4 Of Ships and Palaces : Inverted Images of Europe in Crisis

Abstract

“Only on the ocean does the ship become the absolutely inverted image of the house.” Writes Schmitt in response to Ernst Jünger’s book on the antithesis between East and West, interpreted in the light of the Gordian Knot: as something that is cut and, at the same time, continuously reweaves itself. Europe is at the center of this antithesis, and not only geographically so: The “image” of Europe has an autonomous statute that goes beyond historical, analytical or geo-political definitions, while nevertheless keeping a connection with them. This image comes close to the one of crisis, as both a “cut” and a “judgement,” something equally determined and determining: an architectonic image, in which history is not just a reconstruction but a double movement of construction and deconstruction (Tafuri). Europe is here understood in the light of the project: something that breaks away from established grounds of evaluation, while still feeling “the pull of the throw” (Cacciari).