WEEK 06 PROVOCATION - Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

• Consists of the stele field designed by Peter Eisenman
• "The memory of the Holocaust can never be nostalgia"
• The project shows the instability inherent in a system with an apparently rational structure and the potential for its gradual dissolution. It shows that a purely rational and orderly system loses reference to human reason if it becomes too large and grows beyond its originally intended proportions. Its mass, weight and density seem to weigh heavily on the individual and take him in. Through the spatial organization of the place of information, the stele of the stele field are expanded into the place and create a persistent state of reflection and contemplation inside. The stele are in the form of a coffered ceiling with ribs, the width of which corresponds to the distance between the stele in the field. The presence of these elements is undermined by the walls, which are designed according to a classic 9-square grid. This grid directed against the logic of the pillar field makes any paradigmatic understanding of the arrangement impossible. The resulting frame of reference leads to uncertainty and isolates the individual through a troubling personal experience. The hard materiality of the concrete structure of the location is juxtaposed with the sequence of a technologically advanced information exhibition that creates a fleeting dimension of internalization suitable for reflection. The glow of the backlit pictures and texts is said to lead to the dematerialisation of the walls of the place, so that the stele look like a topographical expansion of the stele field.