The Ship of Theseus Identity and the Barcelona Pavilion(s)
Lance Hosey NewSchool of Architecture & Design
Built in 1929 and demolished in 1930, the Figure 1. Opposite page, top: Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 and 1986 (photographed 2009). Viewed from Barcelona Pavilion was rebuilt on the original the northeast. The German tricolor flag flew over the 1929 pavilion; the flag of Barcelona flies over the site in 1986. Is it the “same” building? Many current structure. (Left: Photograph by Berliner Bild Bericht. Opposite page, right: Photograph by Pepo architects and critics question the reconstruction’s Segura. Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.) authenticity, dismissing it as a “fake.” Why the Figure 2. Opposite page, middle: Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 and 1986 (photographed 2009). pavilion has inspired such doubt is an important North courtyard with George Kolbe sculpture, Alba (“Dawn”). The original cast was plaster; the WRSLFEHFDXVHLWUHODWHVWRWKHYHU\GH¿QLWLRQV current cast is bronze. (Left: Photograph by Berliner Bild Bericht. Right: Photograph by Pepo Segura. of architecture. What determines a building’s Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.) identity—form, function, context, material, or Figure 3. Opposite page, bottom: Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 and 1986 (photographed 2009). something else? As a historically important View across the podium reflecting pool from the southeast. (Left: Photograph by Berliner work that has existed in more than one instance, Bild Bericht. Right: Photograph by Pepo Segura. Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.) the Barcelona Pavilion offers an extraordinary opportunity to consider this question. Examining Goldberger.¡ The architects of the reconstruction—Ignasi Solà-Morales, the distinctions between the two structures Cristian Cirici, and Fernando highlights conventional standards of critical Ramos—admitted their own “tremor of doubt,” writing that rebuilding such evaluation, exposing architecture’s core values a familiar landmark was a “traumatic and interrogating the very concept of preservation. undertaking.”¤ During the planning stage, Philip Johnson pondered, “The problem before us is should a But if I’m not the same, the next how much can a thing vary before it dream be realized or not? We have question is, who in the world am I? becomes an altogether dierent thing? made such a myth of that building. What characteristics of an object are Shouldn’t it be le¦ in the sacred vault —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in indispensable to its definition? of the memory bank?”§ Wonderland () Modern architecture’s ship of The apprehension is not easily Theseus is the Barcelona Pavilion. explained. The similarities between One of the most confounding puzzles Built in and demolished in , the two pavilions far outnumber of philosophy concerns the ship of the pavilion was rebuilt with exacting the dierences, and the construc- Theseus. During its long voyages, the quality and detail on the original site tion quality of the reconstruction legendary Greek hero’s vessel requires in (Figures -, -). Is it the is far superior to the hastily erected extensive repairs, and eventually “same” building? original. Yet, without much elabora- every board and plank is replaced When the second pavilion tion, many critics have rejected so that not a scrap of the original appeared, architects, historians, and the second pavilion as inauthentic, material remains. With its constitu- critics were deeply ambivalent. Some even while lauding its meticulous tion completely changed, is it the hailed it as a revived masterpiece, execution. A review in Progressive same ship? Answering this question some condemned it as an impostor, Architecture concluded, “Any faithful depends on what is meant by “same,” and others confessed to be reproduction remains just that: a surprisingly elusive term. This topic dumbfounded. “[T]his building is a copy, a facsimile.”© Routinely is central to the philosophy of identity: not supposed to exist,” asserted Paul referred to as a “replica,” even by
Lance Hosey, “The Ship of Theseus: Identity and the Barcelona Pavilion(s),” 230 Journal of Architectural Education, October, 2018, 72:2, 230-247 the architects themselves,7 the 1986 described it as “a replica so faithful identity—form, function, context, pavilion is widely considered not quite to the original that it is often difficult material, technique, or something legitimate but not quite illegitimate, to remember its true nature.”9 More else? The Barcelona Pavilion offers either. Martin Filler wrote that “we than one recent source has dismissed an extraordinary opportunity to study must regard this admirable effort as it as a “fake.”10 this question because it is a histori- something other than the real thing.”8 Why the pavilion has inspired cally important work that has existed Questioning the pavilion’s authentic- such doubt is an important in more than one instance. Examining ity continues to this day. In 2017, Anna question because it relates to the the distinctions between the two and Eugeni Bach, commissioned to very definitions of architecture. pavilions highlights conventional create an installation at the pavilion, What determines a building’s standards of critical evaluation,
Hosey JAE 72:2 231 exposing architecture’s core values Barcelona’s Montjuïc hill has been Filler protests the differences in color and interrogating the very concept restored to a state similar to that of between the old and new stones, of preservation. What is being the 1929 fair.15 especially the onyx, but there are no preserved—the material artifact, an According to Plato, Aristotle’s color photographs of the original image, an idea, or a legacy—and are teacher, the essence of a thing (Figure 5). He complains about there aspects of a building that simply ultimately consists of form apart from the specific material selections, yet cannot be preserved at all? According matter.16 Philosopher Peter Pesic he admits they were necessary for to the Oxford Dictionaries, to describes the second ship of Theseus longevity and that the quality of preserve is to “maintain (something) with the same language Martin Filler construction is better.24 Twisted logic in its original or existing state.”11 Has uses to dismiss the second pavilion: reflects a deeper insecurity—not about the Barcelona Pavilion maintained its “We recognize the ship... by comparing the pavilion’s materials, but about original state or not? it with the form we already know, its its very existence. The reconstruc- original archetype, as the real thing.”17 tion allowed viewers to experience The Identity of Identity What Filler refers to as “the real thing” for themselves, unmediated, a broad How to determine the identity would be the pavilion’s form, and in range of space, time, light, and color of a thing has been a subject of fact, like many observers, he specifi- for the first time in half a century considerable philosophical inquiry cally applies the term “Platonic.”18 (Figures 7–8). But by bringing form throughout history. Aristotle, often In the reconstruction, writes one and matter together again, it spoiled acknowledged to have originated the historian, the pavilion “is now as close the fantasy. A ghost with a body is no philosophy of identity, noted that to its original form” as possible.19 In longer a ghost. while all things have a potentially Platonic terms, then, essence survives. According to identity theory, infinite number of properties, some Aristotle, however, insisted on the material changes do not necessarily are of greater consequence than unity of form and matter, and in this jeopardize an object’s authenticity. others. He distinguished between sense the reconstruction returns the While Aristotle renounced Platonism properties that may vary without pavilion to Aristotelian reality. The by emphasizing both form and affecting identity (“accidents”) and structure is said to have “reacquired matter in the recognition of objects those that may not (“essence”): “The [its] material presence” in 1986.20 (“Is there . . . a house apart from essence of each thing is what it is Yet, physical presence may be the bricks?”), he nevertheless felt said to be in virtue of itself.”12 This exactly what troubles some critics. The that form was an essential quality and distinction is fundamental to the prevalent view of the original pavilion matter accidental.25 An oak table could Barcelona Pavilion(s). While there are was that it was “purely spatial,” as be refitted with maple wood and still clear differences between the 1929 Vincent Scully described it in 1961.21 be considered the same table.26 In and 1986 structures, there are also Its walls are commonly called “planes,” any building that is renovated, parts clear differences in any single building geometry separated from substance.22 are replaced without endangering the at different points in time, since Published floor plans often have no overall identity of the place. Unless materials weather, finishes dull, parts context or orientation—space without an arbitrary restriction is made on get replaced, and context changes. place. In 1936, George Howe praised the number of parts that may be The important question is which the pavilion as the apex of “abstract exchanged, theoretically the entire variations might threaten identity. design.” Claiming that it had been structure may change materially In other words, what comprises the “liberated of all the purely material without losing its essence. Le essence of the Barcelona Pavilion, restrictions which usually govern Corbusier’s Villa Savoye was substan- and does its reconstruction violate architecture,” he declared that tangible tially refurbished after being badly these qualities? presence was not essential to the damaged during World War II. “Could Aristotle listed four fundamental pavilion: “Its disappearance is perhaps one speculate,” asks Juan Pablo Bonta, “causes” (aitia) of any object—form, prophetic of a period when we shall “that because parts of the physical matter, origin, and purpose.13 Form have reduced the time element of our fabric have been replaced, the villa encompasses all the dimensional and lives to a complete abstraction and as it stands is no longer the same spatial aspects of a thing; in the case nothing will remain to architecture but work of architecture?” If renovation of a building, this includes size, shape, pure conceptual space.”23 The pavilion threatens authenticity, he decides, and setting. The 1986 pavilion carefully was not a “real thing” after all—it was “we should stop restoring architec- matches these conditions by occupying an ideal, a “complete abstraction.” tural masterpieces—a patently the original’s footprint, revealed when What does historic preservation absurd conclusion.”27 excavation uncovered the old column mean when the thing to be preserved Although the original pavilion footings. These remnants, along with is an abstraction? This philosophi- had been celebrated for its “expert a rediscovered paving plan, allowed cal quandary may explain why much craftsmanship,”28 research prior to the layout to be verified.14 Even the of the criticism of the reconstruc- the reconstruction revealed that it immediate context of the site on tion seems illogical. For example, had been a flimsy patchwork. On
232 The Ship of Theseus Figure 4. Barcelona Pavilion, 1929. Aerial view of the pavilion from the southwest. Patchwork construction is visible on some surfaces. The backs of the end walls (foreground) are faux-painted stucco. (Photograph courtesy of Museum of Modern Art.)
