Below is the board for our most recent competition – the Atlantic City Holocaust Memorial. No luck in this one – it was a stretch with 715 entries – but we were happy with what we came up with and thought it was appropriate for the site. Still waiting to see the boards of the first round finalists – not sure what they were looking for. Here is our explanation for our project:
Based on the assumption that the horrific events of the holocaust are too incomprehensible to be characterized through symbolic representation, our memorial creates a condition that orients and dis-orients the viewer – creating an experience that is at once contemplative and disturbing. The design aim is to construct a series of spaces that visually collapse into each other, activating and implicating traditionally passive viewers in their memorialization of the Holocaust. Conceptually, we imply that we are all responsible for each others’ well being and violations. Our memorial asks viewers, through reflection, to see other in place of themselves.
Our memorial creates a wall that is at once there and not there. The wall is composed of a series of wedged shaped pillars whose inner faces are polished mirrored surfaces – creating a periscopic see-through effect – dematerializing the wall and in the process reflecting the viewer, others, and fragments of the context – relationships that constantly evolve as one both passes by and engages the monument. Upon the outer surfaces of the pillars are embossed in raised letters all possible combinations of one, two, and three letter initials – demarcating all people that are lost, present, and to be.
