Conservazione e riciclo. tra reale e immaginario

The large amount of buildings now disused and abandoned in Europe, and especially in Italy, needs to be reinterpreted and reactivated through the transformation of their meaning. Procedure to re-cycle what exists interacts with the notion of heritage, thus calling into question its hierarchy and conferment of value. Recycle implies a “dynamic” nature of design and “subversive” if compared with consolidated practices for preservation, restoration, reuse. The very notion of monument has changed from the post war to the present. A potential different interpretation of the monument is “dross”. In a new dictionary in guise of recycling, the monument is indifferent, the dross participates; the monument is usually non-recyclable, whereas the dross opens itself and the surrounding landscape to recycle; the monument is real, whereas the dross belongs to imagination and it can be perceived as absence. This contribution intends to develop a propaedeutic reflection for building up an archive, a theoretical-programmatic device capable to collect a series of issues and experiences implied by the dimension of dross, and useful in defining both material and immaterial recycling action.