Back with the Huge Honking Statues

The Greeks have decided to recreate the Colossus of Rhodes, originally one of the seven wonders of the world that was destroyed by an earthquake at around 200 BC. The decision is not a new one, apparently there was talk of doing that as far back as the Athens olympics in 2004, but as the island's mayor Hatzis Hatziefthimiou said: "Monumental works can't be copied for the simple reason that they risk becoming caricatures".

This time around, it's not going to be a copy, but more of a "homage", a much larger, fancier, 21st century Colossus that will feature a unique light show - a reference to the original Colossus representing the Sun God Helios - and can be visited by tourists. Nonetheless, the issue is not without controversy.

Even though the new statue is not going to be a copy, to originality of the idea can be questioned on many grounds. This wouldn't be the first time the Colossus has been reconstructed, since there is a quite famous homage to it standing on Liberty Island, New York. In fact, giant symbols of liberty have become so ubiquitous that they have become a cliché of landmarks. The Colossus would have to be pretty damn inventive to break through the presupposition that it's going to be "just another oversized guy at sea".

At the same time, it is always hard to tell, which landmarks manage to surpass their architectural unoriginality and take on another cultural role in the collective memory. For instance, never mind that the White House is a pretty boring neoclassical construction, pretty much no-one even sees the architecture when thinking about it. It's cultural heritage derives from it's political meaning, not the aesthetic one. Similarly, the Statue of Liberty is as much an iconic landmark, as it is a symbol of American freedom and democracy.

What will the new Colossus symbolize? Based on the comments of the mayor ("It will be a marvellous opportunity for the economy of the region"), it's going to be a symbol of an island capitalizing on transforming it's history into a commercialized venue of overblown grandiosity and not much else. It has worked in the past (See: EPCOT), but it's going to have to be a pretty damn inventive lightshow to take on any deeper meaning other than just being a parody of the old Wonder of the World.