29.5.08

nycorbusier

le corb sailed towards manhattan and:

"saw a fantastic, almost mystic city rising up in the mist. there is the temple of the new world. but the ship moves forward and the apparition is transformed into an image of incredible brutality and savagery. here is certainly the most prominent manifestation of the power of modern times."

he named nyc the catastrophe féerique, the great enchanted catastrophe.
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2 comments:

enrique said...

But in order to reeducate the people at large, beautiful per se, to that beautiful end, to rebuild their towns and dwellings – the visible expression, the broad acre of their social and civic consciousness – the people themselves must first experience the fight for existence, experience personal danger and common sacrifice, the turmoil of mechanized battles, the mental preparedness for being blotted out at a second’s notice.

-- Erich Mendelsohn, 4/22/1942

12:39 AM
Mario Ballesteros said...

that's a wild quote. i always thought mendelsohn was more blandly optimistic (i guess that was the pre-war mendelsohn). it sounds different than against the pitfalls of modernity, more and better modernity. although it's not necessarily contradictory. i just wonder why architects cant speak in these terms anymore, only mumbo jumbo pomo crap.

11:12 AM

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