(Fig. 01)
Graphic reconstruction of the hold of an ancient ship.
(Fig. 02)
2010, Opera Laboratori Fiorentini.
Humankind resists oblivion. From food preserved in salt to cities frozen under ashes, conservation is not just a technique—it is a gesture against time. In every patina covering a façade, in every restored wall, in every recovered trace, a battle is waged between permanence and decay.
Where do we draw the line between preservation and alteration? Is restoration an act of fidelity or an interpretation of the past?
(Fig. 06)
Graphic reconstruction of the hold of an ancient ship.
(Fig. 07)
2010, Opera Laboratori Fiorentini.
Pompeii rises from its ashes, temples are unearthed, ruins are reinforced. How much of what we recover is still what it once was? History has been extracted, relocated, and recontextualized through foreign gazes, fragmented in museums that both protect and strip it of its essence. Is it preservation when it is uprooted? Is it protection when it is taken?
The patina, the crack, the traces of time upon matter remind us that to conserve is not always to restore splendor, but to accept transformation. The intact is an illusion.
