Jingqi Kay Liu

Translated from “Vita, Educazione, Cerimonia, Amore, Morte: cinque storie del Superstudio, 5 [Morte]” by Superstudio; Originally published in “Casabella”, N.380-381, 1973

From the Index of Funeral Customs

AF-OR 19-184 Ethiopia – Galla/Oromo – Types of tombs
b) Circular hut without openings, in straws. On top of the tomb a horizontal pole supported at the ends by two vertical poles, supporting the statue of the deceased, protected by a straw parasol.

OC-AU 57-094 Australia – Mummification
The corpse is mummified or otherwise blackened after being skinned. The mummies are brought along by family members during migrations; To facilitate the transportation, tie the limbs tightly after bending them against the torso.

AP-OR 13-078 Ethiopia – Kaffa – Common funerals
Men: The relatives of the deceased fast for 24 hours, then they bury the corpse with great lamentations while the men beat and wound themselves. Women: Dispose the corpse without ceremonies.

AS-IC 39-014 Malacca – Semang
Leave the body at the place of death, possibly covered with a thin layer of soil, and move away from the place.

OC-AU 59-054 Australia
When the gatherings for bunya harvesting take place – bunya allows eating of the corpses of those killed during fights.

AP-OR 13-071 Ethiopia – Kaffa – Royal funeral
After the king’s death, chain up the family members and proceed with the election of successor; after 8 days from death, grease the corpse with butter and wrap it carefully in a cloth with aromatic herbs; then close/seal it in a tree trunk and bury it in a hole 6m deep with large quantities of furnishings, food and drink. Sacrifice a bull and maybe even a slave. Continue for a year bringing offerings to the tomb.

AS-IM 37-012 Tibet – Funerale of the rich or religious
a) leave the corpse to be eaten by crows and vultures, so that they leave no part of it; crush the fleshless bones with stones and mix with butter, then expose again to the birds.
b) cremate two to three weeks after death.
c) for the funeral of a great lama: place the body in a chest in a seated position with their cult subjects around it. Bury and build on top of it a square chapel or dome and bring food daily.

AMN-SUN 62 – 194 United States – Carrier/Dakelh
Cremate the Ad body; for three years the widow will carry the ashes and bones with her. If they wish, the widow can simulate suicide by pretending to throw herself into the funeral pyre.

AS-I 34-102 Borneo – Dayak – Funeral of chief or important person
Place the corpse in the coffin in the house until the total decomposition of the soft parts takes care of eliminating the liquids of putrefaction gradually as they form. Arrange for the burial of the bones during one of the festivals of the dead.

AF-S 43-042 South Africa – Bushmen/San Peoples
At the death of an individual, the origin of life detaches itself from the body and migrates to the sky towards the “great captain” where the souls of the Whites are. The “double” or copy of the body remains in the tomb and can turn into animals. Leave the corpses in their huts and let it demolish over them. Old people unable to follow the nomadic group are abandoned in a shelter in the desert with food and water for a few days.

EU-PL-S 15-346 / – Driff

Name given to the stone of Buttler which was attributed the property of catching poison. It was composed of mold formed on the head of a dead man, of sea salt, of copper sulfuric acid mixed with fish glue/isinglass… touching that stone with the tip of the tongue was enough to cure the most terrible disease… from the Infernal Dictionary, Jacques Collin de Plancy, 1845 Brussels.

AF-NS 21-102 Sudan – Dinka – Funeral of sorcerer
The sorcerer must not die a natural death to prevent his powers from being dispersed instead of being harvested by his son. For this reason, when the old man starts to get close to his end, he gets laid in a pit and left without food; the tribe cheers him with songs and dances; at times he will speak recalling the events of the tribe and giving advice; when he says he has finished, fill the pit with soil and cow excrements.

OC-ME 79-104 Melanesia – Sulka
After the death of an individual, destroy their plantation, devour their pigs, break their weapons and belongings, and finally burn the body.

