In 1980, Braco Dimitrijević built an engraved slab into the pavement outside the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. This photo was taken in January of 1992. Dimitrijević’s critique of history relies not only on language, the usual fodder of sign systems, but on the forms we … Continue readingThis Could Be a Place of Historical Significance
ACCESSION #: ICI-22214-d TITLE: “What Remains” DESCRIPTION: Aerial view of Köln, Germany c. 1945. This northern German city endured over 1,000 bombings during World War II. Remarkably, the medieval cathedral at the center of the city withstood this bombardment. Its haunting presence inverts the usual concept … Continue readingEPHEMERA KABINETT: 1945 photograph of Köln after WWII allied bombing
Title: Memorial to Nazi Book Burning in Berlin Description: The memorial was created by Micha Ullman to commemorate the Nazi-initiated book-burning event on May 10, 1933. The memorial is simple, a glass covered hole in the middle of a large plaza reveals four white, empty … Continue readingEPHEMERA KABINETT: Book Burning Memorial in Berlin
This is a nondescript sign on a back road of East Anglia, England. But to anyone who has read W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, this sign might (and it does) announce the site of Alec Girrard’s model of the Temple of Jerusalem. Each … Continue readingTo the Temple
A small plaque on the side of the Great Eastern Hotel in London marks the site of the old Bethlehem Hospital. The sign obscures the other name for the site. As W. G. Sebald schooled us in Austerlitz, at this same place, “the insane and … Continue readingThis is Bedlam
ACCESSION #: ICI 21641
