The Anxiety of Origin: Notes on Architectural Program

Author(s): Georges Teyssot

Source: Perspecta, Vol. 23, (1987), pp. 92-107
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta.
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 The Anxiety of Origin:
Notes on Architectural Program

Georges Teyssot

What is the meaning of these 'returns' to the anchorage of architectural vestiges in

translatedfrom the Italianby StephenSartarelli

9Z
 EMENDATIONES

the ground, to the classical theory of imitation?

Can this sort of retrospectivere-
flectionprovideany materialfor the buildingof new rulesto be followed in architec-
ture?
Is a reflectionon architecture'sreferents,on its degreeof adequatio,
capableof re-
establishing conventions common to the architecturallanguageswhen all convention
has been destroyedeither by
the objectivelevelingof goals

or

the subjectiveindividualism
of architectsthemselves?

93
 The Anxiety of Origin
I.
Martin Heidegger,Holzwege(Frankfurtam
Main: Klostermann,1950). In this essay I
explore themes on which I have written in
variousother publications,such as: "JohnSoane
and the birthof Style," Oppositions,
no. 14, New
York1978; "LaVille parodie,"C.N.A.C.
Magazine,no. z, Paris, I98I; "Classical
melancholies"(in collaborationwith M. Tafuri),
ArchitecturalDesign,no. 5z, London i98z;
"Mimesis.Architectureas fiction,"Lotus
International,no. 3z, Milan I98I; "Fragments
of a funerarydiscourse;architectureas a work
of mourning,"LotusInternational, no. 38, Milan
I983; "Repetitionet difference,"Artpress,
special architectureissue, Paris,June/JulyI983;
"Marginalcommentson the debate between
Alexanderand Eisenman,"LotusInternational,
no. 40, Milan I983; "Arqui-tect6nico:la
cuesti6n de los origines,"Artifex,Revistade
Estetica,no. 3, Barcelona,I984; see also: A. C.
Quatremerede Quincy,DizionarioStoricodi
Architettura,G. Teyssot and V. Farinatieds.
(Padua I985, Marsilio editori), particularlymy
introduction:"Mimesisdell'architettura,"
PP. 7-42.
2.
Paul Val(ry, EupalinosouL'architecte,in Oeuvres,
II, Bibliothequede la Pleiade (Paris:Gallimard,
i960), p. IIo.
3-
Martin Heidegger,"The Originof the Workof
Art," in Holzwege;Englishtrans. by Albert
Hofstadter,in Poetry,Language,Thought(New
York:Harperand Row, 1975), p. 63.
Wewho recognizethesignsof the
metaphysical alphabetknowwhatjoys
andsorrowslie hiddenin a portico,
a streetcorner,or evenin a room,on
a table'ssurfacebetweenthesidesof
a box.
Giorgio De Chirico (I9I9)
That the recent, widespreadinterestmany architectshave shown in the forms and
thoughtof antiquity,classicism,and neoclassicismcan be tracedentirelyto the latest
wave of postmodernismshouldcome as no surpriseto anyonewith a clearidea of the
image-producingmechanismsof contemporarysociety. The colossal, even universal
natureof this phenomenon,the speedwith which it has spreadthroughall channelsof
communication,and the very 'operationalism'of this category,which presentsitself
as a generalsystemof signs that is at once aestheticand technological,are sufficient
proof of its essenceas Weltbild,as world createdas image, in the sense establishedby
Heideggerin his day.'
In this essay,I should like to examineseveralaspectsof the art of our centuryin
an attemptto isolatethe presence,in the figurativearts,of the recurrentinterestin the
questionof origins,of which the currentinterestin the classicalis evidence.In the face
of the apparentlysimplisticslogansof so-calledpostmodernart and architecture,such
an examinationmightbe useful.
ART AND TRUTH
Classicismis the art of the eternalbeginning,the art of repetitionand synecdoche.
AlbertoSavinio(pseudonymof AndreaDe Chirico,brotherof Giorgio,and a promi-
nent artistin his own right)remindsus that synecdocheis a figureof speech,in that it
is a form of metonymy,and that, accordingto what entomologistssay,it corresponds
to the way in whichantssee:it authorizesthe partto representthewhole. A. C. Quatre-
mere de Quincy,the 'FrenchWinckelmann,'proclaimedin I824 that in the ancient
Greekarchitecturalsystemthe smallestpartof an elevationlets us know the whole; he
added that the art of drawing,of which architectureis part, "must be considereda
language."
Paul Valery'sEupalinos,a fiction about Socrates,who laments the beleaguered
vocation of the architect,echoes this same rationalisticconception: "no geometry
without the word.Withoutit, figuresare accidents.. . . Withit, everyfigureis a prop-
osition that can be compoundedwith others."2In both of the above quotations,the
scope of the figureis broughtback to the word;the problemwith this is that architec-
tureis material,it is formedof an orderedaccumulationof materialson the surfaceof
the earth;yet, in no way does materialconstitutethe essenceof architecture.The re-
flectionsof Quatremereand Valery,both inspiredby neoplatonictradition,or more
generallyspeaking,by the logocentrismof Westernmetaphysics,becomeclearerin the
light of Heidegger'sconsiderationsin TheOriginoftheWorkofArt.3Whatconfersform
(Gestalt)on architectureare figures,which emergethroughthe fundamentalor basic
plan (Grundriss),the rift or generativedraft (Riss),and the profile(Auf-riss),
which are
distinguishedby the measure and limits that in turn give the work a single outline
94
 GeorgesTeyssot

