The Void

In the old town of Valencia, a remarkable phenomenon catches the eye: from time to time, a building is missing. The two neighbouring houses have been propped up with wooden or iron beams to hold them together and to be stabilized. It doesn’t seem like a recent occurrence, but rather a state of years. Fässler documented these voids in the town with her camera. These unplanned gaps recall the double negative of the land artist Michael Heizer or the empty spaces between Donald Judd’s modules. Absence becomes part of presence. Emptiness gets part of fullness. Precarity becomes part of permanence. Fragility gets part of stability. Danger becomes part of security. It is astonishing how many different forms those forgotten volumes take in the city. Before the buildings disappear, they are bricked up and wrapped in black tulle like a widow in mourning.