A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Sphinx. Writing Urban Histories of Useless Objects
In 2006, in coincidence with the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, Turin’s Egyptian Museum promoted the construction of a plastic sphinx—a magnified version of a piece of its collection—to be placed in a highly visible peripheral location of the city. Moving from the premise that the microanalytical study of seemingly marginal objects can shed a revealing light on processes of urban transformation, the paper discusses this sphinx as a testimony of the paradoxical entanglement of objects and temporalities that characterize neoliberal cities. Observed from the perspective of the public use of the past, the sphinx offers interesting clues for interrogating a historical phase in which institutions seem to have placed memory at the center of their urban regeneration strategies—only to easily lose the memory of their own actions. Observed from the perspective of its materiality, the sphinx shows to what extent post-industrial narratives are deeply rooted in the entanglement of actors and practices of the industrial city.
Sphinx. Writing Urban Histories of Useless Objects
In 2006, in coincidence with the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, Turin’s Egyptian Museum promoted the construction of a plastic sphinx—a magnified version of a piece of its collection—to be placed in a highly visible peripheral location of the city. Moving from the premise that the microanalytical study of seemingly marginal objects can shed a revealing light on processes of urban transformation, the paper discusses this sphinx as a testimony of the paradoxical entanglement of objects and temporalities that characterize neoliberal cities. Observed from the perspective of the public use of the past, the sphinx offers interesting clues for interrogating a historical phase in which institutions seem to have placed memory at the center of their urban regeneration strategies—only to easily lose the memory of their own actions. Observed from the perspective of its materiality, the sphinx shows to what extent post-industrial narratives are deeply rooted in the entanglement of actors and practices of the industrial city.
Sphinx. Writing Urban Histories of Useless Objects
The City proj.
Cattabriga, Ilaria (editor) / Chinellato, Enrico (editor) / Eghbali, Arshia (editor) / Mutton, Zeno (editor) / Loffredo, Ramona (editor) / De Pieri, Filippo (author)
International Conference THE HISTORICAL CITY ; 2023 ; Bologna, Italy
The Historical City. A Critical Reference and Role Model ; Chapter: 30 ; 267-273
The City Project ; 8
2024-12-19
7 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
| British Library Online Contents | 2006
| Springer Verlag | 2021
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