(Umriss).Since architectureis made from an ensembleof figuresand since no figure

exists without words, it follows that there can be no work of architecturewithout a
word to name it. To use Valery's terms, every architecture "is a proposition that can be
compoundedwith others."
This also means that, inasmuchas the word governscalculationand geometry,
architectureis pervadedby language.I should, however,like to make clearthat here
we are not hypothesizingthat architectureis a language.What, then, does it mean to
say that the word 'pervades'architecture?
Heidegger'sanswerto this questiongoes as follows: the work of art is the estab-
lishing and bringingforth of truth. In this sense, art is conceivedas an unveiling,an
unconcealingof the originalword addressedto man. The institutionof truth in the
work is the bringingforth or the production (dasHervorbringen) of a being: "The
bringingforth placesthis being in the Open. . . . Wherethis bringingforth expressly
bringsthe opennessof beings,or truth, that which is broughtforth is a work. Crea-
4.
tion is justsuch a bringingforth."4The movementthroughwhich the primordialword Ibid,p. 6z.
is pronouncedand directedto man is a formation;Heideggeruses the term Ge-stell,
which is almost untranslatable.He writes: "Creatednessof the work means:truth's
being fixed in place in the figure.Figureis the structurein whose shape the rift com-
poses and submitsitself. This composedrift is the fittingor joiningof the shiningof
truth. What is here called figure, Gestalt,is always to be thought of in terms of the
particularplacing (Stellen)and framingor framework(Ge-stell)as which the work
5-
occurswhen it sets itself up and sets itself forth."' Ibid, p. 64.
By introducingthe term Ge-stell,a commonwordneverbeforeusedin philosophi-
cal language,Heideggereffectsa shift in the meaningof the entireterminologyof aes-
theticsin Westernmetaphysicalthought:the termsremainthe same, but everythingis
set backin motion and madeto functiondifferently.Gestaltdoes not simplymean 'fig-
ure'-eitherin the rhetoricalor poetic senseof the termor in the 'plastic'or 'figurative'
6.
sense that it has recentlyacquired.6The Gestaltloses its Latinsense. It is neitherfigura Here I am using, as a guide to Heidegger's
text, PhilippeLacoue-Labarthe'sstudy
nor fictio. The same holds for the terms Darstellung(ex-position, re-presentation) and "Typographie,"in Mimesisdesarticulations(Paris:
Aubier-Flammarion,1975); cf. p. I87.
Herstellung(pro-duction).In his lecture on technique,as has alreadybeen pointed
out,7 the HerstellenlDarstellen coupling immediatelybreaks up in favor of only Her- 7-
P. Lacoue-Labarthe,"Typographie,"p. zoo.
stellen-aswe can see in the followingpassage:"Inthe term Ge-stell,the verbstellennot
only refers to pro-vocation,but must also preservethe resonanceof another stellen
(literally,'to put' or 'to place')fromwhich it derives,namelythatwhich we findin the
words Her-stellen and Dar-stellen(pro-duce,pre-sent),which-in the sense of poiesis-
makesthe presentshinein the unconcealing.This Herstellen that produces,that makes
8.
[beings]appear-such as the erectionof a statue within a temple enclosure... etc."8 Cf. MartinHeidegger,"The Question of
Fromthis we may gatherthat the Greekpoiesisis translatedinto the HerlDarstellung, Technique,"in Vortrige
undAufsiitze(Pfullingen:
VerlagGuntherNeske, 1954); It. translationby
that the Ge-stellmay be anotherword for the poiesis,and that the Darstellung has no e
GianniVattimo,Saggi discorsi
(Milano:Mursia,
1976), P. 15.
connectionat all to exposition or mise-en-scene.Ge-stellis thus a word that imposes
on the mind the presenceof the work-presence interpretedas unconcealedness,an
apparition,an erection:the work is present,wheneverand whereverit erects a stele
(intended in a much broader sense than the funerary stele) or unveils a statue. If things
thus beginto set themselvesback in motion, it is becauseHeideggerbeginsby putting
the Greekconcept of art, or poiesis,into perspective.Thus is the stele unveiled:poiein
9.
meansto set (something)up.9 Cf. P. Lacoue-Labarthe,"Typographie,"p. zoI.

95
The Anxiety of Origin

Now we mayresumetheobservationwe madein commentingon Valery:themove-

mentby whichthe wordis pro-nouncedand 'turned'or directedtowardmanby taking
'shape'or 'figure,'is poetry,the institutionand constitutionof a self-establishingtruth
in languageand with language,in and with the setting-into-work.If the productionof
the work of art is thus the 'listening'for this unconcealedness,the essenceof art must,
accordingto Heidegger,be the poem. It follows then that: "If all art is in essencepo-
etry,then the arts of architecture,painting,sculpture,and musicmust be tracedback
IO.
MartinHeidegger,"The Origin of the Work
to poesy (Poesie)."10 Everyart is a poem: everywork of art is, in its originor its begin-
of Art,"in Poetry,Language,Thought,p. 73.
ning, poetry.Hence: "Buildingand plastic creation. . . alwayshappen already,and
happen only in the Open of saying and naming. It is the Open that pervadesand
II.
Ibid.,p. 74. guidesthem (vondemOffenen derSageunddesNennens durchwaltet
undgeleitet)."
in
At this point Heidegger's text one comes to an importantpassagethat sheds
light on the question of historicalsituation. Firstobservation:if art, as the happening
of truth, is poetry, the productionof the work is not all that is poetic: "[what is]
12.
Ibid. equallypoetic, thoughin its own way, is the preservingof the work."12 This does not
mean connoisseurshipor scientificrestoration;these are tasks which involve only a
recollectionof works. "It is only for such preservingthat the work yields itself in its
I3.
Ibid., p. 66 and p. 68.
creatednessas actual,i.e., now: presentin the mannerof a work."13Secondobserva-
tion: every work of art, being a specificpoetization,has been historicizedthrough
language,the languagespoken on earthby a particularpeople in history."Thepoet-
ical (dichtende)projectionof truththat sets itself into work as figureis also nevercar-
riedout in the directionof an indeterminatevoid. Rather,in the work, truthis thrown
I4. toward(pro-jected) the comingpreservers,thatis, towardan historicalgroupof men."14
Ibid., p. 75.
Thus, those who cast and pro-jectthe work and those who preserveit are coessential.
This should shed light on Heidegger'smeaningwhen he says that in the work, the
historicizationof truthis achieved:"Ifart is the originof the work, this meansthat art
lets those who naturallybelongtogetherat work, the creatorand the preserver,origi-
I5.
Ibid., p. 71. nate, each in his own nature."' 15Actually, the work is 'co-created.'
The origin is not something that stands as an already given absolute, situated be-
hind us in history; the origin (in German, Ursprung, literally, primal leap) is the place
where something is made to arise, with a 'leap' or 'spring' (Sprung). The uniqueness of
this leap, a leap outside of the immediate, wholly inconspicuous, demands a long
preparation, which Heidegger, in Nietzsche's wake, calls a "beginning." A genuine
beginning, as a leap, is always "a head start in which everything to come is already
I6.
Ibid., p. 76. leaped over." 16 For this very reason, "the beginning already contains, latent within
itself, the end." Whenever a beginning occurs, art is always historicized: there is a
17. thrust into history, and history either begins or starts over again.17
Ibid., p. 77.
One may think (and some do) 18 that such a conception of art, architecture, and
I8.
E.g., cf. Daniel Payot, LePhilosopbe
et l'architect tectonics applies only to the Greek temple, Heidegger's recurrent paradigm, a work
(Paris:Aubier-Montaigne,I982), p. 176.
issued from beginnings when techne shared the essence of poiesis and echoed the logos.
This conception of art is only possible when truth is defined as aletheia, which the
Greeks also thought of as the unconcealedness of beings: in the work of art what is
beingset up is the bringingforthof truth.Thus did Heideggerstandon its head, or on
its feet, the entireWesternunderstandingof truth (veritasbeing the usual Latintrans-
lation of aletheia),which was up until then insteadthoughtof as reproduction,confor-
I9.
Heidegger,"The Originof the Workof Art," mity, and agreement,as homoiosis(Aristotle)and adequatio
(in the MiddleAges)."9

