Modern Monument Culture

Aloïs Riegl's The Modern Cult of Monuments, one of the fundamental books in architectural literature and a foundational text for modern conservation thought, was first published in 2015 and quickly sold out. The Modern Cult of Monuments has now taken its place on the shelves from Arketon Publications in a new edition, enriched with visuals. Written in 1903 by Austrian art historian Aloïs Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments is a guiding text for architects and restorers as well as art historians. Published with the editorial work of Aykut Köksal, The Modern Cult of Monuments was translated into Turkish from the original text by Erdem Ceylan. The book includes Erdem Ceylan's highly comprehensive introductory essay and a glossary of terms prepared for this edition.

 Erdem Ceylan states the following in the short introductory text on the back cover: "Austrian art historian Aloïs Riegl's The Modern Cult of Monuments, written in 1903, is a 'cult' text that laid the foundations of the new paradigm during the transition from the 19th-century historicist and restorationist approach to the theory of historical artifacts to the 20th-century modernist and preservationist thought. At the turn of the century, marked by the pangs of transition, this text, striving to capture the spirit of the time, stands at the intersection of art and architectural history and restoration theory. The impact of the text is too strong to be limited either by its specific field of knowledge within the discipline or by its historical, social, and cultural context. The text, which problematizes the transformation of the relationship between human beings and the works they produce, and thus their past, at the beginning of modern times, both questions the prevalent hierarchy in monument values and possesses a timeless and placeless validity with its observations and predictions.

 The Modern Cult of Monuments, which focuses on the relationship between the modern and historical heritage, also contains the tools to analyze postmodernism, which declares that the modern itself now has a history. Riegl's text announces that a religious sentiment will dominate the secularized modern human's interest in the past and love for historical artifacts in the 20th century, describing a new relationship between the religious and spiritual and the mundane and material.

 The publication of The Modern Cult of Monuments in Turkish allows for the emergence of new approaches to history and historical artifacts and the development of new ideas in Turkey.”