old pavilion in a new place be deemed a disappointing novelty, while the new pavilion in the old place became an architectural pilgrimage? Or would it be the other way around? Like the ship of Theseus, the abbey’s parts and pieces were replaced slowly, seamlessly, so there was never a time when it ceased to exist in its recognized form, which remained constant even as matter varied. Yet, in the case of the pavilion, there is some surfaces, faux-painted stucco Is the 1986 pavilion a re-construction a long gap in time between the first substituted for stone, and the plaster of something or an original in itself, iteration, which disappeared in 1930, finish throughout the ceiling was a first construction of something and the second, which (re)appeared inconsistent and splotchy (Figure 4). previously unbuilt but felt to be lost? in 1986. This fifty-six-year interrup- The pavilion was a pasteboard illusion, Philosophically, emulating tion is certainly a principal reason and the viewpoints, cropping, form and place should be enough to the pavilions are considered separate and airbrushing of the famous establish identity, according to some structures. Nevertheless, a standard photographs masked its flaws.29 theorists. Umberto Eco recounts that philosophical argument demonstrates Even the Kolbe sculpture was plaster the twelfth-century Abbey of Saint that identity does not rely on so-called (Figure 2).30 For years, the travertine Guinness was scrupulously restored temporal continuity: if a repairman podium was thought to be continuous stone by stone: takes apart a clock, leaves it in pieces at the perimeter, partly because floor for a while, then puts it back together plans approved by Mies illustrated it [F]rom the point of view of again, it is not likely to be considered as such, but in reality it was sheared materials the abbey we see today a different clock, regardless of how off abruptly at the northeast corner.31 no longer has anything to do with long it was disintegrated.36 In 1871, the The canonical images and texts the original, but from the point Church of Santa Maria della Spina in preserve a version of the pavilion of view of architectonic design it Pisa, a favorite of John Ruskin, was that never existed: it was a mirage, a is the same one. If we favor the disassembled and rebuilt at a level one phantom of itself.32 criterion of the identity of form meter higher to avoid flood damage.37 Hence, the reconstruction is over that of identity of materials, Despite this pause, the identity of the not, in fact, “as close to its original and if moreover we introduce the later church has not been questioned. form” as possible—it is close to its criterion of “homolocality” (the If the Barcelona Pavilion had been fabled form, the idealized version of modern abbey stands exactly in the rebuilt immediately after being pulled popular imagination. Preservationists same place as the original abbey), to pieces in 1930, presumably its define areconstruction as depicting from a tourist’s point of view (and to authenticity would not be doubted– “the form, features, and detailing of a certain extent from that of an art even if some or all of its materials a non-surviving [structure] for the historian) we are led to say that this were replaced. In theory, a temporary purpose of replicating its appearance is the same abbey.35 separation of form and matter at a specific period of time and in its should not threaten the pavilion’s historic location.”33 If the original The condition of homolocality seems identity, which should survive even a pavilion never matched our mental essential to both identity theory and half-century hiatus. image of it, what “specific period of preservationist standards (“in its time” does the reconstruction depict? historic location”). If the materials of Artworks and Artifacts “To restore a building,” insisted the original pavilion—faux-painted The Barcelona Pavilion long has Viollet-le-Duc, the great preservation stucco included—were discovered been considered a masterpiece of theorist of the early modern period, and reassembled in the original modern architecture and a work of “is not only to preserve it, to repair it, form but in a different place—say, a art, a status that drove the desire to or to rebuild, but to bring it back to a Nebraska cornfield—which pavilion rebuild it.38 Identity theory becomes state of completion such as may never would be considered authentic? Like more complicated when consider- have existed at any given moment.”34 London Bridge in Arizona, would the ing things perceived to be artworks,
Hosey JAE 72:2 233 Figure 5. Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 and 1986 medium.40 Filler’s comment that Even exact copies of a Rembrandt (photographed 2009). View of the onyx wall in the reconstruction is not “the are still considered copies—“simply the Throne Room. (Top: Photograph by Berliner Bild Bericht. Opposite page: Photograph by Pepo real thing” is ironic, since the imitations or forgeries, not new Segura. Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.) word real stems from the Latin res, instances”—while all performances meaning “thing,” connoting exactly of a Mozart symphony are considered as opposed to common artifacts. what Benjamin emphasizes— authentic, new instances of the work: Not long after the original pavilion tangible presence. “in music, unlike painting, there is was demolished, Walter Benjamin Considering the differences no such thing as a forgery or a known wrote that the authenticity of an between original works, copies, work.” Architecture, Goodman artwork—its “aura”—is defined by a and forgeries, the philosopher speculates, seems comparable to unique and tangible presence, which Nelson Goodman distinguished music, in that it is created second- is lost under two conditions: transla- between autographic works and hand from notations, such as a score tion (the transfer from one medium allographic works: or a set of plans: “Any building that to another, such as architecture conforms to the plans and specifica- to photography) and multiplica- Let us speak of a work of art as tions . . . is as original an instance of tion (the loss of individuality): “The autographic if and only if the distinc- the work as any other.”42 technique of reproduction detaches tion between original and forgery Architecture may be more the reproduced object from the of it is significant; or better, if complex than Goodman suggests, domain of tradition. By making many and only if even the most exact as Remei Capdevila-Werning points reproductions it substitutes a plurality duplication of it does not thereby out: generic buildings such as tract of copies for a unique existence.”39 count as genuine. If a work of art is housing are allographic in that any While the legendary photographs of autographic, we may also call that instance is considered authentic, the original pavilion brought about art autographic. Thus painting is while the effect is different for both conditions, the 1986 pavilion autographic, music nonautographic, “masterpieces of architecture”; an reinstated individuality in the original or allographic.41 exact replica of the Taj Mahal “would
234 The Ship of Theseus only be a copy,” and the Parthenon be given ‘for a second time’ and between autographic and allographic, in Nashville is “simply a copy of the still continue to be the same; only the two structures vying to usurp one in Athens.”43 Hence, architecture, allographic works can be reproduced the other’s identity. “This array of she contends, oscillates between and maintain the same identity, which possibilities,” Capdevila-Werning the autographic and the allographic, compels us to affirm that the building concludes, “does not have to be sometimes in single structures, such recovered in 1986 is the same as the interpreted as a failure in the process as the Barcelona Pavilion: “The main one erected in 1929.” Finally, given of identifying works, but as evidence argument for rebuilding the 1929 the shoddy construction of the 1929 of the inherent complexity and pavilion was its stature as a unique version, the newer pavilion arguably richness of architecture.”44 work of modern architecture. Being a is a closer approximation of the At minimum, Capdevila-Werning unique work entails considering that original intent, in which case it could demonstrates that dismissing the the Barcelona Pavilion is autographic be considered the primary pavilion, 1986 pavilion outright as a “facsimile” and, hence, that the 1986 pavilion is a superseding the earlier structure. This or “replica” does not hold up to replica of the 1929 one.” raises doubts, however: “Our intuitive philosophical scrutiny. However, the On the other hand, she explains, reluctance to conclude that the 1929 application of Goodman is intriguing because the 1986 Pavilion was pavilion is not the Barcelona Pavilion but inconclusive. First, the examples built from painstakingly prepared points to the need to shift the identity of the Taj Mahal and the Parthenon notations, it becomes allographic, criterion again, from allographic are new instances constructed in according to Goodman’s framework. to autographic, and recognize that different places, while the earlier At the 1986 dedication, Mies van der the pavilion’s identity is not totally structures still exist in the original Rohe’s daughter announced that “for defined by a plan.” locations. No one claims that the a second time, the German Pavilion In this view, the pavilions are Parthenon in Nashville assumes the of Barcelona has been given to the simultaneously different and the identity of the one perched on the world.” Capdevila-Werning notes, same, caught in a philosophical Acropolis in Athens. A perfect copy “Only a work that is not unique can vortex, bouncing back and forth of the Taj Mahal built in Tampa
