and absence in the development of the Rome’s urban morphology and strata. The historic Aurelian Wall, a circuit which currently encircles Rome’s historic center, The wall itself has endured as a monument, one that has not only reshaped the physical contours of the city, but has itself worn many masques that have defined and redefined the city’s image and its many realities.12 The multilayered meaning of wall is
exemplified
interventions
through and
the
many
transformations
of the Aurelian Wall through time. In history, Rome’s walls grew with the city, expanding to surround
new
142 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST quarters and house new memories
While
within them. Today, however, the wall
of the history of Rome, this thesis
which was built to confine space, no
identifies the boundary as a masque
longer functions as a demarcartin
that conceals the city’s present. As a
of the city limits. As the city grows
dividing circuit between the grandeur
outwards in concentric rings, the wall
of Rome’s historic center and the
no longer functions as boundary, but
corruption of the modern periphery,
has taken on a new role as an urban
the Aurelian wall has become much
element —one which confines the past,
more than a monument, or physical
while expunges the present. With the
boundary. It manifests symbolic and
presence of this boundary, Rome has
cultural geographies and has taken on
taken on a duplicitous nature: the city
its own life within the spectacle of the
center remaining bound to eternity
city. As the masque of the city, the wall
within the walls, while the space of
may separate as boundary, conceal as
the
masque, or reveal as backdrop to the
periphery
unconfined,
appears
open
and
expanding further and
further into the depths of the present. As these two dichotomous lives run parallel aside the wall, the monument, whether
valorized
or
forgotten,
becomes a a lonely snapshot of one historical moment.
the
Aurelian
theatre of the city.
Wall
speaks
12. A 12 kilometre long circuit constructed between 270273 AD, Rome’s Aurelian Wall has worn many masques throughout its history, itself a form palimpsest. Traditionally built as a protective circuit against barbarian attacks, the wall became a point of orientation, guiding visitors coming from the North during Medieval pilgrimages. The walls of Rome were later used as symbols of power to legitimize the papacy. As the Aurelian Wall protected the capital, it stands today as a model of Rome’s western identity—a symbol of power, authority, and permanence. For a cohesive study on the Aurelian Wall, see Hendrik W. Dey, The Aurelian Wall and the Refashioning of Imperial Rome, AD 271–855 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
FIGURE 2.32 Expansion of Rome’s Walls (Author)
144 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
145 FIGURE 2.23 The Masque (Author)
146 | 2.4 CONTEXTUALIZING PALIMPSEST
CHAPTER 3
REWRITING
PALIMPSEST
149
FIGURE 3.0 Transitions (Author)
150 | 3.1 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
3.1
NOTES
“
FROM THE AUTHOR
A DRAWING FOR ME IS A MODEL
THAT OSCILLATES BETWEEN
THE IDEA AND THE PHYSICAL, OR BUILT, REALITY OF ARCHITECTURE.” —Raimund Abraham
1
1. Raimund Abraham, “In Anticipation of Architecture. Fragmentary Notes”, in: Brigitte Groihofer (ed.), Raimund Abraham. (Un)Built (Vienna; New York: Springer, 1996), 102.
151
From the Author: A Note on Disegno It is necessary to draw a distinction
These explorations have challenged
between a drawing as an object, and
my
the process of drawing itself. With the
representation, pushing me towards
process of disegno, meaning “drawing”
a dynamic mode of thinking in which
or “design” in Italian, drawing is not
layered drawings become palimpsests
simply about using line to define form,
of
but rather becomes just as much of a
written over, and obscured. These
psychological act as it is a material
drawings become a form of language
practice. It is a drawing’s conception,
that is reflective of metaphor, rational
as the hand moves across the page in
thought and subjective expression —
symbiosis with creative thought, which
a true negotiation between subjective
becomes
and objective thought.
fundamental
to
creation
itself. Drawing, erasing, obscuring, replicating, de-familiarizing, are all dialogs between the hand and mind – a conversation that is never static nor one dimensional. Throughout this investigation I have explored and
techniques
collage,
as
of
disegno
extensions
of
architectural ideas freed from form.
