The Visit

SO? (Turkey)

Galata Greek Primary School

“A tombstone is a screen that connects the dead with the living. It is a frozen screen, yet it can still animate memories… Tombstones, the final objects we become, are subject to design just like shoes, eyeglasses, or furniture are, but are not as visible. Hidden behind walls, they are far removed from our completely design-coated daily lives. Yet these millions of mute stones pile up by one another to create an artificial landscape on the face of the Earth, a final layer of design… Design has changed how we live and how we die… The image of a tombstone, however, is much the same as it was two thousand years ago: a simple stone. But how has design, while changing humanity and the planet, affected the tombstone?” –SB

The Visit is a project by Istanbul-based studio SO? Architecture and Ideas that urges visitors to consider the tombstone as a design object in its own right. Based on site, photographic and film research, The Visit argues that the tombstone is subject to the same design considerations as any other object. From “non-designed” to “works of art,” tombstones have as much to say about society’s view of design as they do about the individuals they commemorate.