Hosey JAE 72:2 235 Figure 6. Barcelona Pavilion, 1929 and 1986 using notations overlooks similarly input. Similar choices are made by (photographed 2009). View across the podium from important structures built without preservationists when restoring any the southwest. The left-hand image is the only widely published photograph of the original structure shot the designers’ supervision. A 2010 historically significant building— in the afternoon, after the sun has crossed behind survey of leading architects ranked Le including the Parthenon itself, the pavilion. (Top: Photograph by Berliner Bild Corbusier’s Saint-Pierre Church in which has undergone extensive Bericht. Opposite page: Photograph by Pepo Segura. Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.) Firminy, France, as one of the “most repairs over the past few decades. significant” works of the twenty- Arguably, the Barcelona Pavilion would not persuade us that it is first century—even though it was is no different, and any building the authentic Taj Mahal. However, designed in the middle of the previous is allographic the way a symphony if the original were replaced on its century and built four decades after is—reinterpreted successively as it historic site by that perfect copy, the architect’s death.46 Constructed is “performed” through preservation. would we question its authenticity?45 exclusively from notations, it is the The reconstruction architects in fact If it happened instantaneously, no definition of allographic, yet it is compare the process of interpreting one would be the wiser, while a gap hailed as a masterwork. With Mies’s the plans to a modern performance in time—whether a day, a year, or own work, construction began or was of a Bach oratorio.47 half a century—might raise doubt, completed posthumously on several Yet, when Capdevila-Werning although such a temporal breach has important projects, including the acknowledges “our intuitive not undermined the identity of other Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial reluctance to conclude that the structures, such as Santa Maria della Library (1972) in Washington, DC, and 1929 pavilion is not the Barcelona Spina. The structure itself is the same the Brown Pavilion of the Museum of Pavilion,” she hints that the in the two cases (whether appearing Fine Arts (1974) in Houston, Texas. question at stake is not just about instantly or after a lapse in time), so it As Capdevila-Werning herself the work’s historical importance is merely our perception that changes. notes, when editors confront or “uniqueness”—it is about Second, the claim that the different editions of literary works, authorship. “Autographic” suggests pavilion must be autographic because they are forced to choose an authori- a signature, something created its identity cannot be fully captured tative version without the writers’ by one’s personal hand, and
236 The Ship of Theseus “masterpiece” implies the presence no longer be able to think seriously It was 1968, a year before Mies’s of a “master.”48 Highlighting the about reconstructing the pavilion.”50 death, when Roland Barthes first role of the artist in an artwork Perhaps more than any other published “The Death of the Author,” is equivalent to Aristotle’s third work of modern architecture, the insisting that authorial intent is “cause”—the origin or agent, such identity of the Barcelona Pavilion is irrelevant to the experience and as an artisan. A common reason fraught with hagiography.51 Mies has understanding of a work: “a text is not a to distrust the authenticity of the been called “a god among architects,” line of words releasing a single ‘theologi- 1986 pavilion is the absence of the and his daughter’s description of cal’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the original architect in the process; the 1986 pavilion as being “given Author-God) but a multi-dimensional Filler’s criticism at the time focused to the world...for a second time” space in which a variety of writings, almost exclusively on whether Mies sounds less like reconstruction than none of them original, blend and would have made similar choices: resurrection.52 Dostoyevsky’s Grand clash.”55 Even those rare critics, such as “Mies would take strong exception Inquisitor comes to mind: returning K. Michael Hays, who place the original to...,” “Mies wanted it to read as...,” from the dead, Jesus is compelled pavilion in its historical milieu still etc.49 In the late 1950s, Oriol Bohigas to remain silent, as “He hasn’t the maintain that the architect’s “authorial attempted to rebuild the pavilion right to add anything to what He motivation” is essential.56 Despite the with Mies, who would have faced the has said of old.”53 The Gospel is the concerns of Filler and others about same challenges of durability and Gospel, complete and intact; any what “Mies wanted,” a Barthesian constructability that the 1986 builders editing would undermine the original view of the pavilion holds that Mies’s did. If he had specified similar or Word. If “God is in the details,” as interpretation is no more authorita- even identical materials and details Mies supposedly proclaimed, would tive than anyone else’s—perhaps less as they did three decades later, would altering those details be heretical— so.57 He approved of the idea of a the authenticity of the new pavilion even if altered by God himself?54 Is reconstruction, and whether he would have been questioned? “Without the reconstruction’s reunion of form have made exactly the same decisions Mies, without his being responsible,” and matter a kind of transubstantia- about its details is irrelevant: material Bohigas lamented in 1958, “we would tion, or is it a desecration? changes were inevitable.
Hosey JAE 72:2 237 Figure 7. Some of the earliest published photographs of the reconstruction revealed color and light qualities at times of day never seen before in print. (From Progressive Architecture [August 1986]; Photograph courtesy of Lluís Casals.)
Unstuck in Time The pavilion’s relationship to the path of the sun has not been discussed thoroughly in the most widely read texts on the pavilion, possibly because pre-reconstruction reviewers and critics seemed not to know the structure’s orientation.58 The canonical documentation tells only a partial story: published floor plans typically have not indicated context or the direction of north, and the famous photographs, shot mostly during a single morning in late spring, 1929, fix on a fleeting moment.59 In these images, the pavilion is stuck in time. Because the length is oriented nearly north–south and the main plaza space faces east, an abrupt Manichean shift from light to dark occurs around solar noon. Suddenly the main surfaces seen from the plaza side are thrown into shadow, and by late afternoon most of the pavilion is shrouded in shade. The effect is exaggerated by expansive faces of travertine, which are extremely bright when exposed to sunlight. The colors of the other stones shift markedly throughout the day, along with reflections in water and glass. The original structure lasted through three seasons, from May through January, so days drew progressively shorter and the sun fell lower in the sky: by autumn, the long backdrop was dark by mid-morning. As a public stage set, it received frontal light only a fraction of the time, so most visitors’ experiences would have been markedly different than the photographs capture. The original pavilion was a theatrical prop, evidently intended to be seen only at certain times of day and year.60 In reality, it is a place defined by darkness as much as light. The reconstruction allowed viewers to experience a broad range of light for the first time since 1930. In 1986, some of the first published images rendered it in softer tones, later in the day. Color alone must have been a shock to many readers.61 Could unfamiliar qualities of light have influenced judgments about authenticity?
238 The Ship of Theseus 8:00 a.m. CET / 7:00 a.m. GMT 10:00 a.m. CET / 9:00 a.m. GMT 12:00 p.m. CET / 11:00 a.m. GMT
2:00 p.m. CET / 1:00 p.m. GMT 4:00 p.m. CET / 3:00 p.m GMT 6:00 p.m. CET / 5:00 p.m GMT
Figure 8. Shadow studies, taken in two-hour increments, May 29, 2018. The third inconsistently adopted Daylight Saving Time (DST), so times indicated could be image approximates the original photograph from 1929 (Figure 3, left). Hours off by an hour for 1929-1930. Later in the year, the original pavilion was shrouded are noted in Central European Time (CET) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). in shade by mid-morning. (Photographs by Michele Curel, commissioned by the Spain followed GMT until World War II and now follows CET. From 1918 to 1936, it author.)
Figure 9. Site plan indicating north. (Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.)