96
 GeorgesTeyssot

in Poetry,Language,Thought,pp. 36-37 and

Adequatio,in architecture, was conceived as the edifice's agreement with external pp. 41-43-
referents which were determined gradually as: the idea, the model, nature, the ancient,
the real, the conventional, the function, the social order, well-being, verisimilitude,
comfort, human industry. From Aristotle to, say, Walter Gropius, the theory of ar-
chitecture, sharing the same foundations as metaphysics, has always laid claim to a
20.
supplementary origin,20 either by basing itself on the examination of the beginning This "supplementarity"has been analyzedin
assumed as origin (e.g., the myth of the primitive hut), or else by devoting itself to two pieces by JacquesDerrida:"Lapharmacie
de Platon,"in La dissemination,
(Paris:Sevil,
individuating the beginning assumed as the law of its order (e.g., the anthropomor- 1972), passim;and "Economimesis,"in Mimesis
desarticulations,
p. 75.
phism of proportional harmonies). The theory of archi-tecture thus becomes, in this
sense, a construction 'supplementary' to tectonics. Here we are a long way from the
truth-aletheiaconception. Aletheiabelongs to the thinking of the origin. It is a higher,
more Coriginal'truth, yet it is still conceivable that the 'aletheic' impulse can today be
considered only a recollection and-as the Italian contemporary philosopher Gianni
Vattimo maintains-a "difficult, nostalgic effort to get back in touch with vestiges,
21.
ruins, distant messages."21 GianniVattimo,"L'irrazionalismo,"
Alfabeta,
The trip around the origin that Heidegger takes us on makes us retravel a long no. 28, Milan I98I.

philosophical and textual road-that of poiesis,or in other words, the question of art.
What happens when, in the text of Heidegger cited above, the Darstellung(presenta-
tion) is lost, absorbed into Herstellen(pro-ducing)? Implicitly posed here is the question
of art's relation to truth, but also the question of their difference, their dis-agreement. It
is therefore in this open and nearly indeterminate space, in this chasm, that the ques-
tion of the essence of (re)presentation lies. We need something with which to measure
this distance, to avert the dangers inherent in the indeterminacy of the philosophical
Darstellung.The Greeks gave a name to this particular problem: mimesis,which in the
22.
Latin languages is usually translated as imitation. Mimesis is first of all Darstellung.22 P. Lacoue-Labarthe,"Typographie,"p. zo5.
Back in 1823, A. C. Quatremere de Quincy wrote, "To imitate in the fine arts, is to
produce the resemblance of a thing, but in some other thing which becomes the image
of it (unechose,maisdansuneautrechosequi en devientl'image)."23 23.
Antoine ChrysostomeQuatremerede Quincy,
Whereas Greek poiesis'makes' or produces, containing within itself the essence of Essaisurla nature,le butet lesmoyens
del'imitation
danslesBeaux-Arts(Paris,1823), p. 3 (reprint:
both art and technique in all their modern differences, mimesishas presented itself, Brussels:A.A.M., I980); and the English
translationby J. C. Kent, An Essayon theNature,
ever since Plato,24 as mined terrain. There is, so to speak, a 'good' mimesis, a 'demi- theEndandtheMeansof Imitationin theFineArts
(London, i837); facsimilereprintedby
urgic' mimesis that does not imitate, does not produce likenesses, the abhorred double Garland),p. II.
(the 'phantasm'), but produces in the broadest sense, and thus approaches truth- 24.
aletheia; and in the Platonic hierarchy of poiesis there are other forms of production that Cf. TheSophist,23 5 d and passim;TheRepublic,
393 a and ff., 395 b c, 396 a, 396 c d e, and the
move away gradually from the aletheiaof mimesis. For example, we have the case of the well-knownpassagesof Book X, 596 b up to
598 d, and 601 c up to 603 b.
painter, whose handwork cannot take us back to the eidos(aspect) as idea (Idea), but
produces only eidola (idols). As Heidegger reminds us, eidolonmeans "little" eidos.2s 25.
Quotation in P. Lacoue-Labarthe,
The idol here "is not the appearance of the pure aspect.... It is no longer but a re- "Typographie,"op. cit., p. z 5; cf. Martin
Heidegger,Nietzsche,vol. I, Fr. trans. by
mainder, a residue of being's true self-manifestation." It provides only a limited, al- P. Klossowski,(Paris:Gallimard,197I), p. I70.
most stunted image of the essence of the thing.
The theme or motif underlying Western thought's philosophy of art is that of mi-
mesis, but as we have just seen, it presents itself as something in decline, something
moving away from truth. Mimesis (and hence art) stands relatively remote from being
and the Idea. Mimesis is representation, but it also 'presents' the obfuscation of truth.
It presents it in its phantasmal aspect, as well as in its 'good,' its demiurgic, iconic
aspect. In this way art, in its birth, is a fall .... Thus may we explain why art was