OC-ME 89-024(1) Melanesia – Trobriand
Bury the body in the cemetery located in the central square of the village. The following evening, exhume the bodies to see if they bear signs that could indicate what curse (and by whom) caused the death. At dawn, the children begin to strip the body until they get the bones clean; from the bones, they make tools and ornaments that the widow and children of the deceased will wear as a sign of grief and gratitude. From the skull they’d get a lime container, the jaw…

Discourses of Time and Death

THE FEAR OF DOOR. The Man cried out:
<The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chapter CLXXV>
The Man found himself in the midst of darkness, on the face of gnomon of the sundial. The corpse on the ground, with its head close to his feet, formed a right angle with the Man. Laid out in a semicircle, marking the hours, seven thousand eight hundred beings, more or less, looked at him; and the Man perceived the presence of all, as they all perceived the presence of the Man, while they ignored their reciprocal presence.

THE REBIRTH. And from the multitude, the voices arose:
<Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet X>
<Brihadaranyaka Upanishad>
<Nagarjuna, Root Verses on the Middle Way, Chapter XI 3-4>
From the darkness came four flies : curtonevra, calliphora, sarcophaga and lucilia; they laid their eggs in the nostrils and the inside corners of the eyes of the corpse, whose eyeballs were collapsed and corneas cloudy and wrinkled. The body was rigid and pale on top, but splashed with red on the nape, on the back and the rear side of the limbs.

THE JOURNEY.
<Book of the Dead, Chapter CLXXII>
From the darkness came the dermestes beetle and the butterfly aglossa pinguinalis to lay their eggs on the corpse, because its fat would be a good food for their larvae. On the abdomen of the corpse appeared a green spot, and immediately after, others that extended, invading the entire stomach and chest. Brown streaks appeared on the neck, the nape and the shoulders.

THE RITE.
<Traditional Invocation of the Trobriand (Melanesia)>
<Talmud, beginning of Chapter III>
<Abhinavagupta, Essence of Tantra, Chapter 15>
<Traditionale Invocation of the Dogon (West Africa)>
From the darkness came two phylophila and anthomya flies, attracted by the odor of gasses from putrefaction, inflating the body, giving it a gigantic size. The eyes swelled out of the sockets and the tongue out of the jaw arches; the entire body turned dark greenish-brown and the skin lifted with blisters that burst, so that it remained attached to the corion in hanging strips.

THE GRIEF.
<Traditional Invocation of the Dogon (West Africa)>
<Sutta Nipata, Mahavagga, 3.8: Salla Sutta, 582-584>
<Upanishad, Panchadasi>
From the darkness came two flies : phora and thyreophora, and four beetles; saprinus, sylpha, hister and necrophorus. They laid on the corpse from which nails and hair were falling out. The bones lost their muscle mass, the joints fell apart and all the soft parts turned into blackish and fetid liquid matter.

REWARD AND PUNISHMENT.
<Qur’an, Chapter 37. Surah As-Saffat>
<Qur’an, Chapter 38. Surah Sad>
<Hekhalot (Jewish Kabbalah), Part IV, from the first palace>
<Hekhalot, Part IV, from the six sixth palace>
<Gospel of Matthew XIII 49-50-52>
From the darkness came two mites: uropods and tyroglyphus, and dried and desiccated what remained on the skeleton, so that on the bones only tendons and ligaments remained.

THE PHILOSOPHY.
<Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 65>
<Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus>
<Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation>
<Sartre, Being and Nothingness>
<Nietzsche, Will to Power>
From the darkness came a moth: bisselliella; and added tp to the mites to eat away the tissue still remaining around the bones.

THE METEMPSYCHOSIS.
<Sutta Nipata, Mahavagga, 3.12: Dvayatanupassana Sutta, 729>
<Upanishad, Kathopanishad>
<Dhammapada (Buddhist scripture)>
<Gautama Buddha>
Finally from the darkness came a tenebrio beetle to devour the empty carcasses of the animals which had preceded it. The bones became increasingly light and crumbly, and fell to dust, getting mixed with fine powder of the insects’ excrements.