Hosey JAE 72:2 239 Will of an Epoch the 1925 Paris exposition, initially was the most visible expression of this in Opinions on the authenticity of the not included. The Weimar Republic this Pavilion.”73 reconstruction generally dwell on was eager to establish its legitimacy While the pavilion was meant the pavilion as a physical artifact. Of in foreign affairs, and Barcelona was to signify peace and progress, it Aristotle’s four “causes,” the final is its first significant opportunity. The equally embodied the precarious purpose—“that for the sake of which pavilion was intended specifically to circumstances that created it. a thing is done,” its reason for being. give “voice to the spirit of a new era,” Post-reconstruction reviews Why were the pavilions built at all? according to Georg von Schnitzler, of the pavilion emphasize dizzying The primary purpose of the German commissioner to the surface and spatial effects, which world’s fairs, which emerged in exhibition.67 “Architecture is the will some critics have questioned the mid-nineteenth century and of an epoch translated into space,” as “revisionary” readings.74 In grew in scale and stature well into Mies famously declared, and Philip actuality, these views echo the the twentieth, was spectacle— Johnson described the pavilion earliest accounts: “Such is the to broadcast nations’ cultural, as “a landmark of that period the German Pavilion: the architecture of economic, and political might. “A way Chartres was a landmark of reflections,” one reviewer concluded principal means whereby government the medieval cathedral.”68 The in 1929. “And this, precisely, is the and private bodies presented their canonical interpretation of the soul of the new Germany.” Sunlight vision of the world to the masses,” pavilion as “complete abstraction” was said to “splinter into a thousand explains historian Peter Greenhalgh, purged all political meaning: after flecks of scattered reflections.”75 “the exhibitions illustrated the Mies fled Germany, the pavilion Such surface effects coincide with relation between money and power was increasingly recast as “alien to commercial and cultural trends in . . .”62 Nearly all the participants any deep political commitment.”69 1920s Germany, a fact that does not were colonial powers, and the But visitors in 1929 understood its appear in the canonical literature of exhibits typically included exotic function as propaganda, calling it the pavilion. As Janet Ward recounts, objects acquired from foreign lands “a symbol of Germany’s post war the “culture (or cult) of surface” that as “trophies or booty.”63 Unlike Kultur” and “representative architec- today defines all visual and consumer displays dedicated to industry or ture, like an obelisk or a triumphal culture first arose in the cinemas, arts, national pavilions conveyed arch.” Schnitzler announced, storefronts, electric signage, and these imperialistic sensibili- “This is the peaceful home of a other forms of consumerist spectacle ties without any content, for the Germany at peace!”70 in the Weimar era, presaging the structures themselves were the Yet, Germany was anything but transition from modernism to message and the medium. The peaceful at the time. The Weimar postmodernism. Ward labels the 1929 German National Pavilion, period was defined by extreme entire period Fassadenkultur, a culture intended to broadcast an image of volatility: An “integral feature of the of facades.76 The pavilion’s luminous the homeland, nevertheless was era,” writes historian Detlev Peukert, milk-glass vitrine (Figure 3) has composed largely of exotic materials is “the paradox, rarely explained,” been described in mystical terms, from abroad—Roman travertine, combining “the hopeful picture of but it also seems directly lifted from Tinian marble, Vert antique from avant-garde cultural achievement Berlin’s cinemas and shop windows the French Alps, and Moroccan onyx and the bleak picture of political of the time (Figure 10).77 doré, considered “one of the world’s breakdown and social misery.”71 The entire effect of the pavilion rarest and costliest marbles.”64 Many Germans did not accept the could be described as an amalgam In fact, Mies rejected a proposed authority of the Weimar government, of images from both “high” and German stone because it was not and Mies recounted later, “Building “low” culture, observers comparing “noble” enough.65 While he claimed would remain a socially and it to everything from a Roman that modern architecture demanded politically charged activity.”72 As the temple to a circus tent.78 The mix new, industrially manufactured pavilion was being razed, Germany of luxurious stones and industrial components, the German Pavilion itself came apart, falling into social glass and steel—palace meets was full of extravagant ancient stones and economic catastrophe. If the factory—threw off many critics extracted from other cultures, in project represented Germany at in 1929 and foiled later historians’ the tradition of the Wunderkammer, that time—its stated purpose—the attempts to fit the pavilion neatly a chamber of curiosities, the official view of its commissioners into the nascent International spoils of empire.66 and most architects and histori- Style.79 In one sense, the underly- Planning for the Barcelona ans has been that aesthetic purity ing podium serves the purpose of International Exposition had begun signified cultural and technological a classical crepidoma, conveying in 1914 but was postponed until after progress. “We do not want anything stability through connection to World War I, and Germany, which but clarity, simplicity, honesty,” the earth, but here the platform had been barred from participating in Schnitzler insisted. “You will find is hollow, not solid, and cut short
240 The Ship of Theseus Figure 10. Weimar Fassadenkultur. Budapester Strasse, space of the exposition, the pavilion spectacle and a common theme in Berlin, 1926. Cinema, shop windows, light boxes, was literally a sideshow. German cinema of the 20s.85 One reflective surfaces, horizontal canopies. (Photograph courtesy of Ullstein Bild via Getty Images.) Carnivals and fairs originated commentator recently described as festivals of the dead, and with the pavilion as “halfway between a at the ends, thwarting its role as a over two million Germans lost in film set and a mausoleum,”86 but visual foundation. It appears more the war, grief weighed heavily on actually it is both, simultaneously. as a stage set, an obvious function Weimar society and culture.81 The The pavilion conflates sacred and for political theater, and early year the pavilion came down, Mies profane, hallows and gallows. concept sketches make this apparent submitted a concept for the Neue Early reviews of both the 1929 (Figure 11). The proscenium effect of Wache Memorial to fallen soldiers, and 1986 pavilions focused on two the front elevation (Figure 1)—wing in which he proposed the same specific phenomena—reflective walls, apron, backdrop, side stair, polished Tinian marble.82 After surfaces (glass, polished stone, water) even a red curtain—evokes theaters visiting the pavilion, Rubió Tudurí and labyrinthine space (pinwheel or cinemas but also fairgrounds and called it a “somber . . . commemo- movement, bounded but unenclosed carnivals. With many of the earmarks rative structure,” and others have rooms) (Figure 5).87 Combined, of popular fairs—edge location, described it as “numinous” (religious these qualities form a reflective blurred boundaries, elided space, or spiritual), a term most associated labyrinth, a strange aesthetic ephemeral construction, transpar- with funerary places, “the space of condition for a space dedicated to ency and veiling, illusory materials, absence.”83 A million dead lie buried “clarity, simplicity, honesty,” and etc.—the pavilion conjures Mikhail nearby, in Barcelona’s main cemetery one that channels two traditions— Bakhtin’s depiction of the carnival as on the Montjuïc, also notorious one “low,” one “high.” The first, a a “world upside down,” a subversive for political executions, even after mirror maze, echoes carnivals again. social space: “these images are 1929.84 In this light, the pavilion’s During the early twentieth century, opposed to all that is finished and stepped platform also evokes images Barnumesque fairs were popular in polished.”80 Set off from the main of scaffolds, another form of political Germany, stemming largely from
Hosey JAE 72:2 241 Figure 11. Top: Barcelona Pavilion, early sketch, 1929, attributed to Mies van der Rohe. From the outset, the pavilion resembled a theatrical stage set with platform and proscenium. (Image courtesy of bpk Bildagentur / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.)
