Gebouwen tegenover de achterzijde van het voormalige Ministerie van Koloniën te Den Haag 1895

This anonymous photograph captures buildings opposite the rear of the former Ministry of Colonies in The Hague. Notice how scaffolding, like a protective net, cloaks the building. Scaffolding, a potent symbol, echoes across time. In Renaissance art, we see similar structures—not of wood and iron, but of ideas and beliefs—erected around figures of saints, supporting their narratives, buttressing their sanctity. Yet, here, scaffolding speaks of a different kind of support, a bolstering against decay, a preservation of colonial memory. The subconscious processes at play are palpable: the desire to maintain, to uphold, even as time erodes. This act of preservation, like memory itself, is a fragile endeavor. The scaffolding reminds us that our own constructions of memory are temporary and subject to change, revealing a cyclical progression of building and rebuilding, a never-ending quest to secure the past.