97
The Anxiety of Origin

understoodby the Greeksthemselvesas agreementor conformity,resemblance,sim-

26.
P. Lacoue-Labarthe,"Typographie,"p. z50; cf.
also M. Heidegger,"Plato'sdoctrineon truth,"
in PlatonsLebre(Bern:VerlagA. FranckeA.G.,
1947).
ulacrum,debasedcopy.26But let us stop here for now, since we may presumeto have
establishedthat the "questionof mimesis"-thatis, art in the modernsense-contains
within itself both the later theoriesof imitationin the fine arts and the anti-mimetic
thematicsof contemporaryart. Moreover-andhereinlies perhapsthe essentialpoint-
we can see that art, from its beginnings,has provenitself to be a sort of dizzyingrest-
lessness,almost a malaise.

PAINTING BY PROGRAM
I haveoftenbeenstruckby the superficialityof the argumentsof those who underscore
the stylistic affinities between the painters of the Valori plastici group (De Chirico,
Carra, Savinio) and so-called twentieth century Milanese eclecticism, particularly the
refined classicism of Giovanni Muzio's Ca' Brutta (I922), of certain of Giuseppe De
Finetti's works, and of Gigiotti Zanini's paintings, such as Citta (I9I9) or Paesaggio
(I922z). Which is not to say that there are no influences at all here; yet it seems to me
that the crisis of classical melancholy which today troubles more than a few architects
is not the legacy of a style but of an intellectual attitude connected with the spirit of
27. the 'anti-avant-garde' of the twenties.27
Cf. Lesrealismes
(1919-1939),exhibition
catalogue,CentreGeorgesPompidou,Paris Though immune to all ideas of positive and moral transformation of the world
1980.
(the position of the madman in Nietzsche's Zarathustra), De Chirico does not limit him-
self to 'going beyond.' By representing the world as an archeological repertory, he re-
assembles shreds of urban reality as if they were museum pieces. The materials em-

~ _

_4i$~

1.

t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~fi

GiovanniMuzio, CaBrutta,Milan, 1922,

service entrance.

Giorgio De Chirico, TheEnigmaofa Day, 1914. GiovanniMuzio, CdBrutta,Milan, 1922, interiorcourt.

ployed evoke mute symbols, organize dramatic topoi of a dead city where the subject
itself has disappeared. For the entire city to become a museum, to have this program
imposed on it, a body of laws must be observed. And the program in fact breaks down
into the following prescriptions:simulacrum,dissipation,substitution,and an en-
forcednorm. On the subjectof De Chirico'spainting,the Italiancritic Paolo Fossati
z8.
De Cbirico
Paolo Fossati, Lapitturaa programma. has spokenof "paintingby program."28 In fact, everythingoccursas though it were a

98
 GeorgesTeyssot

matterof applyingto the paintingprogramthe verylaws to which the Europeancity is (Padua, 1973); cf. also GiorgioDe
metafisico
Chirico,exhibition catalogue,W. Rubin,
subject.That is, by simulatingthe applicationof new processesin the painting'sreal- W. Schmied,and Jean Claireds., CentreGeorges
Pompidou,Paris I983.
ity, their anticipationin the figurativeprogramof the painting enables us better to
uncovertheireffectsand to discovertheirrepercussions,but, especially,to unveiltheir
existence.
Theselaws are, takenindividually,the simulacraof mythand memorycelebrated
in agelessmonuments,the dissipationof form into fragmentswhich expressthe soli-
tude of the objectwith respectto the whole, the substitutionof signs by an architec-
tureof ideasthat functionsthroughcondensationand assemblagein orderto re-create
the world in a voluntaryarcheology,and, lastly,the normsenforcedby an art that is,
firstof all, good craft,exercise,patience,and work, and, secondly,the art of a caste, a
confraternity,a professionalgroup. Eversince, it is not so much the museumwhich
has been made out of the real and the true, as after Cezanne,but the city which has
been re-createdfrom the museum.
The monument,the institution,the tower,the museum,the park,the factory,the
cemetery,the station-in sum, all 'heterotopias'-is it not in these that lies the true
route,newly traveled,of our cities' development?De Chiricomay only haverecorded,
as it were, a mythographyof it, but in parodyingForm,he experiencedthe emptying
of its meaning.

MAGIC REALISM
At this point we should analyzethe experimentin 'colored architecture'conducted
by BrunoTaut at Magdeburgbetween 1921 and 1923 with the collaborationof the
paintersOskarFischerand KarlVolkerand the architectsCarl Kraye,KonradRiihl,
JohannesGoderitz,and WilhelmHopfner.29It would also be of utmost importance, z9.
Cf. Hans Jorg Rieger, DiefarbigeStadt,Ph.D.
not to mentionilluminatingto the subjectof present-daydebate(modernversuspost- thesis for the faculty of philosophy of the
Universityof Ziirich, Ziirich 1976 (typescript).

