Ceramics, Ruins and Architecture

7/26/2019 Ceramics, Ruins and Architecture

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What if something is too precious to be discarded, no matter the damages and deformations it has

sustained?


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"Kintsugi - (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with

lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold sil!er or platinum a method similar to the

maki-e technique As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the

history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

#s a philosophy kintsugi can be seen to ha!e similarities to the Japanese philosophy ofwabi-sabi an embracing of the flawed or imperfect Japanese $sthetics !alues marks of

wear by the use of an ob%ect &his can be seen as a rationale for keeping an ob%ect around

e!en after it has broken and as a %ustification of kintsugi itself highlighting the cracks and

repairs as simply an e!ent in the life of an ob%ect rather than allowing its ser!ice to end at

the time of its damage or breakage

Kintsugi can relate to the Japanese philosophy of "no mind" (mushin) which

encompasses the concepts of non-attachment acceptance of change and fate as aspects of

human life

' ot only is there no attempt to hide the damage but the repair is literally illuminated akind of physical expression of the spirit of mushinushin is often literally translated as

'no mind* but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment of non-attachment

of equanimity amid changing conditions &he !icissitudes of existence o!er time to which

all humans are susceptible could not be clearer than in the breaks the knocks and the

shattering to which ceramic ware too is sub%ect &his poignancy or aesthetic of existence

has been known in Japan as mono no aware a compassionate sensiti!ity or perhaps

identi+cation with ,things outside oneself *

./hristy 0artlett 1lickwerk: &he #esthetics of ended Japanese /eramics

Kintsugi

"2nce it was broken and mended howe!er that order was disrupted by bold 3igs and 3ags

of gold along with a golden crescent where a piece of the original rim was replaced

0ecause the repairs are done with such immaculate craft and in precious metal it4s hard

to read them as a record of !iolence and damage 5nstead they take on the look of a

deliberate incursion of radically free abstraction into an ob%ect that was made according to

an utterly different system 5t4s like a tiny moment of free %a33 played during a fugue by

0ach"

6olden 7eams

"8uin !alue (6erman: 8uinenwert) is the concept that a building be designed such that if ite!entually collapsed it would lea!e behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far

longer without any maintenance at all &he idea was pioneered by 6erman architect #lbert

7peer while planning for the 9;< 7ummer 2lympics and published as "&he &heory of 8uin

=alue" (>ie 8uinenwerttheorie) although he was not its original in!entor &he intention did

not stretch only to the e!entual collapse of the buildings but rather assumed such

buildings were inherently better designed and more imposing during their period of use

&he idea was supported by #dolf ?itler who planned for such ruins to be a symbol of the

greatness of the &hird 8eich %ust as #ncient 6reek and 8oman ruins were symbolic of

those ci!ilisations"

8uin =alue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugihttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202723.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruin_valuehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202723.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruin_valuehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi


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""?itler liked to say that the purpose of his building was to transmit his time and its spirit to

posterity @ltimately all that remained to remind men of the great epochs of history was

their monumental architecture he would philosophi3e Ahat had remained of the emperors

of 8omeB Ahat would still bear witness to them today if their buildings had not sur!i!edB

Ceriods of weakness are bound to occur in the history of nations he argued but at their

lowest ebb their architecture will speak to them of former power aturally a new nationalconsciousness could not be awakened by architecture alone 0ut when after a long spell of

inertia a sense of national grandeur was born anew the monuments of menDs ancestors

were the most impressi!e exhortations &oday for example ussolini could point to the

buildings of the 8oman Empire as symbolising the heroic spirit of 8ome &hus he could fire

his nation with the idea of a modern empire 2ur architectural works should also speak to

the conscience of a future 6ermany centuries from now 5n ad!ancing this argument ?itler

also stressed the !alue of a permanent type of construction" (7peer 9FG: HHf)

?itler may ha!e known what the art historian John 8uskin had already in 9I asked

architects to consider (9


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the dead did not become ancestors but monuments themsel!es (?umphreys 9IG:

Ceramics, Ruins and Architecture

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