Ruin is the only objective space, devastated by History, in which the human being can still feel and think objectively, without interference from other messages.
If you look for a meaning, you’ll miss everything that happens.
Andrei Tarkovsky
Ruins are “signs of transcended life, of assumed experience”1 that contain a polyhedral meaning. The semantic universe they display is not reduced to a single definition. Furthermore, the notion of ruin can accommodate conflicting meanings given its fragmentary nature.
Unlike healthy architecture which walls impose a limit, closure and division, ruin does not anguish the visitor because it contains other elements that open and fertilize it. Constant leaks, ruptures and breaks, both physical and conceptual.
The cultural gaze towards the ruins is a way of freeing ourselves from specific chronologies and limits, placing ourselves adrift of time and space.
It is a place for contemplation and reflection, in a pure time, a time without history of which only the individual can become aware and of which he can obtain a flashing insight thanks to the ruined spectacle.
1 Interview of Antonio Colinas for the Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia, 2013. https://fundacioncerezalesantoninoycinia.org/ruinas-vivas-entrevista-a-antonio-colinas/
0