Ironies are implicit in the title of Zoltan Somhegyi’s book Reviewing the Past: The Presence of Ruins, and this is in keeping with ruins’ own paradoxical character as manifesting endurance and fragility, presence and absence, vivid physicality and an import that is almost entirely reflective. By inviting readers to take a desultory approach to the sequence of the book’s chapters, the author positions them to be active co-explorers of ruins who are reflective about their responses. Somhegyi analyzes various threats to (...) the survival of ruins as structures and aesthetic objects but nevertheless finds bases for some optimism. He ends the book with a chapter on a topic that seems far afield from ruins: museums that make the process of remembering thematic. This somewhat abrupt conclusion forces the reader to draw connections between his remarks on such museums and the topic of ruins. This provocation of the reader’s own reflections encourages a stance akin to that involved in the aesthetic appreciation of ruins and draws attention to their open-endedness. (shrink)

There is a fascinating—both an aesthetically and an intellectually pleasing—parallel between the infinite variety of forms of ruins and the almost just as infinite ways in which their history, appe...

In the following text I provide my response to the three reviewers of my book titled “Reviewing the Past. The Presence of Ruins”. First I list a few elements that all the reviewers highlighted. Then, I answer the insightful comments and detailed observations brought forward by them, organised in thematic structures. In this part I start with the three main criteria and the agency of Nature in ruination. Then I investigate the issues regarding the so-called “contemporary ruins”. Ruins’ environmental character, (...) context and sitedness are put into focus in the next section, to finally arrive to the equally inspiring questions of picturesque, sublime and to the issues of representation. (shrink)

In the following text I provide my response to the three reviewers of my book titled “Reviewing the Past. The Presence of Ruins”. First I list a few elements that all the reviewers highlighted. Then, I answer the insightful comments and detailed observations brought forward by them, organised in thematic structures. In this part I start with the three main criteria and the agency of Nature in ruination. Then I investigate the issues regarding the so-called “contemporary ruins”. Ruins’ environmental character, (...) context and sitedness are put into focus in the next section, to finally arrive to the equally inspiring questions of picturesque, sublime and to the issues of representation. (shrink)

The appreciation, conservation, and reconstruction of ruins, deteriorating buildings, and archaeological sites of historical, religious or cultural value, as well as their safeguarding, lead to a complex set of issues and considerations. This brief paper suggests that a deeper understanding of the various models of heritage management can enhance acceptance of the different practices of heritage care. The fragility of heritage sites and of heritage models urges us to look for viable answers to global ethical and aesthetic questions regarding the (...) management of heritage sites. (shrink)