In Spain, as in many other European countries, we have witnessed over the past five years how recession and economical decline have constricted the way we live, particularly in regard to housing and shelter. And with the pervasive downturn in the economy sparking both political and ethical crises, one of its clearest manifestations has been the proliferation of abandoned buildings seen across Spain, which have been documented by Julia Schulz-Dornburg in her series of images “Modern Ruins.” The impact of these images is strong, as strong as the image of an eviction can be, because they represent the crisis of values we’re immersed in now due to our capitalist approach to life. “Modern Ruins” represents the ruins of political thought.
This photographic work is a demand for re-questioning our identity, our notions of collectivity, our social and cultural needs. Every single image here becomes part of a cadavre exquis which gathered together bear painful witness to a failed opportunity. Schulz-Dornburg has been making images to record the recent past, so it forms part of our memory keeping alive mistakes made so that it helps us react and start taking action to prevent future corruption and speculation. The world in flux presented by Schulz-Dornburg’s photos requires the active participation of the viewer, a complicity and understanding of a message that is indeed a manifesto in itself – but a manifesto of contradictions, of uncertainty, of the unfinished. As Sarah Wigglesworth recently pointed out, “Considered objectively, there is always the same amount of
»It seems like all those years – the years of speculation, of fast economic growth, of failure – we were living in a constant state of horror vacui, when every single square meter of territory was parceled out to be built on.«
space around us.” And it’s up to us how to use it. Looking at these photos, it seems like all those years – the years of speculation, of fast economic growth, of failure – we were living in a constant state of horror vacui, when every single square meter of territory was parceled out to be built on, to become one massive edifice. In this context, the work of Julia Schulz- Dornburg is also creating a record of the economical crisis, showing through her research, this contradictory encounter of the full with the empty, to visually present the affliction of a country – its territory full of empty buildings, exploring what lies behind this evident decay.
But beyond the recurrent discourse about the crisis in Spanish, it’s interesting to think how to respond to the current situation.
»[he taught] that over time the movement of the yielding water will overcome the strongest stone.
What’s hard – can you understand? – must always give way.«
Bertolt Brecht, Poems, 315
If a few years ago property speculation was the hard [in the Brechtian sense] albeit it in the hands of a small percentage of the population, what the hard is now is the energy that emerged as a reaction to those years and its clear manifestation in movements like #15M or the group Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH), who are working to stop and transform the foreclosure processes and housing evictions and even to force the legal frameworks to change. In the present unfolding situation, visual archives like “Modern Ruins” are very valuable. They present the evidence of the systemic failures of capitalism and lay out for us an extensive landscape both for our imagination – and for action. As Frederic Jameson outlined in his book Archaeologies of the future, our imaginings are all collages of experience, constructs made up of bits and pieces of the here and the now. Following on from this idea it is fundamental to recognize that we are even now tracing paths to the future, ones composed of all these pieces segregated into a new territory that is trying to recover from those lost years.
The utopian city has always been a dream, but as Walter Benjamin wrote “The history of dreams is still to be written. Dream participates in history.” In a country where it has been estimated that there are more than 20,000 skeletons of unfinished buildings, the work of collectives such as Todo por la Praxis and their project increasis give us clues about how to fight for that dream. Whilst Julia Schulz-Dornburg has given us a lead, providing us with the references and places through her images and research, architects should now become part of this new citizen laboratory, to help develop strategies for the activation of these disused buildings in order to create new selfmanaged facilities and provide services for the existing neighboring communities that lie adjacent to them.
»Architects should now become part of this new citizen laboratory, to help develop strategies for the activation of these disused buildings in order to create new self-managed facilities…«
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