Witalność ruin w dobie antropocenu

The life among ruins is a well-known motif in the Polish urban, architectural and historical studies. The ruination, as a leit-motif, reappears now in a different setting – it is anymore connected solely to traditional heritage studies, but it stands as a real threat and challenge resulting from the Anthropocene condition. In this paper, the idea is to discuss the phenomenon of an intensified ruination as a sign of our, Anthropocene time, and further to confront it with a concurring concept of the Capitalocene and its meaning for critical heritage studies. While the first concept of the Anthropocene redirects our attention to new materialism, vitality and biological agency of material, cultural heritage, the other suggests a different approach and implications for heritage. The discussion on heritage in the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene will be illustrated by Alfred Seiland’s photographic series “Imperium Romanum”.