GiovanniMuzio, CdBrutta,I9zz, elevation.

modern, progressive versus neo-conservative), to compare Adolf Behne's assertions in

derKunst (I9I9), a text that was to serve as theoretical base for Taut's
Die Wiederkehr
on the 'coloredcity,'as wellas thoseof OttoHaeslerandKarlV1olker
experiments in
the'ItalienischerGarten'gardensuburbin Celleafter I923, with OswaldSpengler'sob-
servations published in the periodical ValoriPlastici (January-April 1921). To put it
briefly, for Behne the pure colors blue, red, and green are most beautiful. Spengler,

99
The Anxiety of Origin

in his essay titled 'The Symbolismof Color,' maintainedthat yellow and red are tied
to materiality,
whileblueandgreenbelongto a transcendental
sortof expressiveness
connectedwith tradition,memory,and the past. A thirdpropositionmaintains,para-
doxically,that the new, 'modern'color, the color absentin nature,is brown. Beyond
materialknowledge,this is the only color capableof accountingfor a 'civilized'will.
Appliedto givea patinaof ageto plasticactivity,brownannuls"forourinnereyethe
30.
Cf. Paolo Fossati, "Valori
limit of the purepresenceof time and place."30
plastici"(1918-1922)
(Turin:Einaudi, I98I), pp. 226-27. The resistanceof Italiansto Expressionism-even
in the 'purist'formthat fol-
lowed-was an additionalmatterof interestto the Germanswho visited the two ex-
hibitionsof Valori
Plasticiin Germany(Berlin,I92I and I924), andwas one reasonfor
their successwith respectto the groupsrelatedto New Objectivity(NeueSachlichkeit).
Any analysisof 'anti-modern'or 'anti-avant-garde'tendenciesin Europewould have
to coverthis gap betweensensibilities(between,that is, anti-Futurist'Italy'and post-
BrunoTaut, officeand commercialbuilding, Expressionist 'Germany'), which might actually serve as a valid point of reference to
Magdeburg, I92I.
an understanding of the various orientations of present-day art and architecture. For
such a study, the most indispensable text remains Alberto Savinio's small volume, pub-
lished in French, Le ne'o-classicisme
dans I'art contemporain, printed by Valori Plastici in
Rome in I923; in it, Savinio narrates the artistic adventures of a nostalgic 'ironic man'
BrunoTaut, memorialfor the fallen, Mag- who ridiculesthe illusionsof modernism.
deburg, I 9 2 I.
From ValoriPlasticito NeueSachlichkeit,
realismin painting renouncedthe 'pro-
gram'so as to be ableto observethe technological
worldwith dazzledeyes.As ren-
dered in the visions of the German painter Karl Volker (for example, Zement and

KarlV61ker,Zement,1924. Giorgio Grassi,elementaryschool, c.1977, perspective.

Bahnhof, both from 1924), this 'magic realism' today serves as inspiration to architects
(such as Giorgio Grassi in Italy) and leads them to represent things 'as they appear,'
the better to denounce them, in an unsettling dialogue with the monumental, the ba-
nal, and the repetitious. The 'metaphysical' tradition is carried on first and foremost
by the Citta' analoga (1976) of Aldo Rossi, who, by means of reference, analogy, me-
tonymy, and the hologram, attempts to reconstruct the museum-city as a simulacrum
of the city, thereby conceiving a veritable 'architecture by program,5 in the De Chi-
rican sense.
On the other hand, is it not perhapsthroughthe manipulationof architectural
elementsdrawn from the Westerntradition,throughreferencesto images from the
paintingof ArnoldBocklin,De Chirico,and AlbertoSavinio,and throughthe imita-

IO0
 GeorgesTeyssot

tion of stylisticfeaturesinspiredby Le Corbusier'smost 'academic'projects,thatLeon

Krierarrivesat the parodyof urbanform,whichis also a manifesto-cityand a parody-
city, a weapon turnedagainstthe obtusenessof our administrators,iconoclastsout of
ignorance,if not out of conviction?It is a parodyand manifestofor a practiceof 'fig-
uring'which provesto be virulent,all the moreso as it is accompaniedby a polemical
indifferencetowardthe actualrealizationof the projectsimagined.

THE PAINTING OF ARCHITECTURE: SUSPENDED FORMS

With the 'magicrealism'of the watercolorsof Massimo Scolari,the circle seems to

close. We should pause for a momenton this apparent'return'to painting,to 'meta-
physical'paintingin particular.Firstof all, let us look at the symptomaticreturnto
the paintingwithin its frame,and to craft.31 3I-
Cf. Massimo Scolari:Architecture
betweenMemory
In an aphorism,Scolarionce said: "for architectureever to become a subjectof andHope,introductionby ManfredoTafuri,
I.A.U.S.,catalogueI (New York:MIT Press,
painting,it must cease being a project."32He is thus definingthe termsof a specific I980; and Massimo e disegni
Scolari,acquerelli
(1965-1980),FrancescoMoschini ed. (Florence:
genreof artisticrepresentation:architecturalpainting(this genre,which is very old- Centro Di, I 98).

think, for example,of the quadraturistpaintersof the I7oos-should not be confused 32.
Massimo Scolari,"Considerazionie aforsimisul
with the currentfashionof exhibitingand selling,in galleries,the 'project'drawingsof no. 9, Milan I982.
disegno,"Rassegna,
architects). In Scolari's watercolors we find a repertoire of pure, 'laconic' forms, allu-
sions to a rational project, a plan, where the architectural forms are for the most part
of an extreme typological simplicity. What we have, then, is an archeology of simple
vestiges, of primitive configurations and structures, exhibited in a museum of primor-
dial forms.
The allusions refer not to an actual plan or project, but covertly to the impossible
construction of a symbolic structure-impossible because it is no longer required by
any specific necessity (commission, will, knowledge)-and go hand in hand with its
negation of being, unless it is made through the epures(blueprints) of the project: as if
to show that all artistic activity finds justification only in positing its own medium, in
a world where that which is not re-praesentatiodoes not exist. In other words, the sub-
ject of the painting is not-or not only-the evocation of a primordial tectonic struc-
ture, but the evidence of the "configurations of the production that represents." In the
watercolors, tracings of the epure and unearthed vestiges (Spuren, in German) corre-
spond perfectly in concealing the work.
In the Termeelioterapichesull'Adriatico (1977) (Heliotherapeutic baths on the Adri-
atic) and Architettura idraulica (I980) (Hydraulic architecture) a different iconographic
theme emerges. It used to be that we divided the architect's and the engineer's fields of
knowledge into various different disciplinary subcategories: civil, military, naval, and
hydraulic architecture. But the watercolorist's gaze is not the same as the technician's:
his is 'picturesque,' in the painterly sense of the word. It is the same as the gaze cast by
the flaneur onto the world of the big city. It is the same as that which caused Goethe to
be filled with awe when he looked at the fortifications of his time: "anyone who has
not seen Luxemburg cannot have any idea of the military constructions, all set in a
line or on top of one another ... an unending chain of bastions, outposts, demilunes,
tenaillons, such as can be devised by the art of strategy in the most complicated of
cases.... I was especially surprised to see so many rocks, walls and defense-works
joined together up high by drawbridges, tunnels and other strange mechanisms. A
person of the trade would have looked on these things with a technician's eye;. . . but

