{"id":1110,"date":"2011-06-14T16:21:33","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T21:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2011-06-14T16:21:33","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T21:21:33","slug":"39th-annual-meeting-general-session-june-1-restoring-the-spirit-and-the-spirit-of-restoration-dresdens-frauenkirche-as-model-for-bamiyans-buddhas-by-james-janowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2011\/06\/14\/39th-annual-meeting-general-session-june-1-restoring-the-spirit-and-the-spirit-of-restoration-dresdens-frauenkirche-as-model-for-bamiyans-buddhas-by-james-janowski\/","title":{"rendered":"AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting \u2013 General Session, June 1, “Restoring the Spirit and the Spirit of Restoration: Dresden\u2019s Frauenkirche as Model for Bamiyan\u2019s Buddhas” by James Janowski."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Big Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley. Photo courtesy of Volker Thewalt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes conservation is more than the technical care of an object.\u00a0 Sometimes, the working solutions to treatment of cultural heritage must rely on judgments, choices, and values unique to a people and a time.\u00a0 James Janowski raises many ethical and philosophical questions in his presentation on the possible reconstruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas.\u00a0 He asks his audience to balance the needs of the historical record with religious and cultural values.<\/p>\n

The Bamiyan Buddha\u2019s were located along the silk road in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan.\u00a0 These statues were the largest likenesses of Buddha\u2019s in the world.\u00a0 They had survived past damage from soldiers, weather, and time.\u00a0 They were true survivors.\u00a0 All that ended with the 2001 acts of cultural barbarism by the Taliban<\/a>.\u00a0 The cruel and wanton destruction of the Buddhas <\/a>have left us with empty niches.\u00a0 But much of the original material is still located in the valley as fragments of all shapes and sizes.\u00a0 Could the Buddhas be reconstructed <\/a>from original and replacement materials?\u00a0 Should they be reconstructed?<\/p>\n

Janowski turns to the destruction and reconstruction of the Dresden Frauenkirche <\/a>as a model for the Bamiyan Buddhas.\u00a0 The Frauenkirche was the most original protestant church constructed in Dresden.\u00a0 During World War Two, the allied bombing damaged the church. The subsequent fires reached 1000 degree Farenheit and caused the church to buckle and crumble.\u00a0 The church was much beloved by the people of Dresden.\u00a0 The ruin served as a symbol of the culture and community.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1989 and 1990 the people of Dresden called for the church to be rebuilt <\/a>as an \u201carcheological reconstruction.\u201d\u00a0 The reconstruction resulted in much debate, but the project was approved in March 1991.\u00a0 The reconstruction continued until October 2005 when the church was re-consecrated.\u00a0 Architectural stone and elements were salvaged from the rubble and carefully cataloged.\u00a0 Forty-five percent of the reconstructed church was made from original stone<\/p>\n

The reconstruction of the Dresden Frauenkirche was considered a rousing success.\u00a0 The process recharged the community.\u00a0 The original and non-original materials were clearly distinguishable, so as not to erase the historical events that took place.\u00a0 In the end, the project was adjudication between competing values.<\/p>\n

Janowski argues that the integral restoration of the Buddhas with remaining original fragments should be considered in the future despite the 30-50 million dollar price tag. He notes that there must be a balancing of the religious and cultural values with the historical documentation of the event.\u00a0 He also offers consequential values.\u00a0 The reconstruction will have economic and political value and can serve as a unifying thread to the country.\u00a0 He feels that at least one of the Buddhas could be reconstructed leaving the other as a \u201cwitness\u201d to the destruction.\u00a0 Janowski believes that the meaning and values of a restored sculpture outweigh the shock of the empty niches.<\/p>\n

Janowski pushes the audience to think outside the box.\u00a0 He forces us to think through the steps ahead and the possibilities beyond the norm.\u00a0 [Blogger\u2019s note:\u00a0 on March 11, 2011, UNESCO <\/a>told the Afghan government it does not support a rebuild project, citing concerns over funding priorities and authenticity. ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes conservation is more than the technical care of an object.\u00a0 Sometimes, the working solutions to treatment of cultural heritage must rely on judgments, choices, and values unique to a people and a time.\u00a0 James Janowski raises many ethical and philosophical questions in his presentation on the possible reconstruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas.\u00a0 He asks … Continue reading “AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting \u2013 General Session, June 1, “Restoring the Spirit and the Spirit of Restoration: Dresden\u2019s Frauenkirche as Model for Bamiyan\u2019s Buddhas” by James Janowski.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[70,171,369,555,781],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-general-sessions","tag-aics-39th-annual-meeting","tag-bamiyan-buddhas","tag-dresdens-frauenkirche","tag-james-janowski","tag-philadelphia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}