THE SUPREME KNOWLEDGE AND NIRVANA.
<Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 12, Verse 12 (Hinduism scripture)>
<Jain Scripture Fragment>
<Sutta Nipata, Parayanavagga, 5.12: Jatukannin’s Question>
<Nagarjuna, Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Chapter XXV>
Nothing more came from the dark; slowly the dust and bones dissolved and the skull vanished last, at the feet of the Man.

THE DISPERSION IN THE UNIVERSE.
<Abhinavagupta, Essence of Tantra, Chapter 9>
<Corpus Hermeticum, Chapter 12, Verse 16>
<Book of the Dead, Chapter CIXXII 2>
<Zhuangzi (Taoist theorist)>
<Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet X>

A. The use of death and life is the catalyst element of them each, without this in fact, life and death would not exist. All the cells in our body contain what is necessary to develop an egg; every minimal fragment though would have seminal virtue;in every element of being would reside the principle of the whole being.
Taking from the fresh corpse a minimal fragment of tissue, Jean Rostand writes, the biologist can initiate one of those cultures that we know as immortal.
The perfected science, that is starting from a culture of this species, can remake the entire person, strictly identical to the one that formed the original. Thus a form of biological immortality is established.

A1. For us it is not a problem of biological immortality but of survival, a problem of timelessness as an ideal of pleasure, a problem of returning the use of death to the use of life.
The problem in fact is not immortality in time, but the time of immortality.
“The flow of time helps men to forget what has been and what could be, to make them forget a better past and a better future… Forgetting also means forgiving what should not be forgiven, forgetting past suffering means erasing the forces that caused them without defeating them”. (Marcuse)
The repressive society cannot defeat death because death is forgetfulness, Marcuse says again. Our cemetery projects are visualizations of the permanence of memory, they are hypotheses of a time that is all equally present.

B. Section of the earth and visualization of the layers that compose it. The natural elements intervene in the decomposition of human cells being reabsorbed and recycled.
The graph represents the optimal blocks of such disintegration with visualization of the central brain and its cyclic capacity. This possibility of it is of optical and dynamic nature, capable of unifying the concept of mass-energy.

C. The earth-machine as origin of absorption, transformation and restitution with particular reference to the various locations of input and output terminals and wells, essential moments of the work-energy cycle.

D. All nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons; the mass of a compound nucleus is less than (approximately 1% the sum of masses of protons and neutrons of which it is formed. This difference is explained by the energy released and escaped in the form of radiation when the protons and neutrons unite and form the compound nucleus.
This proves the complete equivalence between mass and energy and is at the basis of decomposition of mass and restitution in cycles in the form of energy (Einstein).
The dissolution of corpses through an atomic reaction is visualized at the center of the earth (or in the center of the sun or in an egg).

E. The earth and organization of the machine of total control: a central brain connected to the memory capsule, terminals distributed in various parts of the planet.
The terminals constitute the human element of memory, capable of providing all the required information for perennial contact with the memory of the deceased.
It creates a one-to-one correspondence between the central machine and the various terminals, introducing a particular field of experience capable of transforming public universal time into a multitude of private times.

F. “At this point, we all, united in our common pain, comforted by the cries of the mourners, head bowed the earth to which we will ally return, the mind attached to the mystery of death, alternating sobs and prayers, supplication and viaticum, hopes and languid memories, comforted by what he has done for the country.

G. Family, art, politics, the exquisiteness of affection, the sincere daily love, confiding in celestial reward, in benevolent acceptance of simple nothingness, heartbroken and grateful, with rueful joy, we proceed, assisted by the music which he certainly would have loved, amidst those he held dear. (From “The Father’s Funeral” by G. Manganelli).

H. The moment of entering the body and its first cycle of restitution. The body gets thrown into wells located in various sites. These wells, functioning according to the previous scheme, have the double function of transforming the body into energy and memory. The wells have variable depths, and in them, the cycles of chemical and atomic transformation take place until they make contact with the central brain. The wells also constitute the storage element for memories. Their openings are peripheral units of a computer. Several computers are connected to each other by retransmitting satellites. Access to the stored memories is gained through the memory capsules, Individual terminals furnished to all living persons. Each wall opening is the only traditional architectural or ceremonial monument in existence. The choice of a certain “style” amongst all the range of possible forms; usually classified as “expression”, is the task of the architect charged by the community to fulfill the function of “hominicultor”. The choice of a form or material appropriate to the circumstance 1s to be considered a symbolic manifestation.