IOI
The Anxiety of Origin

33- I could only appreciatetheirpictorialeffect"(Kampagnein Frankreich).33

WolfgangGoethe, Kampagne in Frankreich,
autobiographicalpages written in I 820; It. With the exceptionof the 'productivistic'vanguardsof the twenties (perhapsthe
trans. by EdvigeLevi, Incominciala novellastoria
(Palermo:Sellerio, I981, pp. I122-4, (cf. the
journalentry for October 15-I6, 1792).
only exception), this voyeur-likeattitude in the face of the product of technique cor-
responds to a particular manner of looking in Western art, a manner that has been
around for two centuries: the 'painterly eye' bears witness to a clear transformation of
the relations between the subject and technique. Along with the growing autonomy of
techniqueand technology,we arewitnessingan aestheticizationof technology.
Since noveltyhas lost its immediatelypositive and redemptiveconnotations,no
one in the metropolis today sees modernity any more as a guarantee of rationalism
and progress. "When progress becomes an autonomous fact separated from the sense
of history, the praise of technology is no longer incompatible with appeals to archaism,"
writes M. Ferraris(in Alfabetano. 29, Milan, 1981). In the present-day metropolis one
no longer seeks rationality so much as something that constitutes its archeology and

Massimo Scolari, Hydraulic Architecture, 1980. view of the ossuary.

memory. In the age of the 'suspension of the subject,' which is the aesthetic mental
state par excellence, we perceive only 'suspended forms.' One should therefore not be
surprised to find in Scolari's watercolors, in the middle of an uncontaminated land-
scape, hydraulic architectures, deserted heliotherapeutic baths, lifeless seaside towns,
wind stations, ailing fortresses, underwater flights, unfinished bridges, abandoned
mines, aerometric stations.... They seem like the forms of a phantasmagorical in-
dustrial archeology, but here the perfect machines have been abandoned as useless, or
else they have not (yet?) been invented. They evoke the same melancholy that one feels
upon visiting a citadel in ruins, a factory fallen into disuse, or the sand-covered Atlan-
tic wall. Through Scolari's watercolors, we have discovered that today we live along
formidable though useless Maginot lines.
In the crystalline azure of other watercolors, bird-machines fly, stereotypes of
an imagined technology inherited from the tradition of the Flugapparatof A. Bocklin
and the Letatlinof Vladimir Tatlin. In them one may find a late echo of the Manifesto
futurista (Manifesto of Futurist Aeropainting, I9z29), but we are a long
dell'aeropittura
way from the paintings of G. Balla, F. Azari, or T. Crali. It is not a question of seeing
the world 'objectively,' on the canvas and in the architect's design, as it is seen by a
pilot in flight or in a nose-dive. It is more an attitude of someone suffering from the
'Icarus complex.' Indeed, for A. Savinio even "Bocklin was Icarian." In a certain sense,
flight makes it possible to go beyond the ailing metropolis. It is a specific means for
avoidinghavingto "go through"it, as Zarathustrarecommended.But this flighten-
ablesone to discover,"fromabove,"the eternalreturnof the never-endingpast: there
are, for example, the "pieces" of floating architecture. To these specific references

102
 GeorgesTeyssot

other presencesare added, more atmosphericand less expressiblein nature:the blue

sky, the Homericqualityof the sea, the islandof Ponzaas an island of the dead.
Myth, history,technology:all this may be translatedinto 'suspendedforms.'As I
was sayingbefore,the circleseemsto have been closed once and for all. Scolari's'wa-

Massimo Scolari,Heliotberapeutic
bathson theAdriatic,1977. Aldo Rossi, cemeteryof San Cataldo, Modena, 1971-.

tercolorsby program"also take the position of 'waiting,9that is, they expressa will to
stoppage.They halt, momentarily,the flow of forms:"thestudyof history,"he says in
an aphorism,"mustrevealto us the demystifiedlaconismof forms."34These water- i
Massimo Scoari
Scolari,"Considerazioni
"Considerazioni."
colors suspendform, for a briefmoment,in both space and time.

HABITUS AND MNEMOSYNE

Todaywe often finda particulartendencyin expressionswhich are heterogeneousbut

which can also be linked to one another.I am referringto the recurrent'anxiety of
origin,' the irresistible 'compulsion to look back": art, myth, the primordial mentality,
primitive thought, cosmogonical eros, the 'medieval' fashion, the theory of archetypes
and originalforms.The presenttensionpromptsan endlesslooking back, towardthe
primordial,originalunity.
The returnof the notion of poche(a traditionalterm that the architectsof the
Ecole des Beaux-Artsused to designatethe vestige of a constructionin the ground,
usuallydrawn inblack ink) in Colin Rowe's CollageCity;the interestarchitectshave
shown in the productionsof the Acadtmie and the Ecole des Beaux-Artsduringthe
eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies(cf. the MOMA expositionin New Yorkin 1975);
the numerousexpositions (Eastand West Berlin,1981) and publicationsillustrating
theworkof KarlFriedrichSchinkel;the rediscoveryof thewritingsofAntoine Chrysos-
tome Quatremerede Quincy (I755-i849), of which the Archivesde I'Architecture
Moderne has recentlyreprintedI'Essaisur lImitation(Brussels,i98o)-this series of
eventsstandsas an undeniablesign of a new interestin classicaland neoclassicalthe-
ories of architecturetoday.
What is the meaningof these 'returns'to the anchorageof architecturalvestiges
he oto the classicaltheoryof imitation?Can this sort of retrospectivereflec-
in tognground,
tion provideany materialfor the buildingof new rulesto be followedin architecture?
Is a reflectionon architecture's referents, on its degree of adequatio,capable of re-
establishingconventionscommonto the architecturallanguageswhen all convention
has been destroyedeitherby the objectivelevelingof goals or the subjectiveindivid-
ualism of architectsthemselves?Just a few years ago, the FrencharchitectBernard
Huet wrote: "It is necessaryto understandAldo Rossi'sposition regardingthe prob-
lem of imitationfromthe perspectiveof a collectivemeansof labor.Imitationmust be