Figure 12. Bottom: Fairground pavilion, Oktoberfest, Munich, 1926. Barnumesque fairs were popular in Germany during the early 1900s. Planar facade, cheap painted materials, stepped platform, proscenium, flags. (Photograph by Georg Pettendorder. Courtesy of Stadtarchiv München.) rampant “Americanism”.88 The fairs were escapist diversions, and the spatial disorientation of distorted mirrors (Zerrspiegel) may be linked through the pavilion, as a symbol of Germany, to the instability of Weimar culture.89 The viewer, notes Josep Quetglas, is “eradicated through reflections.”90 The second tradition, a hall of mirrors (Spiegelsaal), channels the parlors of European palaces such as the Amalienburg, and the pavilion housed its own “Throne Room,” where the king and queen of Spain presided during the opening ceremonies (Figure 5). The most famous hall of mirrors, the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles—also home to a legendary labyrinth—served as the site of both the formation of the German Empire (1871) (Figure 13) and its disintegration with the Treaty of Versailles (1919).91 More than the very emblem of such confusion. about whether to include a national any other single space, the Galerie In German cinema throughout the pavilion. German officials were des Glaces witnessed the fate of 1920s, similar motifs—distorted said to be “caught by surprise,” modern Germany, the pavilion’s reflections, carnivals, showmen’s so the architect had to design the symbolic subject. stages, mazes, striking shadows, pavilion “almost overnight.”97 Mies On one level, the commingling etc.—were seen to be expressions remembered, “If the British and of “high” and “low” could merely of the Weimar struggle between the French had not had a pavilion, indicate an early-modern architect chaos and order.95 The German there would have been no pavilion drawing consciously or unconsciously Pavilion’s uneasy collage of patrician in Barcelona erected by Germany.”98 from myriad traditions for an and popular forms was anything but Due to its uncertain diplomatic important but rushed commission politically meaningless.96 position, Germany entered the expo he confessed he did not understand. This view portrays the late and began planning for the “I did not know what a pavilion pavilion’s sociopolitical conditions national pavilion even later, largely should be,” Mies recalled. “It in metaphorical terms, but those to compete with Britain and France was very strange . . . .”92 But the conditions had a more direct impact (incidentally its enemies during the conflation smacks of the bourgeois, on the structure. Mies was hired in war). Germany’s political anxieties the mixture of democratic and May 1928, but thorough planning led to a frenzied development aristocratic values.93 During times of did not begin until September, only schedule and slapdash construc- social instability, the differentiation eight months before opening, and tion. In other words, the pavilion’s between “high” and “low” culture development was uneven. Delays house-of-cards physical condition becomes unsettled, because cultural stemmed both from equivocation was itself a direct consequence of distinctions coincide with class about whether Germany would Weimar politics. distinctions—when one fractures, be invited to the exposition and This is evident most clearly in the other follows.94 A labyrinth is from Germany’s own indecisions the pavilion’s centerpiece, the onyx
242 The Ship of Theseus Figure 13. Anton von Werner, The Proclamation of wall (Figure 5). The search for its found object, became the structure’s the German Empire, third version, 1885. Painting material did not occur until that built-in yardstick, its unique unit depicting the coronation of Wilhelm I as German winter, just a handful of months of measure ruling the pavilion’s emperor, Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 1871. Theatrical platform, steps, red and green marble, distorted before the pavilion opened, as Mies dimensions and proportions. reflections, flags. (Public domain.) recalled later: Visually, the lavish pinkish-gold wall was the most distinctive part of the criticism of the reconstruction, Filler There was not much time, very little architecture, often compared to an questions whether Mies would have time in fact. It was deep in winter, altarpiece.100 It also determined the approved of the color and pattern as you cannot move marble in from very form of the building through of the new onyx, but such quibbling the quarry in winter because it is the heights of the roof, the walls, the overlooks a far more crucial still wet inside and would easily columns, and the interior. According point—the original specimen, lost freeze to pieces. So we had to find to Aristotle, form is part of an after 1930, defined the shape of the dry material. I looked round the artifact’s “essence,” while materials structure. Without it, the pavilion is huge marble depots, and in one I are “accidental”; but in this case a a reliquary with the wrong relic.102 found an onyx block. This block unique material specimen governed This is possibly the single most had a certain size and, since I the building’s form. The onyx was significant difference between the had only the possibility of taking essential to the pavilion: “I had only two structures. this block, I made the pavilion the possibility of taking this block.” The 1986 pavilion came twice that height.99 Germany’s political about through its own sociopo- circumstances caused the late start litical influences. In 2001, Xavier Pulled from a Hamburg showroom, that required using ready-made Costa, then the chief curator of where it was destined to be carved stone and therefore also directly Architecture and Art Programs for into vases for a steamer ship dining shaped the pavilion itself—through the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, room, the onyx block, a virtual the size of the onyx slabs.101 In his told me that the decision to rebuild
Hosey JAE 72:2 243 the pavilion was motivated largely essentially the “same” is partly to say Acknowledgments by Spain’s return to democracy. that they have equal right to be called Research and travel for this essay The Spanish Civil War broke out in by that name. How things are named were partially supported by a 2001 1936, six years after the Barcelona is a key aspect of identity theory: grant from the Graham Foundation International Exposition, and in at any given time, we are justified for Advanced Studies in the Fine 1939 Franco took control of Spain in calling something by a particular Arts. Most of the research and and established dictatorship, which name only if we can give a reason writing was completed in 2002–2003. lasted until his death, in 1975.103 for supposing it to be identical with Thanks to George Dodds, Caroline Much like the Weimar Republic, what we formerly addressed by Constant, and Xavier Costa for the City of Barcelona sought ways that name.109 Yet, arguably the title their input back then. to reestablish its prewar cultural “Barcelona Pavilion” most commonly reputation.104 The reconstruction of refers to the version invoked in Author Biography the pavilion was planned to coincide fictional notations and narratives.110 Architect and author Lance Hosey, with the centennial of Mies’s birth Since that version never physically FAIA, LEED Fellow, has written two but also to reaffirm the region’s existed, the name expresses identity books and hundreds of articles on cultural status. In the six years without an object, a reference without design for the Washington Post, New between the reconstruction and the a referent. The official names of the York Times, Fast Company, Architectural 1992 Olympics, Barcelona’s economy two built structures aptly convey Record, Metropolis, and other general soared. The city, like the pavilion, their historical distinctions: the and academic publications. His latest was said to be “born again.”105 “German National Pavilion” (1929) book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, and the “Mies van der Rohe Pavilion” Ecology, and Design (Island Press, Conclusion (1986). One highlights the patron, 2012) was a finalist for 2014 Book If we use identity theory to the other the architect. Both are of the Year in the National Urban examine the pavilions as physical politically motivated. Design Awards and won a 2013 New artifacts, their differences present The aim of preservation is York Book Show award, and in 2017 little philosophical justification not merely to maintain material Environmental Building News included for questioning the authenticity artifacts—it is to appreciate the it among the books “all designers of the reconstruction. A pristine cultural heritage of the built environ- should read.” His research and writing phoenix, its form and quality ment, heritage that depends on both have been supported by the Graham arguably are closer to the prevail- aesthetic and historical conditions. Foundation, the AIA, the Rockefeller ing understanding of the building Far from being a “complete abstrac- Foundation, and the Michael Kalil than the original structure was. tion,” each of the two built pavilions Endowment for Smart Design, and According to preservationists, a is explicitly a product of its sociopo- he has won the ACSA’s JAE Award for reconstruction “re-creates vanished litical context. The design and outstanding essays on architecture. or non-surviving portions of a construction of the 1929 pavilion property for interpretive purposes,” evolved directly out of the situation Notes especially when “such reconstruc- in Germany at the time. Officially, 1 Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tion is essential to the public it was intended to look forward, as (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869), 19. 