The symbol of the traditional obelisk, on which the differences between the social contract and its real architectural (non) functionality. The shape of the original Egyptian column ended with a pyramid can be found in the form of a monument on every continent. And so, it is also in the case of the courtyard of Prague Castle. In the area of the national architectural dominance, we can observe the modernist use of the moment of symbolic piety, which, however, was not realized using the newly sought and found architectural means, but through a historicizing artefact, reminding rather of the demonstration of an occupation or the branding of a particular. The obelisk is historically a good example of a situation where architecture becomes a carrier of empty information – not only in the aesthetic sense of the word, but above all in the sense of a search for a responsible function of contemporary architecture. The power of capital often produces artefacts as shattered products originated from the social demand to meet different psychological needs.
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Monument or instrument?
(video, 5:17min)