Gezicht op de ommuurde stad Mons met de Porte du Rivage 1875 - 1878

Curator: Looking at this engraving, "Gezicht op de ommuurde stad Mons met de Porte du Rivage", from the period of 1875 to 1878, made by Léopold Dolez, I feel a strange melancholy. The muted tones… almost like looking into a memory, faint and far away. Editor: Well, Léopold Dolez clearly put labor into this, right? All those lines incised, that aquatint, someone physically toiling. It isn’t just a nostalgic sentiment; it's about material processes, ink and paper and physical actions. Curator: But look at how the light catches the water in the moat! There’s an ethereal quality, transcending the materials. It makes you think about how cities were once these self-contained worlds, defined by their defenses. Editor: But think of those walls. Defenses. They represent boundaries, control, power manifested through architecture. Whose labor built that wall? What resources were extracted and consumed to make it? The whole purpose, is controlling the resources, right? Not transcendence, but material power. Curator: True, the power dynamics are inherent. And there is something very solid about it as well. The artist certainly had technical mastery. All those precise lines giving an intense effect. But still… Editor: Right, but whose hand guided that mastery? Who commissioned this work, and what did they intend to convey? I’ll wager this wasn’t intended as some objective documentation but for boosting this cityscape as an ideal for commerce and security. Curator: You see the city; I see a poem etched in metal. A rumination of resilience, I’d say! That interplay between water and fortification strikes a chord, suggesting a constant struggle, a constant defense against the ebb and flow. Editor: Hmm. Perhaps the ebb and flow of resources in and out? Or how the control of the access is physically constructed, using the best techniques in that day, creating division instead of safety! Well, thank you for the melancholy… and reminding me of economic structure of the urban space represented.