I. A Well Opening (From the catalog of an architect).

L. Schematic section of a corpse pit (No indications for scale; Diagram).

M. Memory as a cosmic element. All memory-energy is retransmitted by satellites. We can imagine a satellite projecting its shadow onto a zone on earth. At every point, the exact time of passing of the satellite can be established therefore creating the total correspondence of usage and ceremony between life and death as the ultimate task and destiny of the cell material.

N. Shadow of the satellite.

Death, or the Public Image of Time and Memory

As we arrived at the outside of the city, a big open space lay before our eyes, uniformly paved, divided into large squares by thin black lines.

This kind of square extended as far as the eyes could see: one could glimpse at its limits (or rather imagine); where tall vegetation began on one side, hills on the other, and the first peripheral buildings on the remaining two (sides). The color of this surface was a uniform gray, only here and there weathered by wet patches from rain from the night before.

The surface was perfectly flat, and one could guess that the squares were oriented by the cardinal points. A small bronze plaque at the intersection of two (of the) dividing lines, roughly at the center of the open space, bore the inscription of the astronomical coordinates of the point.

In one of the lines running in a north-south direction, there was a thin steel rail. An identical rail laid in one of the lines running east-west. At the intersection of these two lines (presumably the physicalization of meridian and parallels running through the point) rose a Neoclassical building, strangely lost in this cartesian desert.

This building, perfect in all its details, was uniformly constructed in grits of marble, set in cement, so that it seemed like a copy of another marble building much older and had perhaps disappeared, or another building yet to be constructed.

The old cemetery was near the open space: all its architectural works remained intact, but all the ground had been uniformly covered by a perennial green lawn: I believe the same fate had befallen all other cemeteries, to both monumental ones and those small countryside ones. They remained cemeteries of cemeteries, frozen in memory, resting on everlasting meadows, as in the miracle of the Piazza of Pisa (the Piazza dei Miracoli; Square of Miracles).

From my right I saw a group of people arriving, normally dressed, who crossed the pavement heading towards the building. Their (way of) progressing was not at all processional or solemn: they walked at normal pace, merely looking to cross the lines between the (pavement) slabs and to avoid the wet patches.

They used one of the cracks to guide them in a straight line towards the grainy, reddish building.

Turning to them, I thought I glimpsed some figures at the door and I moved towards them.

As I proceeded onto the squared pavement, the straight lines formed different perspectives, fading away into the distance. The connections between elements were particularly accurate, but what seemed from a distance as black lines turned out to be elements of an artificial stone, similar to granite, about 1.20 meters, lower than the pavement slightly sloped to collect water and direct them to certain openings covered in bronze grilles.

Each square element then, placing eye level on the ground, would seem to be slightly pyramidal, always for water drainage; and this peculiarity, initially unnoticed, created on the plane a slight optical undulation.

The material had a perfectly smooth surface, neither shiny nor matte: it couldn’t be said whether it was caused by the passing of innumerable people, or from the use of machines.

There was no trace of the passing of time since the construction of this work: no reference as to style or period, no noticeable trace of deterioration due to atmospheric agents.

Grass had not been able to find the slightest crevice in which to grow: neither seeds nor leaves brought by wind could find a hold on that impassible surface. There were no birds or insects.

In the distance, where the squared surface touched the unaltered nature, one could just see the lines ending abruptly against the rocks, grass or trees, almost as if the gridded surface continued unaltered underneath nature.

Upon reaching it, the building had no particular features. Upon closer examination it perhaps revealed the desire of its builders to make it appear “neutral”.

It was certainly intentional with its lack of originality, or perhaps it was the suspension of time, perceptible in that enormous space which distracted attention from a thorough inspection…

Some people at the door were intently checking some small gadgets that a technician handed them as they came out.

