Ruins

I was inspired by the decaying architecture of my city, which is
an exhibition in itself and makes rich material for archaeological research and artistic interpretation.
It's a project of a new space – a discovery of one once lost.
I wanted to trace the 'negative theory' of image from Plato,
through medieval philosophy and up to post-structuralism.

What are ruins?
Ruins are a locality, a place. A place of habitation and activity.
But it's not just any place, it has its own dialectics.
Ruins are traces of man and his creations. Ruins are a product of decay. At the same time they are not chaotic. Ruins are crystals of time and entropy, in that, like crystals, they are impeccably structural.
Ruins are symbols of loss and oblivion, desertion and decay. But these are not negative concepts just as seeing, object, sign are not positive.
Jilles Deleuze defines sign as an empty space between real and imaginary. Ruins are a symbolic area, an area of disappearance.
Walter Benjamine described aura as a distance within an object even
if it is close to us. Ruins hold distance within and gaze upon us.
This distance is a free space for us to inhabit, for a story to happen,
for a creation to be unveiled. Ruins hold traces of unwritten texts
and uncreated creations. Ruins are exhibits, a place of exhibition
and a space for creation.

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