Gezicht op de Hervormde Kerk te Middelharnis na de brand 1904

Curator: This photograph shows the Reformed Church in Middelharnis after a fire. It’s dated 1904 and attributed to anonymous, although we know it was produced by the Dutch Department for Historic Monuments. Editor: It’s remarkably still. All I see is the weight of stone, softened by light and time into an elegy, really, for what's lost. Curator: Indeed, the church’s skeletal frame starkly speaks to both destruction and resilience. Churches have always occupied pivotal roles, anchoring spiritual life within their communities. Here, that social body suffers along with the physical. Editor: Absolutely. You see the way the remaining stone bears the trace of labor – the individual blocks, how they’re mortared. This wasn’t just divine inspiration; skilled craftspeople erected this. This fire impacted the entire chain, from quarry to congregation. Curator: I'm struck by what the survival of such documentation—by the Monuments Department—says about changing values in Dutch society. Historic preservation takes center stage after immense loss. Editor: And that speaks to something about societal anxieties, doesn't it? This desire to codify a certain idea of history? The making and marking that it happened is vital. Here, the damaged construction becomes itself an artifact of its destruction, its making legible. Curator: But it’s more complex than a simple document; the image circulated, reinforcing collective memories and maybe prompting donations for restoration. Editor: Yes, these monuments aren't simply found. They are consciously made into what we call ‘monuments’. And so too, an artist, working carefully with this material, shapes that memory, quite literally making something. Curator: A point well taken! In the end, we confront our ever-evolving relationship with the past, both material and immaterial. Editor: An artwork of immense making in the past for its time - this material evidence makes tangible how we interact with places, even if we never go there, long into the future.