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Financial Obelisks: on the return of the monumental

Written by Federico Campagna, 21.03.2013
A new age of monument-making is on its way. In this short article I will try to explain the geo-political, social and symbolic reasons for the (coming) renaissance of monuments as a means for political domination.
 
 
Preface: Eiffel Towers
 
When the first design of the Eiffel Tower was produced in 1884, France had just emerged from one of its bleakest periods. After the defeat against Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and the wave of civil revolts that originated from the Paris Commune of 1871, the French Nation needed to prove itself again as a believable power in the eyes of the world. The times were fluid and dangerous, and the European balance of forces was being reassessed. France had to show itself as a reliable, stable, united political and economic entity – and the 1889 Exposition Universelle provided a perfect opportunity for such a display of solidity and power.
 
In October 2008, when the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell agreed that ‘something extra’ was needed to celebrate the Olympics, the country had just begun to sink into the whirlpool of economic recession. When Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit project was selected on 31st March 2010, the country had just admitted to the world to have entered its first double-dip recession since 1975, when Britain had to beg the IMF for rescue funding. The international credibility of the old Kingdom and of its Capital City-State was in peril, and immediate measures were required to show that stability, as well as power, was still part of the character of mighty Albion. What better way of achieving this, than investing on a monumental, non-functional artefact, such as Kapoor’s reinterpretation of the Eiffel Tower?
 

King Yunan and the Sage Duban

Written by Rebecca Lamarre, 28.11.2012
The Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban
 
Once upon a time, a King called Yunan reigned over a city in Persia. He was a powerful and wealthy ruler, who had armies and guards and allies of all nations of men; but his body was afflicted with a leprosy which philosophers and men of science failed to heal. He drank potions and he swallowed powders, but naught did him good and no physician was able to procure him a cure.
At last there came to his city a mighty healer of men, the sage Duban. This man was a reader of books, Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabian, and Syrian; he was skilled in astronomy and the wisdom of the ancients; conversant with the virtues of every plant, grass and herb, as well as philosophy and the whole range of medical science.
Now this physician had heard of the King's malady and all the bodily sufferings with which Allah had smitten him and how all the doctors and wise men had failed to heal him. Upon this he sat up through the night in deep thought and, when the dawn broke he donned his handsomest dress and betook himself to King Yunan, kissing the ground before him. He called down blessings on the King, saying:

Perché gli artisti? MACAO è la risposta

Written by Franco Berardi Bifo, 15.05.2012

“perché i poeti nel tempo della povertà?” chiede Holderlin nel suo poema “Pane e vino”.

E commentando questo verso, Heidegger dice: “Forse siamo nel momento in cui il mondo va verso la sua mezzanotte”.

 

In nome del vuoto

Il 5 maggio un gruppo di artisti, architetti, insegnanti e studenti e lavoratori precari della scuola e della comunicazione hanno occupato un edificio chiamato Torre Galfa e l’hanno rinominato Macao. L’edificio è un grattacielo di trentacinque piani, abbandonato da quindici anni.

Dieci giorni dopo l’occupazione, mentre il corpo gigantesco del precariato cognitivo milanese cominciava a stiracchiare le sue membra e a sintonizzarsi con la torre, sono entrati in azione gli esecutori del piano di sterminio finanziario. Il proprietario, noto alle cronache giudiziarie come corrotto e corruttore, ha deciso che quel posto è suo e deve rimanere com’è: vuoto. Tutto deve essere vuoto nella città, perché il capitalismo finanziario ha bisogno di distruggere ogni segno di vita. Le risorse materiali e intellettuali vengono progressivamente inghiottite, annullate, perché i predatori possano espandere la loro insensata ricchezza.

Per la prima volta, occupando la Torre, il movimento è uscito dalla sfera dell’underground e si è proiettato verso l’alto. Non è un movimento di talpe, ma di sperimentatori. Le talpe ora debbono venire fuori, debbono occupare ogni spazio, e contenderlo all’organizzazione di morte che si chiama Banca Centrale Europea.

 

A Model Power

Written by Robert Prouse, 31.01.2010

At the end of the decade which saw Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's Prime Minister and one of Europe's richest men, hospitalized by a well aimed plaster statuette of the Milanese Duomo it may be relevant to ask; what power can a model have?

Proposal for a Landscape Architecture in Advance of the Disintegration of Human Civilization

Written by Robert Prouse, 01.05.2007

"30/40 years ago we were still debating about what the future would be; Communist, Fascist, Capitalist, whatever...Today nobody even debates these issues, we all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes; the whole of life on earth disintegrating because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth and so on...
So the paradox is that it is much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism"

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