The Archaeological Implications of Construction Sites

Through his analyses of contemporary constructions, Spanish visual artist Lois Cid acts like an archaeologist, ready to immortalise with his photographs the features of concrete masses and their eternal mutations.

Through his analyses of contemporary constructions, Spanish visual artist Lois Cid acts like an archaeologist, ready to immortalise with his photographs the features of concrete masses and their eternal mutations.

Melting Structures is the final work that belongs to this trilogy. It concludes an analysis of the contemporary landscape from the last possible temporal perspective (past). This project analyses the ephemeral duration of contemporary constructions and categorizes the debris of demolished buildings, structural materials and single-use elements used to construct, as contemporary ruins.

The context of the construction site is formulated as an archaeological site. Where there is no differentiation between the remains of the buildings and the new materials with which they are constructed. This debris will be recycled and then used again in new constructions. The temporal-historical direction is absorbed by an infinite process of recovery, reformulation and post-use. The contemporary ruins are a sedimentary mass in constant transformation and belong to a perpetual present.

Words and Pictures by Lois Cid.

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Lois Cid (Ourense, Spain 1993) is a visual artist based in Galicia, Spain. He holds a MA in Photography by the Royal Academy of Antwerp and a BFA by the University of Castilla la Mancha. His work has been exhibited at Encontros da Imagem (Braga), Grosvernor Gallery (Manchester) among others. Find him on PHmuseum and Instagram.

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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.

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