Never Forget

How do you commemorate September 11? More importantly, how do you commemorate it in New York, 12 years after the event, with the 9/11 Memorial newly opened and the tower formerly known as Freedom Tower basically complete? This is a very difficult question, and it would seem that nobody really has a clear idea on how to answer it.

MSNBC News Anchors preparing
to go on air in front of WTC 1

The Memorial is closed to the public on 9/11. You see masses of people outside it who clearly acknowledge that a day such as this warrants an effort, a presence, a gesture. And yet, not really knowing what to do and how to do it, they wait around, snap a picture of the new tower from below, and then wait some more. The atmosphere has a clear element of contemplative silence, quiet thoughtfulness and wondering wandering. The lady at the information centre tells us that nobody has a clear idea of what events for the commemoration there will be: "they were so preoccupied about security until the last moment that they didn't release a schedule".

The firefighter memorial wall has two uniformed men keeping stalwart guard in front of the names of the first responders, with american flags on buildings and walls; the mural relief on metal depicts firefighters running into the tower ruins. This morning at 8h46 a choreography of dancer silently marked the moment with a contemporary performance in front of the Lincoln centre. One a very concrete, explicit, honestly direct way of showing the support, the memory, the loss; the other an abstract representation of ethereal aesthetics that tries to convey the feeling of sharing, of togetherness, of completeness that connects everyone. Two diametrically different attempts to express a similar feeling, that speak to different audiences.

Celebrations of the first responders at the World Trade Center

And maybe this is the only way you can commemorate September 11, by using the words, images and concepts that resonate with what this date represents to you. You find a way to answer to your sadness, your anger, your surprise, your feeling of vulnerability, your anguish of impotence, or your sensation of guilty indifference to the human loss, your acceptance that bad things happen, your hope that it won't happen to you, your conviction that these are things of the past now. You find a way to answer, be it with a silent dance, with a prayer, with flowers on the sidewalk, or with a small flag planted on the grass.

Commemorative flags on the Columbia University Campus,
photo by Marion