preconceived
notions
thought—continually
of
reworked,
152 | 3.1 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.1 Disegno Folio Series 2 (Author)
153
A Note on Ephemerality In order to break the eternality of
monument, ruin, or modern borgate—
the city’s image, one that has been
should be bound to an illusion of
preserved by the masque worn by
eternity.
the past, this thesis proposes a shift towards the ephemeral aspects of the city, proposing an osmotic notion of history were society may continually evolve with respect to both past and present. The beauty and value of architectural palimpsest lies within its incessant course of layering–a cycle in which the built environment is written and re-written over again, in an evolving narrative that bridges together
multiple
pasts
with
the
present. This ephemerality does not propose erasure, as traces of the past are fundamental to our understanding of the world, however, it is through this dynamic reading of the city, that the past no longer governs the present. No
element
of
the
city—whether
154 | 3.1 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.2 Armature of Moments (Author)
155
FIGURE 3.3 A Wall, A Curtain, A Masque (Author)
156 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
3.2
A VISUAL
“
MANIFESTO
WE LIVE IN A PLACE WHERE LIFE PRESENTS ITSELF AS AN IMMENSE ACCUMULATION
OF SPECTACLES.” —Guy Debord
1
1. Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Translated by Donald NicholsonSmith. New York, NY: Zone Books, 1994, 5. Originally La Societe du Spectacle (Paris: Editions Buchet-Chastel, 1976).
FIGURE 3.4 Fragment of the Abandoned Slaughterhouse (Author)
THE ABANDONED
SLAUGHTERHOUSE
158 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
Site and Context The project is located in Testaccio, Rome, a semi-peripheral neighborhood that was built as a working class urban district in 1870. While located inside the historic center, Testaccio has “never felt apart of it”, and is often described as being in the “outskirts of the centre.”
Destined to become
Rome’s largest industrial neighborhood when it was first built, Testaccio was given a “pre-built and planned identity.”2 After the slaughterhouse—the neighbourhood’s main production center—was closed, much of the area was abandoned. However, in the mid nineties, the area saw a ‘slow renaissance’ becoming a place for the arts, restaurants, and bars. According to Irene Ranaldi, today Testaccio has “a duplicitous nature: it wants to still be perceived as it was in the past as a working class area, marginalised and without the attractions of the historic center, in which is actually resides.”3
2. Taken from a book traveling presentation in Testaccio (February 2016). Irene Ranaldi, Testaccio: From District Worker to Village of the Capital (Milano: Franco Angeli, 2012).
3. Ibid.
159
THE GLOBAL VILLAGE The final project develops around an isolated fragment of the historic Aurelian Tiber
Wall,
River
found in
next
Testaccio
to
the
(Figure
3.5). Directly across from the wall fragment, Roman artists and activists have taken occupancy in one of the areas
abandoned
slaughterhouses,
now an informal social center called “The Global Village”. An example of reclaimed historical space, the Global Village now houses an artist’s collective and social center, yet today, it is threatened with eviction.
Abandoned Slaughterhouse and one of Rome’s occupied Social Centers
THE GASOMETER Industry’s ‘Colosseum’
THE AURELIAN WALL FRAGMENT
160 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.5 A Dynamic Site (Author)
161
THE AURELIAN
WALL FRAGMENT
162 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.6 A Fragment of the Aurelian Wall (Author)
163
THE OCCUPIED
GLOBAL VILLAGE
164 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.7 A Fragment of the Global Village (Author)
165
The City as Theater In the investigation of architectural
Wall as masque, or ‘curtain’, of the
palimpsest in the context of Rome,
spectacle. In order to give form to the
the final project becomes a visual
irreducible dichotomies of human life,
manifesto for understanding the city.
the project aims to capture moments
Using the medium of narrative and
of tension and discontinuity within a
architecture of poetic intervention,
city divided by both reality and illusion.
this thesis juxtaposes the complexity
Allowing the visitor to experience both
of reality with historical fragments.
deception and a suspended state of
It
of
consciousness, this thesis encourages
architectural palimpsest, and a new
one see beyond the boundary and
point of view from which to observe
search for reality behind the layers of
and explore the city. Challenging the
conventional perception and thought.
