Abiti di pietra. La memoria architettonica tra indici, impronte e “invenzioni” del passato

Abstract

Moving from the assumption that cultural memory can be connected to the Peircean notion of habit, the article proposes the application of some Peircean categories to the study of spatialization of cultural memory and the process of heritagization with regard to “war heritage”. Drawing on Patrizia Violi’s notion of “trauma sites”, the article proposes to consider spatial traces left on architectures by some historical events both as indexes (Peirce) and imprints (Eco); and then focuses on architectural restoration as a practice of monumentalization and eventually “manipulation” of such traces. Following a discussion of some examples, the argument proposed is that restoration of architectures which have been damaged by war events, in case it is inspired by an intention of monumentalizion, in some cases may operate a sort of amplification of the iconic character of the trace/index (which nevertheless usually do not nullify, in fact sometimes even amplify, the indexical character), in order to make the trace/index easier to recognize according to cultural codes. Eventually, an interpretation is proposed which considers the operation of spatial monumentalization of a trace as coincident with the process of constitution of an “iconic memory sign” able to fix and communicate the indexicality that generated the trace; in other words: the conversion of a material trace in a “sign of memory” passes through an iconization of the index