2 For a thorough discussion of the ship of understanding of the property.”106 an expression of postwar enlighten- Theseus, see Peter Pesic, Seeing Double: Shared These purposes are validated by the ment and optimism, but in reality, it Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature fact that, since 1986, understand- was stuck precisely in that moment (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 15ff. For ings of the pavilion have broadened in time, forever frozen in the famous additional reading on identity theory, see Andrew Brennan, Conditions of Identity (Oxford: significantly while echoing those who photographs. The 1986 pavilion, Clarendon Press, 1988); and David Wiggins, visited the original structure. One however, was motivated by looking Sameness and Substance (Cambridge, MA: dictionary definition ofpreserve is backward, to a brighter time in Harvard University Press, 1980). “to keep alive or in existence; make Spain’s history. Filler might have been 3 Paul Goldberger, “Mies Masterpiece’s New lasting.”107 Certainly the reconstruc- correct all along when he called the Incarnation,” New York Times, March 26, 1987, C22. Goldberger compares the reconstruc- tion does this by offering a tangible new structure “a museum of itself.”111 tion to Shangri-La, as if it is a fantasy or presence, a spatial and temporal In the built pavilions, physical hallucination. experience previously unavailable. variations are relatively inconse- 4 Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici, and “The primary goal of preservation,” quential, but differences in political Fernando Ramos, Mies van der Rohe: Barcelona Pavilion (Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1993), 38–39. notes the American Institute for motives and circumstances are signifi- 5 Philip Johnson, quoted in Michael Brenson, Conservation of Historic and Artistic cant. This should not necessarily “Mies Pavilion to Rise Again,” New York Works, “is to prolong the existence delegitimize the reconstruction, but it Times, April 1, 1983. of cultural property.”108 should underscore the fact that form, 6 Warren A. James, “Barcelona,” Progressive To contend that the two built material, and meaning cannot be Architecture 67, no. 8 (August 1986): 62. 7 Solà-Morales et al., , 38–39. versions of the Barcelona Pavilion are disentangled easily. Mies van der Rohe
244 The Ship of Theseus In his study of the mythology of the 1929 materiality,” transforming the pavilion into 58. In 2017, a survey of leading architects photographs, George Dodds refers to the what the architects considered a one-to- ranked the pavilion the third “most important 1986 pavilion as a “full-size replica.” Building one scale model of itself. Mies Missing and influential” building of the twentieth Desire: On the Barcelona Pavilion (New York: Materiality, 20 (see n. 9). century. See Thom Mayne, Eui-Sung Yi, Routledge, 2005), x. 23 George Howe, “Abstract Design in and Val Warke, 100 Buildings (New York: 8 Martin Filler, “Barcelona Reborn: Mies Modern Architecture,” Parnassus 8, no. 5 Rizzoli, 2017), 14-15. van der Rohe’s 1929 Pavilion, Rebuilt on its (October 1936): 30. 39 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in Original Site,” House & Garden 158, no. 12 24 Filler, “Barcelona Reborn,” 219–20. the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in (December 1986): 216. 25 Aristotle, Metaphysics, 299 (see n. 12). Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: 9 Anna and Eugeni Bach, Mies Missing 26 See Wiggins, Sameness and Substance, Shocken, 1968), 217–51. Materiality, Fundació Mies van der 125 (see n. 2). 40 Jean-Louis Cohen remarks, “The rediscov- Rohe, Barcelona, November 8–28, 27 Juan Pablo Bonta, Architecture and Its ered colour seems rather forced, because the 2017, http://miesbcn.com/project/ Interpretation: A Study of Expressive pavilion has assumed the aura of authenticity mies-missing-materiality/. Systems in Architecture (London: Lund in the black and white of the photographs. To 10 Fabrizio Gallanti, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” Humphries, 1979), 25. some extent this reverses Walter Benjamin’s Interwoven, 2017, http://kvadratinterwo- 28 Philip C. Johnson, Mies van der Rohe (New thesis. . . . However, the recreated opportunity ven.com/hidden-in-plain-sight. See also York: Museum of Modern Art, 1947), 58. of passing through the space of the pavilion Lola García, “Top 5 Fake Monuments in 29 See Dodds, Building Desire, 9ff (see n. 7). makes two-dimensional reproductions pale Barcelona,” OK Apartment Barcelona, November 30 Rosa Ma Subirana Torrent, Mies van der Rohe’s by comparison.” Mies van der Rohe (New 26, 2013, http://www.barcelonacheckin.com/ German Pavilion in Barcelona, 1929–1986 York: E & FN Spon, 1996), 52. Neil Levine en/r/barcelona_tourism_guide/articles/ (Barcelona, Ajuntament de Barcelona, is less convinced: “A replica of the building fake-architecture.php. 1987), 96. In the reconstruction, the has replaced the photograph as the agent of 11 Oxford Dictionaries, s.v. “preserve sculpture is bronze. preservation. The question is whether ‘more’ (v.),” accessed June 12, 2018, https:// 31 For a thorough analysis of the published floor or ‘less’ has been preserved.” “Building the en.oxforddictionaries.com/ plans, see Wolf Tegethoff,Mies van der Rohe: Unbuilt: Authenticity and the Archive,” Journal definition/us/preserve. The Villas and Country Houses (New York: The of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no. 1 12 Aristotle, Metaphysics VI: 2 and VII: 4, in A New Museum of Modern Art, 1985), 70ff. (March 2008): 15. Aristotle Reader, ed. J. L. Ackrill (Princeton: 32 In Building Desire, Dodds portrays the original 41 Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art: An Approach Princeton University Press, 1987), 280ff. photographs as a third pavilion, insisting that to a Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis: Hackett, 13 Aristotle, Physics II: 3, in A New while all three are “equally ‘authentic,’ they 1968), 112–13. Juan Pablo Bonta was the first to Aristotle Reader, 98ff. are not all equal” (120). Yet, his entire thesis apply Goodman’s theories to the pavilion— 14 Solà-Morales et al., Mies van der Rohe, pt. II. is that the photographs take primacy: “The even before the reconstruction was built. See 15 One notable omission from the original rebuilding of the pavilion does not so much Bonta, Architecture and Its Interpretation, 24-25. context is the gigantic Ionic colonnade enable us to walk freely and unencumbered 42 Ibid. that stood to the east, opposite its twin at through the real thing, as it has given us fresh 43 Remei Capdevila-Werning, Goodman for the far end of the Gran Plaza de la Fuente insights into the photographs from 1929 and Architects (New York: Routledge, 2013), 80. Mágica, the core of the exposition (Figure 4). their often tenuous relations to occupiable 44 Ibid., 93–99. The colonnade is considered by some to space” (38). He maintains that if the original 45 A standard critique of Goodman is that under have been crucial to the perception of the pavilion had not disappeared, its continued certain conditions an artwork can be both pavilion. See Josep Quetglas, Fear of Glass: presence would have “destabilized” the power singular and multiple, unique and not unique. Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion in Barcelona (Basel: of the photographs (120). In 2002, Dodds told Etching is autographic while producing Birkhäuser, 2001), 37ff. me he had not visited the reconstruction and multiple instances. Theoretically, if every 16 Plato, Republic, VII, bk. VII, 514a–521d. did not plan to. molecule of a painting were perfectly cloned, 17 Pesic continues, “What is real has a kind of 33 US Department of the Interior, National Park it would shift from singular to multiple while inner integrity; the ship of Theseus is real if Service, Technical Preservation Services, remaining autographic. See Gregory Currie, it maintains its original, authentic form. Such “Standards for Reconstruction,” accessed An Ontology of Art (New York: St. Martin’s a form, however, is not an individual but a January 30, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/ Press, 1989), 108ff. universal that transcends any specific material tps/standards/four-treatments/treatment- 46 Matt Tyrnauer, “Architecture in the Age of ship.” Seeing Double, 17 (see n. 2). reconstruction.htm. Gehry,” Vanity Fair (August 2010), https:// 18 Filler, “Barcelona Reborn,” 217. Fritz 34 Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in Norman www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/08/ Neumeyer writes that the pavilion “led an Tyler, Historic Preservation: An Introduction to architecture-survey-201008. ideal architectural existence as a Platonic Its History, Principles, and Practice (New York: 47 Solà-Morales et al., Mies van der object with nothing other than itself to Norton, 1999), 20. Rohe, 39 (see n. 4). display.” Mies van der Rohe: German Pavilion, 35 Umberto Eco, “Notes on Referring as 48 Museum historian Tony Bennett writes International Exposition, Barcelona, Spain, Contract,” in Kant and the Platypus: Essays on that “the masterpiece is ‘the quintes- 1928–29 (reconstructed 1986), Tugendhat Language and Cognition, trans. Alastair McEwen sential complete and finished object’ . . . a House, Brno, Czecho, 1928–30 (Tokyo: A.D.A. (New York: Harvest, 1997), 323. self-subsistent singularity existing outside Edita, 1995), 8. 36 Wiggins, Sameness and Substance, 91. the orders of time.” The Birth of the Museum 19 Franz Schulze in The Mies van der Rohe 37 John Ruskin, Praeterita (1885; Oxford (New York: Routledge, 1995), 44. Calling the Archive 2, ed. Arthur Drexler (New York: University Press, 2012), 392. pavilion a “masterpiece” portrays it as the Garland, 1986), 219. 38 In 1947 Philip Johnson hailed the pavilion product of the architect alone, disconnected 20 Neumeyer, Mies van der Rohe, 2. as “an original work of art” and “one of the from its context. 21 Vincent Scully, Modern Architecture: The milestones of modern architecture”: “it 49 Filler, “Barcelona Reborn,” 219–20 (see n. Architecture of Democracy (1961; New York: is lamentable that it existed for only one 8). He acknowledges that “Mies neglected to Braziller, 1984), 28. season.” Mies van der Rohe (1947), 58. In 1954, consider” certain construction details. 22 Playing with the perception of the pavilion Oriol Bohigas argued that the pavilion should 50 “Wonderful News: Mies van der Rohe Offers as form independent of matter is the intent be rebuilt because of its status as “the most to Rebuild the Famous 1929 Pavilion,” Destino of the Bachs’ installation, Mies Missing important, culturally transcendent work 1080, April 19, 1958, 36–37; reprinted in Materiality, which covered all the surfaces built in Spain in recent centuries.” Quoted in Torrent, Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, in white vinyl panels “to strip it of all Torrent, Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, 58–59 (see n. 30).
