Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano
Originally uploaded by Pruned

I used to think that Singapore's moving monuments around was some sort of indication of a lack, a lack of a sense of place and history. And then when I got into Tzay Chuen's MIKE project for the Venice Biennale, I realised that their mobility is nearly a defining characteristic of monuments. Venice's "airlion", symbol of the Biennale, was booty from Constantinople, but -- as I learned -- originated somewhere further east, some 1000 years before the famous sack.

And now I've just come back from Rome, where the mobility and reuse of marble bits, obelisks and columns can't help but strike you, round nearly every corner. Nothing is permanent in the Eternal City. (But the graffiti is ancient/)Then "Pruned" puts up these images that explain how the Vatican obelisk was moved... A very cool posting.

Labels: Italy, monuments

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