Everything is irreversible, and the things which have not been done by us will never be done
Merab Mamardashvili
Monuments must be saved and preserved.
What are we doing this for?
What are we trying to see while digging in the earth, and why are we so glad when we find ancient artifacts there? Why do we preserve and reconstruct the past? Why do we reconstruct our idea of it?
What do we want and what do we lack? The essence is hidden among these questions. We try to see the pattern of our life looking into the past. We want simple answers to complicated questions. And we constantly forget that we are different, we think differently and we act just as we think.
We can never know how we must act because we live only one life and we can not compare it with our former lives, and there is no possibility to check if our decisions are right. We have no rough notebook, our life is a clean copy. We know this, but we fanatically try to find out the future by peeping into the past.
And we must, and we will study and preserve all traces of the past life. We will be putting together the stone pieces found in excavations for hours in the attempt to assemble a broken statue. We have to do this, because without it we will lose something important, that distinguishes us from the rest of the world and that is called culture.
And though we re-comprehend the past from the point of view of our computer possibilities, all history of mankind is one big re-comprehension, and this is also culture.
But the past is gradually disappearing due to acid rains, graffiti daubed over its surface and chewing gums preventing us from seeing it. But it is still alive, it is simply pretending to be dead. And we can not allow it to die. We will measure, take photographs and study these splendid old stones and traces of the people gone.
Stand up, try to understand the loneliness of these monuments, it is enough to sit at the computer. Take photographs, study, measure, and do not ask why you should do it.
Design by Stanislav Shchigorets