Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The site of the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens is dominated by the remaining sixteen monumental marble columns of the original temple. One of these lies on the ground with its drums stacked upon one another like a line of dominoes. They appear as though they have been gathered and neatly re-organised, too ordered to have fallen in such a way, as though the aesthetic of ruin is constructed as spectacle. I have become fascinated with this column and the fragmented history of the site. The column was damaged in a storm on the 26th October 1852. I try to imagine the event of the storm and witnessing this ancient structure fall. I think of the strength of the wind and the sound as each 2-metre block of carved stone crashed to the ground. The impossibility of documenting the event of column’s falling is at the origin of this project. Working with 3D modeling software photogrammetry, Victorian architectural drawings and a creative interpretation of the site itself, the column is being rebuilt as a method to re-imagine the night of its destruction.