VASSILINA DIKIDJIEVA

Since ancient times people have been using columns to hold up their tributes and their memories – and often all that remains of the original structures are their colonnades. We thus propose a memorial of 3022 marble columns, one for each life lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania in September 2001 and February 1993; one column for each face – for what set this tragedy apart from all others were the faces, many faces, different faces, that we all saw and remember, while our own faces all wore the same expression for so long afterward.

 

The columns begin inside the luminous outlines foot prints of the towers and continue out and beyond them. Each name is engraved on its column. Colonnades are formed by the joining of random numbers of columns with a common base and beam – perhaps because random fates found themselves joined, perhaps because the resulting lattice becomes almost maze-like, as everything did on that day. Along the walkways formed by the colonnades are randomly spaced stripes made out of the same luminous material that outlines the towers. The colonnades themselves provide all room necessary for quiet contemplation: the visitors are able to see other visitors, walking through the memorial or sitting between the columns, at the same time distant and near, together and alone. This relatively diffuse structure also allows for larger gatherings to spill out of the large open space provided along Liberty Wall, into the colonnades. Liberty Wall itself will feature the names of all who the rescue and recovery operations. A burial-place for the unidentified remains found on the site, as well as a meeting-house for the families of victims, will occupy the focal point at the Northeast entrance from the museum.

 

The true memorial, of course, will be within the hearts and minds of the visitors – a spiritual dimension for which we can only provide the physical setting. There is no one symbol that can be presented as emblematic of the tragedy that occurred on September 11th, but we can at least approximate the scale of this terrible event.