Hosey JAE 72:2 245 51 Of his 1947 monograph on Mies, Philip Building Desire, 118. noted, “Some of this glass, in a dark and Johnson later said, “I thought of it as hagiogra- 62 Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Visions: The neutral shade, reflects objects and people, phy, exegesis, propaganda—I just wanted to “Expositions Universelles,” Great Exhibitions so that what can be seen through the glass show that Mies was the greatest architect in and World’s Fairs, 1851–1939 (New York: mingles with what is seen in reflection” (42). the world.” Quoted in Tegethoff, 71. Manchester University Press, 1988), 27. Bruno Taut’s only remark about the pavilion 52 “God” quotation from Rowan Moore, “Mies 63 Burton Benedict, “Rituals of Representation: focused on its reflective surfaces.Modern by Detlef Mertins Review–‘Definitive’ Ethnic Stereotypes and Colonized Peoples at Architecture (New York: Albert & Charles Biography,” The Guardian, April 27, World’s Fairs,” in Fair Representations: World’s Boni, 1929), 194. 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/ Fairs and the Modern World, ed. Robert W. 76 Janet Ward, Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual artanddesign/2014/apr/27/mies-van-der-rohe- Rydell and Nancy E. Gwinn (Amsterdam: VU Culture in 1920s Germany (Berkeley: University detlef-mertins-biography-review. University Press, 1994), 29–31. of California Press, 2001), 2, 9. 53 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 64 Caroline Constant, “The Barcelona Pavilion 77 “[T]he luminous court . . . has an ineffable trans. Constance Garnett (1880; New York: as Landscape Garden: Modernity and the quality. Its light seems to emanate magically Dover, 2005), 225–27. Picturesque,” AA Files 20 (1990): 49. The onyx from within . . . .” Constant, “The Barcelona 54 “Although the reconstruction architects alone reportedly accounted for 20 percent of Pavilion as Landscape Garden,” 50 (see n. 64). might not have regarded Mies an infallible the original construction cost. Kurt Andersen, 78 “Seen from its main approach, the Pavilion, oracle,” muses Filler, “neither did they try “His Was the Simplicity that Stuns,” Time 127, atop its substantial podium, has the effect to make him into a ventriloquist’s dummy.” no. 9, (March 3, 1986): 77. of a Roman temple . . . .” Dirk Lohan, “Barcelona Reborn,” 219–20. Dodds compares 65 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in Carsten Krohn, remarks at the opening of the reconstruc- the reconstruction to the practice of idolatry, Mies van der Rohe: The Built Work (Basel: tion, 1986, quoted in Torrent, Mies van der the fashioning of material effigies meant to Birkhäuser, 2014), 76. Rohe’s German Pavilion, 61. In 1980, Manfredo resummon the gods. Building Desire, 63, n. 66 On Mies’s views about industrial materials, see Tafuri compared the pavilion to theatrical 119 (see n. 7). “The Industrialization of Building Methods” scenery, a circus tent, and a labyrinth—all in a 55 Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author,” in (1924), printed in Johnson, Mies van der Rohe single paragraph. The Sphere and the Labyrinth: Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath (1977; (1947), 184–87. On the Wunderkammer, Avant-Gardes and Architecture from Piranesi to the Glasgow: Fontana, 1982), 146. see Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 40, 73, 1970s, trans. Pellegrino d’Acierno and Robert 56 K. Michael Hays, “Critical Architecture: 93 (see n. 38). Connolly (1980; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Between Culture and Form,” Perspecta 67 Georg von Schnitzler, quoted in Nicolau Maria 1987), 111. The word pavilion originally referred 21 (1984), 27. Rubió Tudurí, “The German Pavilion by Mies to a tent, related etymologically to papillon, 57 Reflecting on the pavilion, Rafael Moneo van der Rohe at the Barcelona Exhibition,” “butterfly,” a winged thing. notes that an architect “does not control his Cahiers d’Art VIII–IX (1929): 409–11; reprinted 79 Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson or her works completely” and “only partly in Torrent, Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, confessed to having trouble placing the governs” a building’s meaning. Introduction to 42 (see n. 30). pavilion in the 1932 exhibition, in part because Fear of Glass, by Quetglas, 9 (see n. 15). Mies 68 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in Schulze and of its overt references to “great styles of the himself insisted, perhaps disingenuously, that Windhorst, Mies van der Rohe, 93. Philip past,” which they saw as an exception to the buildings are not “the works of individual Johnson quoted in Brenson, “Mies Pavilion to rule. The International Style (1932; London: architects. Who asks for the names of these Rise Again” (see n. 5). Norton, 1966), ix–x, 48. In 1986, remarking builders?” In Johnson, Mies van der Rohe (1947), 69 Bonta, Architecture and Its Interpretation, 158 on the reconstruction, John Morris Dixon 186 (see n. 28). (see n. 27). Even today, the pavilion is thought called the pavilion “an icon of the Modern 58 See Bonta, Architecture and Its Interpretation, “to hold the chaos and strife of Europe movement, which believed in discarding 208 (see n. 27). in the 1920s at a distance, providing an all architecture of the past—and would 59 Of the original fourteen photographs, only alternate space that might allow the modern have scorned the commemorative rebuild- one was taken after noon: the view from the subject to escape into its cool lines . . . .” ing of a structure from half a century past.” southwest corner of the plaza, facing north Sreenjaya Ria Banerjee, “Reclaiming Space: “Paradoxes of Restoration,” Progressive (Figure 6, photo on the left). This image was Buildings in Modernist Literature and Film” Architecture (August 1986): 11. relatively rarely published in the most widely (PhD dissertation, City University of New 80 Mikhail Bakhtin, quoted in Peter Stallybrass read monographs and histories between 1932 York, 2014), 30. and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of and 1986 (notably Johnson, Mies van der Rohe 70 On the pavilion and Germany’s postwar Transgression (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University (1947), 68; and Scully, Modern Architecture, pl. Kultur, see Tudurí, “The German Pavilion by Press, 1986), 7. The canonical view failed to 77 (see n. 21). The version published is printed Mies van der Rohe,” 42. Schnitzler quotation see the pavilion’s relationship to “architec- lightly, possibly through dodging, rendering from Helen Appleton Read, “Germany at ture of the past.” the shadows softer. the Barcelona World’s Fair,” Arts (October 81 Monica Black, Death in Berlin: From Weimar 60 Dodds maintains that Mies saw the temporary 1929): 112–13. to Divided Germany (Cambridge, UK: pavilion as merely a maquette to generate the 71 Detlev J. K. Peukert, The Weimar Republic: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 272. For photographs—an image-making machine. The Crisis of Classical Modernity, trans. Richard the origin of fairs, see T. F. G. Dexter, The Building Desire, 120 (see n. 7). Surrealist Deveson (New York: Hill and Wang, 1989), xiii. Pagan Origin of Fairs (Cornwall, UK: New photographers of the period used similar 72 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in Fritz Neumeyer, Knowledge Press, 1930). techniques, and the pavilion’s reversal of dark The Artless Word: Mies van der Rohe on the 82 Schulze and Windhorst, Mies van der Rohe, and light is reminiscent of the “solarization” Building Art (Cambridge: MIT, 1991), 429. 137–38 (see n. 62). techniques of Man Ray, with whom Mies was 73 Georg von Schnitzler, quoted in Torrent, 83 For “somber,” see Tudurí, “The German acquainted. See Robert Hirsch, Seizing the Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe,” 42 (see n. Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography 31–32 (see n. 30). 68). For “numinous,” see Constant, “The (New York: Routledge, 2017), 268. 74 Rosalind Krauss, “The Grid, The /Cloud/, and Barcelona Pavilion as Landscape Garden,” 49. 61 Dodds suggests that color in the pavilion The Detail,” in The Presence of Mies, ed. Detlef For “space of absence,” see Richard A. Etlin, (e.g., the red curtain) may have been intended Mertins (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Symbolic Space: French Enlightenment Architecture only to influence how the black-and-white Press, 1994), 133–34. and Its Legacy (Chicago: University of Chicago photos would read, a technique Mies would 75 The same review called it a “labyrinth of large Press, 1994), 172. have learned from German cinema: “We can planes.” Àngel Marsa and Lluís Marsillach, La 84 Brad Epps, “Barcelona and Modernity,” in The look at the reconstruction, much as one looks montana iluminada, 1929; reprinted as Epigraph Barcelona Reader: Cultural Readings of a City, ed. at an old motion picture recently colorized.” to Quetglas, Fear of Glass, 15 (see n. 15). Tudurí Enric Bou and Jaume Subirana (Liverpool,
