Ruïne van een gebouw te Straatsburg after 1870

This photograph by V. Weil captures the ruins of a Strasbourg building, presumably after a bombardment. The skeletal remains of the building evoke the fragility of human achievement. But what is a ruin if not the embodiment of transience, a symbol of the inevitable decay that awaits all human endeavors? Echoes of this motif resonate through history, from ancient Roman ruins depicted in Piranesi's etchings to contemporary artists exploring themes of urban decay. The photograph's starkness may evoke what Freud called the "unheimlich"—that unsettling feeling of the familiar made strange. Perhaps it is because ruins remind us, on a subconscious level, of our mortality. This stark image is a memento mori that resurfaces, evolves, and takes on new meanings in different historical contexts, inviting us to contemplate the cyclical progression of time and the impermanence of all things.