1st International Conference on Restoration. Auditorium of the Regional Council of Tuscany, Florence, november 24th 1995. Enzo D’Angelo talks about the recovery of restoration culture and the necessary relationship with contemporary aesthetics and criticism. He then talks about the limits of creativity on inherited works. He reflects on the peculiarities of the document and documentary activity, on the aura after restoration and, more generally, on the aura starting from the historical confrontation between Benjamin and Adorno and between Benjamin and Brecht. From that cultural climate, quoting Brecht’s wish: «One should transform radio from a medium of distribution to a medium of communication», he says: «Cultural heritage is not just a radio waiting to be turned on or repaired at random, but also a stratification of texts with which to interact respectfully. Hence the vitality of interpretation and, in architecture, with due caution, design as well. Architectural and large-scale permanences do not survive without compatible designs and functions». He dwells on the metamorphosis of aura after Benjamin, between nomadism and exile, « a contemporary path from object to subject to event ». One of D’Angelo’s fundamental concepts resurfaces here, history as a scene, with diverse presences (subjects, events, artifacts, pre-existences, etc.) where to preserve and design. He answers some questions by explaining how he also acts in history but at small scales, such as design and concentrated theater scene with ephemeral architectures. While others, with whom various comparisons occur, act at an urban scale with settled architecture. For him, history is a flux as variable as it is unstoppable, like interpretations, but in any case it is an inevitable premise for not sinking into the abyss of trivialities. (Text by Riccardo Pantò)