Les ruines comme médias. Visualiser et contrevisualiser l’anthropocène

Abstract

In the visual culture of recent decades, a deep nostalgia for the obsolete has taken hold of the human image. It is inhabited by a singular fascination with ruin that counterbalances the obsession with the new. While the media have repeatedly allowed us to witness the destruction of entire archaeological heritage sites – from the emblematic Buddhas of Bamiyan, victims of Taliban iconoclasm, to the occupation of Palmyra by the forces of Daech – the urban decay in the post-industrial zones of the world inspires a photographic tourism on the theme of ruin porn. The essay proposes to analyse ruins as media, i.e. as a device capable of putting us in contact with a temporal dimension which, in the current environmental crisis, seems radically denied: the future.