proposes
a
new
reading
totalizing and eternal view of the city, this thesis unearths these stories of the ‘unsung protagonist’ through an ephemeral and dynamic form of narrative. Within the theater of the city, this project
identifies Rome’s historic
center as ‘stage’, its modern periphery as
‘back-stage’,
and
its
Aurelian
166 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.8 The Theater of the City (Author)
167
The Masque The project engages the idea of ‘wall’,
may act as a delicate transitional
not only as an architectural element,
layer – a veil between two worlds—or,
but as a physical and ideological divide
it may create an ambiguous moment,
with the ability to create discontinuity,
where one is deceived by its facade.
dichotomy, and multiple realities. On
Re-establishing the wall as a new
both ends of the isolated wall fragment,
point of view from which to observe
a ‘masque’ is introduced as a scrim or
and explore the city, the experience
stage curtain concealing the workings
balances the mythical image of Rome
of the backstage reality.
against the fragmentary, messy, and lived experiences of being in the city.
Depending
on
your
angle
of
The new wall acts not as a boundary,
perception, or which side of the wall
but as a liminal territory between
one is situated, the masque takes on
fiction and reality.
different qualities. From the historic center, or the ‘audience’ perspective, the
masque
poses
as
a
stable
extension of the monument. However, from the peripheral perspective, one may see what the masque truly is: a stage-set that is held up by the realties within the backstage moments. As one moves through space, the masque
168 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.9 Scrim and Spectator (Author)
169
170 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
The Aurelian Wall
Existing fragment of the Aurelian Wall
Introduce new wall as scrim and extension of ‘masque’ FIGURE 3.10 Scrim and Wall (Author)
171
172 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.11 A View from the Historic Center (Author)
THE MASQUE introduction of a new scrim as the ‘curtain’
HOUSE OF OPPRESSION
HOUSE OF EVICTION
EXISTING HISTORIC WALL FRAGMENT the center of the stage-set
HOUSE OF ESTRANGEMENT
3 ‘REAL’ BACK-STAGE MOMENTS prisoners of the wall, producers of the spectacle
FIGURE 3.12 An Ephemeral Site Plan | The Spectacle (Author)
HOUSE OF THE COMMONS
AN IMAGINED UTOPIA a heightened state of illusion—an awakening only to be reached after uncovering the reality behind the masque
HOUSE OF
OPPRESSION
176 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.13 House of Oppression (Author)
177
178 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
179
The House of Oppression The House of Oppression narrates a sense of being imprisoned by the wall. At moments, one descends down into an underground space, experiencing the feelings of being watched by those above.
FIGURE 3.14 House of Oppression (Author)
180 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.15 A Temporary Location Plan | House of Oppression (Author)
HOUSE OF
EVICTION
3.0 REWRITING PALIMPSEST 182 | 3.2
FIGURE 3.16 House of the Eviction (Author)
183
184 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
185
The House of Eviction The House of Eviction speaks to those evicted
from
Eternity.
It
narrates
geometries of collapse, demolition, and forced nomadism—all conditions of Rome’s contemporary periphery. Those operating within this backstage moment never reach a sense of stability, as forms are in motion and materials begin to disintegrate.
FIGURE 3.17 Movement and Instability (Author)
3.0 REWRITING PALIMPSEST 186 | 3.2
FIGURE 3.18 A Temporary Location Plan | The House of Eviction (Author)
HOUSE OF
ESTRANGEMENT
188 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.19 House of Estrangement (Author)
189
The House of Estrangement The House of Estrangement operates within the poche of the masque, neither inside nor out. Those that operate within this space are alienated and estranged by the performance. The producers that reside within the House of Estrangement are able to view visitors crossing through the masque, however remain unrecognized and unseen throughout the spectacle.
FIGURE 3.20 Occupying the Poche (Author)
190 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
FIGURE 3.21 A Temporary Location Plan | The House of Estrangement (Author)
191
FIGURE 3.22 Operating within the Masque (Author)
192 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
HOUSE OF
THE COMMONS
FIGURE 3.23 House of the Commons (Author)
194 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
195
196 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
197
FIGURE 3.24 A World without Boundary (Author)
198 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
The House of the Commons The House of the Commons is a utopia and an imagined state of heightened illusion. Inspired by the Roman artists and social activists based in the vicinity of the historic wall fragment, The Commons is a self-managed collective
space
free
from
social
boundaries, barriers, and constraints. One may only reach this utopian state of awakening after experiencing the three backstage moments, pulling back the masque, and uncovering reality—a discovery of a new credible fiction.
