The Deconstruction of the Axis
Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum, 1989-1999
In the 1970’s, Rosalind Krauss gave two lectures in which she discussed the importance of the index, especially regarding architecture. Moreover, as expressed by C.S. Pierce, there exists a distinction between icon, symbol, and index; where the index serves as a “trace or record of an actual event or a process.” (page 231, Eisenman). However, Kraus argues that the index is directly related to the manner of presence and absence, and that it operates without conventions. An index can serve as evidence of an event or a trace of a previous presence, but it also records that that presence has become absent. However, the notion of time is also tied to the index; since it registers the span of time in which certain event occurred, and which ended resulting in its absence. However, there is a differentiation between presence/absence and the idea of an index or trace in a linguistic, photographic, or physical context as architecture.
Krauss suggests that language is joined to a metaphysics, since it “presents us with an historical framework which preexists its own being,” (page 232, Eisenman). According to Krauss, the idea of an index in the context of architecture attempts to undermine the idea of the architectural language as a physical presence. The index is suggested to be more important than the presence of an object since the index serves as a trace of the object and not as a representation of that object. Hence, an architectural index denies any presence in its entirety by presenting a condition of absence. Furthermore, Krauss explores the photograph as another representation of an index. As Krauss suggests, the idea of time is very closely tied to that of the architectural index. For this reason, the photograph is an example of the index since it captures the condition of process and abstraction. The value of a photograph lies in its relation to the past, in other words in the absence of the event that was captured. Furthermore, the index can also be represented in the physical abstraction of an object.
Krauss considers Matta-Clark’s cutting of holes in a building’s floors and facades as the “ultimate icon for an indexical architecture.” (page 232, Eisenman). In this case, the cuts represent emptiness. Where there is a cut, there is an empty sign of an event that is no longer there. Hence, in Matta-Clark’s work, the cuts become the index of absence. By doing this, the index is transformed into an icon of its own indexicality, as occurs in Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. This building is considered one of the greatest indexical projects in architecture.
This project’s index critiques the traditional linear axiality that is fundamental to classical and Cartesian space. Libeskind’s first attempts to question Cartesian space began in 1978 with this Micromegas drawings, where he denies the Cartesian coordinates by drawing tectonic architectural lines that represent “indexical markings of conditions in space and time on a virtual object.” (page 232, Eisenman), ultimately breaking down the axial space. A subject’s movement through a building is directly related to the axes that define that building. Libeskind presents the axis as a trace, but he offers a critique of axiality and the classical relationship between the subject and object. By disrupting the subject’s understanding of space established by Cartesian coordinates, Libeskind is challenging one of the major persistencies of architecture which is the circulation or movement of the subject through the building. The indexicality of the Jewish Museum becomes more evident because of the relationship between this project and his 1988 installation, Line of Fire, where he disrupts the possibility of axial movement around and through pilotis. By doing this he challenged the preconception of continuity and symmetry of the x-axes. Also, the project’s zigzag questions the existing relationship between the time of the object and that of the subject. Along with the zigzagging, there are random cuts around the project, which are like Matta-Clark’s cuts.
Referencia:
PDF- The 10 Canonical Buildings - Peter Eisenman
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