As I got closer to one of these people, I could see from closer one of these gadgets. Its form and surfaces were distinctly modern, but not particularly attractive. The color was uniformly dark green. I asked about their use and purpose: got the response that such gadgets were called “memory capsules” and that they were the personal terminals of a vast electronic brain. This brain housed all the memories of those who died and were brought to this exact building.

At this point I suddenly understood the nature of certain large packages, of other geometric envelopes, and of certain human figures which seemed to me at first were carried in arms into the immense space.

The idea of death began to connect with the absolute image of the geometric void that I had walked through.

Architecture and death suddenly coincided.

They found a reason for the perfect order and symmetries, and indifference to time, to nature, to men.

I attempted to formulate briefly all the questions about the use of the place, and to understand the mechanisms and reason. The person who had answered me about the memory capsules handed me a gray booklet containing some diagrams and some inscriptions.

He said he did not need it, and that he could have other copies anyway.

This was the booklet:

A Didactic Example: The New Cemetery in Modena

The existing cemetery will be preserved in its present state; but all the ground will be covered by everlasting meadows. In the area at disposal, no construction will be permitted in perpetuity.

The area will be paved with elements in concrete and granulated marble. Granite elements, 1.20 meters wide, wil be placed 30 cm lower than the surface and with an opportune (slight) slope for collecting and directing water.

These continuous elements will form straight lines intersecting each other orthogonally in a 20 m mesh.

In the open space, a building will arise in prefabricated elements of concrete and granulated red marble. This building will be a compliant/identical copy of the existing Church of St. Cataldo, plus the beginning of the lateral porticos with tomb niches.

The construction will be performed in a way that would remain unaltered for an indefinite number of years (the possibility of continually replacing damaged parts would render it, in theory, eternal), while the other existing buildings will naturally turn into ruin.

At the center of the building a very deep well will be dug. This well, with circular opening, will contain inside it chemical and biological mechanisms capable of transforming any dead body that entered it into its constituent elements that can immediately be. recycled into the earthly equilibrium.

The memory of every single individual will be collected and kept by the most modern technical processes. Equipment like recorders and video cassettes today, and far more exact and minuscule tomorrow, will preserve memories of the dead for their descendants and kins and friends who will always carry with them these “memory capsules”.

In particular, the recordings of the dead will be entered into a computer (one for several cemeteries) and the “capsules” will act as terminals.

Several computers will be connected between each other to form gigantic central units. These units will be able to cover the entire earth, using retransmitting satellites. In any place and at any time, everyone can access the collective memory.

The Well of the Dead, the Memories, the retransmitting Satellites (and all their traces, minimal on earth, such as implants, shadows, signals) together form the Cemetery.

Monumental Cemetery and Universal Cemetery

Our idea of a Cemetery
is a meditation on death,
on the Definitive Settlement of the Human Race
and on the use of Dead Bodies.

These last two themes have always been
the ordering and numerical essence
of Monumental Cemeteries,
in which legions of bodies, arranged hierarchically,
awaited and yet await the Day of Judgment
or that of their removal, or more or less temporary substitution.

Monumental Cemeteries are not the only
architecture created for Death:
Death has produced innumerable forms of architecture
and nearly all monuments are dedicated to it.
But these monuments have never exercised our fear.
Now we must search for another way to attain
immortality or to flee pain and fear,
or to accept pain and fear,
and Death and Life, serenely.

In the thoughts of man on Death
we can trace certain constant factors
in all times and countries.
It is through the analysis of these constant factors
that we can plan a serene demeanor
when faced with this “dark reality”.
At the moment when we accept Death
as a fact of Life
(no longer as a limit, a different state)
all our terrors and their liniments will fall away.

at that moment, the need for architecture as
a coagulum of ordered material will also fall away,
as the ritual accumulation of possessions
for the dark journey.
Only at that moment will man accept his reality
with no need for formal structures
(power, religion, architecture, rites…)
At that moment, mass will no longer need to replace
the energy of memory, physicalness will no longer
need to be affirmed as unique, nor as a talisman.
We will no longer need architecture for Death.

Our only architecture will be our lives.

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TypeScript

REFERENCES

Superstudio. Superstudio Opere : 1966-1978. Edited by Gabriele Mastrigli, 2016.

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