I03
 The Anxiety of Origin
Arnold Bocklin, Flugapparat,
design for an airplane,
c.i 89o, model.
City plan, Munich, c.I840.
35-
The notion of Habituswas elaboratedby Pierre
Bourdieuin Esquisse dunetbdoriedela pratique
(Geneva:Droz, 1972), p. I75; cf. Henri
Raymondand Marion Seguad,"L'espace
architectural:approchesociologique,"in Une
nouvellecivilisation,bommage a GeorgesFried-
mann(Paris,1973); H. Raymond,"Habitat,
Modeles culturelset architecture,"L'Architecture
d'Aujourd'bui, no. 174, I974; BernardHuet,
"Modeles culturelset architecture,"in ModUles
culturels-Habitat,J. C. De Pauleand Bernard
Mazerateds. (Paris:C.E.R.A., 1977; Bernard
Huet, "TheCityas a DwellingSpace:alternatives
to the Charterof Athens,"LotusInternational,
no. 41, Milan i984, pp. 6-I6.
36.
Quoted without source in Mikel Dufrenne,
"Artee Natura,"in Mikel Dufreneeand Dino
Formaggio,Trattatodi Estetica,vol. II (Milan:
Mondadori, I98I), p. 34.
seen as both an approach to a community of language and a recognition of the ty-
pological nature of the urban context" (A.M.C., Paris, I983, no. I). In this case, as in
classical theory, what must be imitated is the known, and hence the conventional,
since the conventional is what is convenient and determines the conventional genres
Vladimir Tatlin, Letatlin, glider, I929-3 2.
and the conventionality of genres: it is what realizes not so much the truth as the ap-
parently true (verisimilar). What appears to be true, the verisimilar, therefore seems
true because it appears to be beautiful. Consequently, art can be true only when the
production of verisimilitude is beautiful. In this sense, truth is necessary as a confor-
mity and agreement to a common meaning of dwelling and a conventional genre of
production. We can already see how the definition of this veritas, this homoiosis,lends
itself to many ambiguities, since one might ask who is the architect, who is the au-
thority, who can define the common meaning of dwelling in an age that eschews all
social consensus?
But this ambiguity might very well have been desired, accepted as an intermediate
and not fully satisfactory phase which nevertheless led in the right direction. Indeed,
in the theories of B. Huet and H. Raymond, and many others in Europe, the defini-
tion of the common meaning of dwelling is entrusted to an anthropological realism
capable of developing a 'social and conventional' type of dwelling, and of conform-
ing to the Habitus of the dweller, rendering his 'regular' habits concrete in space, while
taking into account the current 'cultural models' and means of production.35 In this
case, the verisimilar assumes the function of what the sociologist Parsons has called
'pattern-maintenance,' "the preservation of specific institutionalized cultural models
which constitute the heart of a social system . . . and which therefore ensure the cul-
tural continuity necessary to the functioning of a society."36
Similar to this anthropological realism are also Maurice Culot's and Leon and
Rob Krier's projects for a 'realistic reconstruction' of the European city and the stud-
ies made by the Bruno Fortier and Antoine Grumbach group, which, in compiling an
'Atlas of urban forms' in Paris, aim at reintegrating the architectural project into an
historical process in which they underscore above all the impurities and lapses. This
latter undertaking, inspired by a number of experiments carried out on a smaller scale
(at least on the level of method) by Aldo van Eyck, is supposed to lead to a 'rhetoric of
lesser composition' in architecture.
It is true that for years we have had Christopher Alexander's continuing research
into the 'pattern languages' of architecture. In The Timelessway of Building, Alexander
actually goes so far as to postulate timeless, universal criteria of dwelling. All this re-
search-much of which is undigested, like all the methodologies of the sixties, which
104
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Aldo Rossi, TheAnalogous

