Third Perspective Yuuki Yang

theParthenonSculptures’,isespeciallynoteworthy, asitestablishestherepatriationasavirtualreality:‘It isobviousthatwhentheParthenonmarblesare returnedfromtheBritishMuseum,theunityofthe originalswillbecomplete,andthecastexhibition

Apolitical-legalandmuseum-historicalmanifesto in disguise, this competition programme was drafted as if an agreementon repatriation had alreadybeenreached.Itdid,though,revealtraces when the repatriationwouldtakeplace.Therefore,the1989 participantswereencouragedtoevaluatethefollowingalternatives:‘(a)Thebuildingofavenueto remainemptyuntilsuchtimeastheexhibitsare returnedtoGreece.(b)Provisiontobemadefor the extension of the exhibition areaswhen the Thelatteralternativeisof coursethemorediplomaticapproach.Consciously orunconsciously,BernardTschumi’swinningproposalof2001radicallyechoesthefirstalternative,in theformofalavishtestimonytothefactthat museumsarenot,andneverwere,neutralspaces. Thefactthatmuseumarchitectureframesanddisplaysidealsfortheexhibitedobjectsandaccentuatescertainwaystosee,conceiveandunderstand whatisbeingdisplayedhasrarelybeengivenmore

In the film, Suddenly, Last Summer, Catherine confessed: “next morning, I started writing my diary…in the third person singular.” I thought about the reason for why she did this, and realised that I have put myself in a third-person perspective to endure sadness for the past year.

My pet pug left me forever. The asphyxia only lasted a few minutes, then he fell to the ground and stopped struggling. A second before he was quite excited and wanted to go outside as normal. At that moment, I was preparing for my final presentation, so I just spent one night controlling my emotions and went to class the next day. I tried to keep myself busy so that I didn’t have extra time to miss him, but occasionally I still get emotionally breakdown.

He occupied half of my life and suddenly he’s gone. I was afraid of his absence, I can’t stand it. I heard the best method to deal with grief was to situate myself in the thirdperson, so the facts became someone else’s story. I actually did it most of the time and I can now mention his death to my friends normally. These sorts of experiences made me almost believe that I had moved on. However, the fragments of his memory came alive again when my mum reminded me of the first anniversary of his death a few days ago.

In the article “Negotiating absence”, Mari Lending mentions an area for the exhibition of the Parthenon Sculptures need to be built and it will be dismantled when the Parthenon marbles are returned from the British Museum. Thanks to the Parthenon stayed in England, the area was presented to the public as a work of art in its own right. They don’t treat this absence as a pity but as part of the exhibit.

The absence of my pug constitutes a part of my current life, like a fragment of memory integrated into the overall architecture. As the third person, I don’t often involve in memories, but they will always be displayed in my life as exhibits.