Staged reconstruction : on the scenography of the IJzertoren’s building site (original) (raw)

2023

Abstract

Whereas the historiography of the IJzertoren has been claimed almost exclusively by scholars of Flemish nationalism and by art historians focusing on the iconography of the tower’s statues, it remains somewhat of a blind spot in architectural and construction history. This is a remarkable feat, not in the least because the IJzertoren memorial is the only architectural object currently included as such in the attainment targets of Flemish primary education. Recent scholarly work has tried to remedy this by approaching the memorial from a construction history perspective, at the same time emphasizing its contribution to the process of nation building. The paper builds upon this work and looks deeper into the operationalization of a so-called “vocabulary of the construction site” into the nationalist rhetoric of the IJzerbedevaartcomité during the annual rallies in the period 1952-65, time frame of the IJzertoren’s reconstruction. Building cranes, site equipment, scaffolding, scale mod...

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