Telling the 9/11 story at Ground Zero
The September 11 museum is a monument to how the terror attacks that day shaped history, from its heart-wrenching artifacts to the underground space that houses them amid the remnants of the fallen twin towers’ foundations. It also reflects the complexity of crafting a public understanding of the terrorist attacks and reconceiving ground zero.
The National September 11 Memorial Museum at ground zero is to finally open ceremonially on Thursday and officially to the public May 21.The museum faced financing squabbles and construction challenges. Conflicts over its content underlined the sensitivity of memorialising the dead while honouring survivors and rescuers, of balancing the intimate with the international. Holocaust and war memorials have confronted some of the same questions. The museum harbours personal possessions and artifacts that became public symbols of survival and loss.
The commemorative display is, basically, the equivalent of a communal, life-honoring memorial service perpetually in progress. Photographs of nearly 3,000 people cover the walls of a gallery. Some 14,000 still unidentified or unclaimed remains reside, unseen, at the request of a vast majority of families.The prevailing story in the museum is framed in moral terms, as a story of angels and devils. In this telling, the narrative is not be wrong as drastically incomplete. It is useful history, not deep history; news, not analysis.
Still, within its perspective, maybe because of it, the museum has done something powerful. And it seems to regard itself as a work in progress, involved in investigation, not summation.If it tackles the reality that its story is as much about global politics as about architecture, about a bellicose epoch as much as about a violent event, it could deepen all our thinking about politics, morality and devotion.