Bunker Archéologie

War in the Atlantic Wall and facing the sea, as seen through the lens and critical eye of a ‘revelationary’. ‘Abandoned on the coastal sand like the moulted skin of an extinct species’, the Atlantic Wall bunkers are crumbling. Their anthropomorphic form and their association with the German occupiers caused a scandal. Fifty years ago, Paul Virilio devoted a book to them, to which we shall continue to refer as long as these illusory ramparts continue to clutter the horizon of history. By studying the architecture of bunkers in peacetime, it is war that he scrutinises. By reflecting on military space, it is peace that he questions—our need to banish fear, to forget.

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Paul Virilio (1932–2018), an urban planner and philosopher, stated that his two universities were ‘war and art’. Starting out as a painter and later a master glassmaker, he attended lectures as an auditor by Jankélévitch, Merleau-Ponty, Louis de Broglie, René Thom and others. From 1958, and for 10 years, he worked on the Bunker Archéologie project. In 1968, he became a lecturer at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, where he taught for 29 years. In 1972, he founded the journal *Cause Commune* with the sociologist Jean Duvignaud. Recognised as the father of Dromology, his works have been translated into 35 languages.