FIGURE 3.25 A Temporary Location Plan | The House of The Commons (Author)
199
FIGURE 3.26 Observation Pods for Evicted Squatters (Author)
200 | 3.2 REWRITING PALIMPSEST
“
TO A GREAT EXTENT, CONTROL OVER PEOPLE (POWER) CAN BE ACHIEVED MERELY
BY OBSERVING THEM.”
9
-
— Michel Foucault
9. Gutting, Gary, “Michel Foucault”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2012 Edition), ed. byEdward N. Zalta. Accessed August 20, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/ archives/sum2012/entries/ foucault.
FIGURE 3.27 A Kaleidescope (Author)
202 | 4.0 CONCLUSION
4.0
“
CONCLUSION
THE VISION OF CULTURE
BECOMES EVEN MORE ENLIGHTENING IF WE IMAGINE
ONE OF THE FOUR WALLS TORN DOWN AND THUS TRANSFORMED INTO A GLASSLESS WINDOW.
THE THREE REMAINING WALLS THEN BECOME A STAGE ON WHICH THE TRAGICOMEDY OF CULTURE, WITH MAN ON STAGE AS AN ACTOR. WHAT IS TRULY HISTORIC ABOUT THIS VISION IS THE REPRESENTATIONAL (SYMBOLIC) CHARACTER, AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS TEMPORARILY LIMITED PROCESS.
CULTURE THUS APPEARS
AS A ‘FICTION’... ”
1
1. Raimund Abraham, “Projects 1961-2009”, in: Brigitte Groihofer (ed.), Raimund Abraham. (Un)Built (Vienna; New York: Springer, 1996), 146.
203
A Kaleidescope of Realites The vision of our world is an elision of
which is often seductive, yet ultimately,
fact and fiction — a narrative obscured
married to the masque.
through the prevailing illusion laden in the topos of the city. Our notion
Both seductive and compelling, the
of the past, and subsequently, of the
masque of the city imposes a layer
present, is a narrative infused with
onto the city’s palimpsest that is often
myth, illusions which often reduce
understood as a facade—one mistaken
the topographical complexities of the
as the face, yet with an empty void
palimpsest to a predetermined and
behind. In this state of illusion, our
unstratified memory. An instrument
understanding
of the illusion, the ubiquitous and
through the surface—a straightforward
prevailing boundary separates truth
reading that is not woven into the
from fallacy, and rewards those who
complexities of the palimpsest. As we
yield to its conventional thought.
indulge in commodities of our past,
Those that find themselves subject
seduced by monuments that impose
to the boundary come face to face
their eternal history, the search for
with its many realities—the ‘otherly’
truth is easily trumped by a familiarity
conditions of the palimpsest. As the
with the masque. As an actor of the city,
world is divided in such a way, both
architecture is expected to represent.
spatially and ideologically, it is easy
Yet, we become too easily infatuated
to construe narrative and perception
with its surface, imprinting the grand
through a single reading of the city,
narrative forever into our memories.
of
meaning
occurs
204 | CHAPTER 04 REWRITING PALIMPSEST This form of consciousness denies the
the palimpsestuous city, becomes a
multiple realities of life, leaving behind
painting in motion, a kaleidoscope of
a terrain of unearthed strata waiting
realities that is forever changing, and
to be excavated.
freed from the imposition of a single masque.
Yet, reality reveals itself, if even in an
ephemeral
spectators
moment,
who
to
those
confront
the
illusion—those who peel back the layers of the palimpsestuous city, in search for fragments of unimposing memories and truths. With a shift towards
speculative
question¬ing,
this thesis urges us to challenge the boundaries of space and time, and dig beyond the surface of preconceived perception and thought. Never truly bound to the illusion, the city is a composite: a landscape of layers, each continually redefining its actuality— place where no single reality exists. It is through these complexities that
205
FIGURE 3.28 Final Exhibition Boards (Author)
FIGURE 3.29 Final Exhibition Boards (Author)
208 | 4.0 CONCLUSION
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