246 The Ship of Theseus UK: Liverpool University Press, 2017), 156. (PhD dissertation, School of Architecture, Services, “Four Approaches to the Treatment 85 Bennett uses Michel Foucault’s writings on Princeton University, 2012). of Historic Properties,” https://www.nps.gov/ scaffolds to show the similarities between 96 Even a critic as astute as Robin Evans tps/standards/four-treatments/treatment- museums and public executions as spectacles overlooked this aspect of the pavilion, noting reconstruction.htm. of political power. The Birth of the Museum, 60ff that while Weimar artists wrote of the political 107 “Preserve,” Dictionary.com, http:// (see n. 48). In Weimar film, see the famous “ground shaking beneath my feet” (George www.dictionary.com/browse/preserve gallows scene in G. W. Pabst, The Love of Jeanne Grosz), “it was not visible in Mies’s architec- (accessed July 9, 2018). Ney, 1927. Death and grief were pervasive ture. Insulated from seismic disturbance, the 108 The American Institute for Conservation of themes in Weimar film. Anton Kaes,Shell Shock pavilion gives no indication of it . . . .” “Mies Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), Definitions Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War van der Rohe’s Paradoxical Symmetries,” of Conservation, http://www.conservation- (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). 67. Dodds notes, “Mies’s interest was not us.org/docs/default-source/governance/ 86 Adam Jasper, “A Virtual Look into Mies van statecraft … but stagecraft.”Building Desire, definitions-of-conservation-terminology.pdf. der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion,” ArchDaily, 119 (see n. 7). 109 John Searle, “Proper Names and September 18, 2015, https://www.archdaily. 97 For an account of the planning, see Descriptions,” Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New com/773846/a-virtual-look-into-mies-van-der- Solà-Morales et al., Mies van der Rohe, York: Macmillan, 1967), 489. rohes-barcelona-pavilion. 7ff (see n. 4). For “caught by surprise,” 110 The origin of the common name “Barcelona 87 See especially Caroline Constant, “The see Ludwig Glaeser, quoted in Bonta, Pavilion” has not been thoroughly traced Barcelona Pavilion as Landscape Garden”; and Architecture and Its Interpretation, 155 (see n. before. Two years after the demolition of the Robin Evans, “Mies van der Rohe’s Paradoxical 27). For “almost overnight,” see Sarah Booth original, the project appeared in Hitchcock Symmetries,” AA Files 19 (Spring 1990): 60. Conroy, “Brief Splendor of Mies van der and Johnson’s The International Style (1932) Incidentally, Theseus’s return from Crete Rohe’s Enduring Pavillion,” Washington Post, under the name “Barcelona pavilion,” without after slaying the Minotaur in the labyrinth is October 14, 1979, https://www.washing- a capitalized second initial. That book was the voyage that spawned the philosophical tonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/10/14/ a follow-up to the Museum of Modern Art paradox of his ship. brief-splendor-of-mies-van-der-rohes- exhibit, Modern Architecture, and in his essay 88 Peukert, Weimar Republic, 178ff (see n. 72). enduring-pavillion/8e03117e-36f1-40ff-a1c3- in the accompanying catalog, Johnson makes 89 A distorted mirror is a common metaphor 1f3bc1736e15/?utm_term=.fd2d22e07d5c. several references to the “Barcelona Pavilion” for Weimar politics. Stephan Malinowski, 98 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in Cadbury-Brown, (both words capitalized). Alfred H. Barr Jr., “Politische Skandale als Zerrspiegel der “Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,” 28. Henry-Russell Hitcock, Philip Johnson, Demokratie. Die Fälle Barmat und Sklarek im 99 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in Bonta, and Lewis Mumford, Modern Architecture: Kalkül der Weimarer Rechten,” Jahrbuch für Architecture and Its Interpretation, 151. International Exhibition (New York: Museum Antisemitismusforschung 5 (1996), 46–65. 100 Glaeser refers to “the onyx wall, which of Modern Art, 1932), 115ff. By capitalizing 90 Quetglas, Fear of Glass, 129 (see n. 15). Bennett identified the ritual center.” Quoted in Bonta, both words, Johnson converts the more describes “fun house” mirrors as undermin- Architecture and Its Interpretation, 208. See also casual allusion to a proper noun, a practice ing self-identity and subverting conventional Dodds, Building Desire, 132. he continued in his 1947 monograph, which relationships between body and space. Birth of 101 The onyx slabs have a presumably unintended popularized both Mies and the pavilion. the Museum, 237–41. similarity to Surrealist objets trouvés, which With the rise and fall of the Third Reich, the 91 Schulze notes that Mies’s youth, in the early evolved directly out of artists’ disillusionment renaming suppressed the pavilion’s associa- days of the empire, was a time of great national with World War I and represented the crisis tions with German nationalism. pride, and during his boyhood in Aachen he of the traditional art object by shifting the 111 Filler, “Barcelona Reborn,” 216 (see n. 8). was particularly enamored with the Palatine relationships between artisan and artifact to Chapel, the coronation hall for German that of producer and consumer. See Diane kings for 600 years. His 1910 concept for the Waldman, Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Bismarck Memorial was a proto-fascist glorifi- Object (New York: Abrams, 1992). cation of the first chancellor of the German 102 The word relic stems from “remains,” such Empire. Schulze and Windhorst, Mies van der as the bones of a saint or martyr. Cynthia Rohe, 5ff, 31ff. Hahn’s description sounds very much like the 92 Mies van der Rohe, quoted in H. T. Cadbury- pavilion: “The reliquary, while framing the Brown, “Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: an address relic and thus creating an interior, also joins of appreciation,” Architectural Association Journal together the relic and reliquary, simultane- 75, no. 834 (July-August 1959): 27. ously destroying any clear sense of interior 93 In 1929, Tudurí noted the pavilion’s and exterior and fusing the contained and the “pronounced sentimental tendency”: “It may containing.” The Reliquary Effect: Enshrining the appear surprising to encounter sentiment Sacred Object (Chicago: University of Chicago in a very modern and very technical work Press, 2017), 12. of architecture, but we must acknowledge 103 Had Mies been successful in rebuilding the that architecture can only with difficulty pavilion in the 1950s, it would have been escape from the social influences giving rise under Franco’s regime. “If the devil himself to it.” “The German Pavilion by Mies van offered Mies a job,” said Philip Johnson, “he der Rohe,” 42. would take it.” Quoted in Elaine S. Hochman, 94 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social of Architects of Fortune: Mies van der Rohe and the The Judgement of Taste, transl. Richard Third Reich (New York: Fromm, 1990), 53. Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard 104 Xavier Costa, conversation with the author, University Press, 1984). 2001. Also see his “Moments and Situations: 95 Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A The Pavilion and Its Archive,” in Muntadas On Psychological History of the German Film (1947; Translation: Barcelona Pavilion Intervention, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). Xavier Costa (Barcelona: Actar and Mies van The links between Mies’s work and Weimar der Rohe Foundation, 2009). cinema are significant. See Lutz Roberts, 105 Margot Hornblower, “The Most Dynamic City “Modern Architecture in the Age of Cinema: in Europe?” Time 135, no. 24 (June 11, 1990), 86. Mies van der Rohe and the Moving Image” 106 National Park Service, Technical Preservation
Hosey JAE 72:2 247