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On the Return of the Wall Clara Ong
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French revolutionaries destroying a monument pried from the top of a plinth The Fragile Monument, The Space of Conservation by Thordis Arrhenius
On the Return of the Wall
Clara Ong
The essay ‘The Fragile Monument, The Space of Conservation’, it expresses the idea of conservation and destruction during the french revolution where ‘the criteria of preservation listed presents a shift towards the establishment of a ‘modern’ notion of heritage that will distinguish Revolutionary discourses on conservation.’
The unilateral action of the revolution called for the wholesale destruction of the prior establishment, but it almost instantly called for a program of conservation that could record the valuable repercussions of this destruction.
In the studio, the remaining wall of Toyo Ito’s White U House occupies the position of a revolutionary moment, a fragment of a prior thing re-established as a mirror of something no longer existing. In this studio the wall is conserved, but the implications of its conservation are reflected in our occupation of it.
The wall reflects the plinth in the image adjacent. The empty plinth points to the absence of the horse, but is itself, without something atop, an object that records and monumentalises the revolutionary act that removed the horse. It is a fragment and embodies a fragile state that could see a potential restoration.
