A FUNERARY MONUMENT FOR THE DEATH OF MODERNISM
DECORBUZIERS
“Death is known to us simply as the end. It is the period, often placed before the close of the sentence and followed only by memories of after-effects in others.”
C.G. Jung – The Soul and Death
A tremendous suspended Cube; the absolute representation of purity, clarity, and simplicity. The ideologies of Modernism gently eroding away in a delicate cascade of particles. Children and adults alike, dance within the elegant shower and play amongst the beached remnants. Each day, more crumbles and collects on the earth, until the Cube is simply no more; swept away by the world’s natural processes.
Death is merely a complement of life. The associated social constructs and rituals permit us as sentient beings to process, grieve, and overcome the emotional pain of death. Often, these rituals act as a point of closure, so that we may remember and pay tribute, before moving-on and letting-go. Respecting the past is to understand its contributions and processes within context, rather than perpetuating it forever. Sometimes it is equally important to forget, as it is to remember, but releasing a memory requires ceremony or observance in order to cope.
This monument seeks to respectfully lay Modernism to rest, providing an evolving experience to the birth, life, and death of an ideology. The experience of the monument itself is perpetually fleeting, compelling visitors to confront their memory and the notion that nothing lasts forever.
Figments of the past may be remembered, however the experience and life of the moment is lost to all but a memory. The inevitable dissipation of the cube to dust, ultimately serves as a point of closure and release of what once was.
At conception the cube is pure, brilliant, and radiant in utopian form. However, nothing withstands the forces of time. Within a few short days, the Cube begins to shed a sandy-silt, sparsely at first, but swiftly evolving into a constant cascade. Cracks and discoloration overcome the Cube as it magnificently showers visitors in an ethereal dusting. Inevitably, the Cube is no more, its remnants collected in dunes amongst the plaza. However its sandy-mass provides a new landscape fitting for an opportunity to remember and cope with the loss of the original form. Wind and rain carry the particles away and through the course of time, the memory of the Cube and the experiences it provided have also dissipated. All that remains is a memory, or the lack there of.
Throughout this experience, visitors may confront their fleeting memories, joy and loss, or the impracticality of utopian ideologies. However so, the entire life-cycle of the Cube provides an opportunity to live-in-the-moment, reflect, forget, and be free to discover new experiences and philosophies.