City, 1976.
The Anxiety of Origin
ChristopherAlexander,The Linz Cafe,
Linz, I980, interior.
37.
Gianni Vattimo, "Abitareviene prima di
costruire,"Casabella,no. 485, Milan I982; this
is an obvious referenceto the essay "Bauen
WohnenDenken"by MartinHeidegger,
publishedin Vortrage undAufsatze, English
translation:"Building,Dwelling, Thinking"
in Poetry,Language,Thought.
38.
I am using Aristotle'sMetaphysique, French
trans. by J. Tricot,Vrin, I970, vol. I, IoIz b 39;
also quoted by Daniel Payot in Lephilosopbe et
l'architecte,
p. I05.
39.
Cf. Daniel Payot, Lephilosopbe
et l'architecte,
passim.
40.
Jean-LouisViel de Saint-Maux,Lettressur
Paris,Brussels,II letter, 1787,
l'architecture,
p. Iz.
were constructedas abstractsystemsinclusiveof all information-wasspreadthrough
Italyby the translationof the NotesontheSynthesis ofForm(I967). Fortunatelyfor us, in
I980 the architect
was the
given opportunity to build a temporarywooden Cafeon the
Danube near Linz, duringthe "ForumDesign"exhibition.Though modest, the con-
structionwas successful,not because(regardlessof what Alexanderhimselfsays) his
extremelycomplicated'grids'of patternswere applied,but becausehis earlierreflec-
tion on modes of dwellingled him also to reflecton the most minuteaspectsof living
insidea building:"forexample,the largewindow looking out on the summersun, the
balconiesand windows giving onto the river,the benchesbeneaththe windows, the
series of rooms and spaces that form the entrance,the little alcoves for privacyand
intimacy. . . and also the largerpatterns. . . the seriesof spacesfor sittingdown, the
area of circulation,the varietyin the height of the ceilings,the position of the stairs,
the use of spacesthat are half outside, half inside"(fromC. Alexander,DasLinzCafe,
New York, Vienna, I98I).
The buildingassumesan aspectthat is in some respectsneoclassical-at least the
'comfortable'versionof neoclassical,such as we find in Schinkel'sinteriors.And yet
the architectwas indignantin his responseto the 'accusation'of historicism:"to my
mind the buildingmakesno consciousreferencewhatsoeverto buildingsof the past.
Why then does it seem reminiscentof traditionalbuildings?For a very simplereason.
There are certain facts about space which any builder who understandsanything
about the natureof buildingcannot escape."The Linz Cafe is consciouslybased on
these facts of building,which are necessaryto human comfort: this is why the Cafe
seems like an old building-not because it copies an old building, but because it is
basedon the samerules.The essenceof Alexander'spropositionis as follows: timeless
rulesof architecturecan be inferredfrom a phenomenologicalanalysisof the models
of 'good living.'Behindthis considerationis a variantof the anthropologicalthought
underlyingthe architecturaltheoriesmentionedearlier(Rossi, Huet, etc.): here too,
the patternto be imitatedis the whole existingbody of patterns.And thus the fact that
"dwellingprecedesbuilding"has been acknowledged.37
DWELLING AND BUILDING
The assumptionof a phenomenologyof 'good living,'as a singlereferent,a single ar-
chitecturalmodel, implies, however,an inevitableloss: the loss of the architectonic
idea itself. As Aristotleexplainsin the Metaphysics, "Thebeginning(Arche)is what we
call the startingpoint of all things." 38The Arche,justto refreshour memories,was the
metaphysicalrequirementthat had to be determinedin orderto pose the questionof
buildingin termsof supplementariness, model, and origin.Thatthis "moderndeterio-
ration"(as Daniel Payotcalls it),39which has been implicitlyacceptedsince the nine-
teenth century,and propagandizedin the twentiesand thirties,is not a new thing, is
provenby the insistentemphasisthat architectshaveplaced, almost as if in exorcism,
on the primordialcharacterof the Archeand the dignityof the loftiestArchai.In con-
trast, as Jean-LouisViel de Saint-Mauxwrote in the late I700oos:"The Ancientsdid
not, like us, confuse sacredArchitecturewith the art of buildingprivatedwellings;
thisarthadnothingto do withtheArchitecture
of TemplesandMonuments."40
Adolf Loos reaffirmedthis forcefullyin 9 o. ForLoos, architectureis only Grab-
mal (sepulcher)and Denkmal(monument):"The house must please everyone.Unlike
Io6
 GeorgesTeyssot

the work of art, which doesn't need to please anyone."41 The same idea was developed 41?
Adolf Loos, "Architecture"(I9 o), in Paroles
dansle vide;Malgretout,Fr. trans. by C. Heim
by Alberto Savinio: "Architecture is mirrored in time. The fact of every epoch is re- (Paris:Editions ChampsLibre, I979, p. z26;
flected in its architecture. The relations between time and architecture are similar to Schriften,ErsterBand:InsLeere
orig. ed.: Sdmtliche
Gesprochen Trotzdem
(1897-19o00); (1900o-190)
those between sea and sky. Why do we persist in saying that architecture is an art?" (Viennaand Munich:VerlagHerold, I962).

(from Ascolto il tuo cuore, citta, I944). In this instance, the architecture in question is
that of the home, hence it is not art, since "art looks outside of the house . . . Art
42.
comes from afar and goes far."42 Recently, Bernard Teyssedre, a well-known French Alberto Savinio,Ascoltoil tuocuore,citta (1944)
historian of art, wrote: "The work of architecture does not belong to the same field as (Milan: Adelphi, I984), p. I7z2

the dwelling." 43 43.

BernardTeyssedre,Lesthetique deHegel,(Paris:
This deterioration, this 'loss of the center,' has, since the days of the Neues Bauen, P.U.F.,1958), p. 31; quoted in Daniel Payot,
et l'architecte,
Lephilosophe p. o.
been considered 'necessary,' something that has to be: the architect and the philoso-
pher have discovered the absence of a privileged point from which to settle the ques-
tion of the origin of architectonics. The primordial character of the Archai seems an
illusory goal at this point. From this fait accompliwe may derive two observations: on
the one hand, there is still an urgent need to give new meaning to 'humble' (schlicht,
according to Heidegger) tectonics(that is, the Greek techne)by building another con-
44-
cept of construction out of the multiple languages of dwelling.44 On the other hand, MartinHeidegger,Vortrage undAufsatze,quoted
from the Frenchtranslationof A. Preau,Essais
the memory, the remembrance of what was the idea of architecture for the Greeks, the et conferences,
(Paris:Gallimard,I958).
Romans (and Schinkel), persists: an idea that was based on a prejudice, and whose
disappearance was perhaps too hastily applauded.
45.
Repeating ancient form: yes, but as Gilles Deleuze explains,45 repetition as thought et rDpetition
Gilles Deleuze, Difference (I968),
of the future is opposed to the ancient category of reminiscence and the modern cate- 3rd ed. (Paris,P.U.F.,1976), pp. I25-z6.

gory of the Habitus. The Habitus, a passive synthesis of time as the living present, is
the memory of customs in space. The Habitus resolves repetition according to an ha-
bitual present, through a cycle of habit. Reminiscence (Mnemosyne), the active syn-
thesis of time as pure past, organizes repetition through a memorative and imme-
morative cycle. Now, what is or returns can no longer have a pre-established identity.
We might take pleasure in the contemplation of this loss; or we might found local
committees for the preservation of customs. And yet in repetition, whatever the choice,
the thing is reduced to the difference it contains within itself. The terms of the adven-
ture today are to repeat historically unrepeatable models in order to glean from them
that difference.

I07