Perversion in our times
In 1933 a boat full of artists and architects crossed the Mediterranean Sea
between Marseille and Athens. The vessel carried a decent bunch of
intelligence of itıs time. They were there to draft a definitive solution to
the chaos and perversions of the Modern City. But it never came to a final
text. It had to wait for another 12 years to develop in what we all know as
The Athens Charter. A manifesto, which pretended to be a definitive account
of the spatial problems of the contemporary metropolis. The solution was: a
sharp distinction between dwelling, working, leisure and transport between
them. An act of hygiene to order human life to the parameters of the
machine.
Later, the Athens Charter probably became the most successful manifesto in
the history of architecture. Perhaps even in universal history. Today,
hundreds of millions op people live according to the principles of urban
purism according to the main author, LeCorbusier. And we still can ask the
ultimate question: did it really solve something?
Two days ago Archis picked up a group of Greek artists and architects to
embark again in Athens and travel further east, to Istanbul. Exactly as in
the ancient days: by boat and carriage, over the waves of the Aegean Sea,
over the bumpy roads of Asia Minor, the Turkish heartland. We left the city
that perhaps has been the worst listener ever to what the Athens Charter
tried to tell. Athens today can be seen as a total perversion of any urban
super-ego. It is known for its famous monuments of Classical Civilization,
but these are by no means creating a master plan according to which the rest
of the city is laid out. On the contrary, between the underground, with all
its precious treasures, waiting to be excavated, and its rooftops, with all
the splendid views of the Acropolis, an urban jungle exists that
transgresses all accepted codes of law and order, of organization and
normality. But is it really a jungle?
At least, it is also the provincial capital of a growing Empire: the
European Union. We decided to leave that Empire that doesnıt want to know
itself very well, that sleeps when it should be awake, and that roars when
it is irrelevant, and cross its borders at a point where border crossing has
been a second nature for several millennia now. We did literally, what in
cultural and artistic circles have become the norm since decades:
transgression, excess and other forms of putting the world upside down. We
slowed down our pace, we went through nature, we spend an awful lot of time
talking and discussing with the same people, in sum, what we did was very
strange to our contemporary daily lives, where slowness, nature and time are
among our strongest enemies. A perversion of perversion, so to speak.
We also discovered something. Underneath the regime of the New Fortress
Europe, that perverse act of distinction between mine and dine, between in
and out, and more and more between two civilizations, there is a zone of
blending, an harmaniı, a field of mediation between different realms of
perceiving and understanding this world, that is not exclusivist. It
embraces rather than resists; it is based on curiosity rather than
xenophobia. It is perversion that transcends its character of abuse and
becomes social. The last few days, we have been witnesses to that kind of
perversion, that harmani.
Last night we crossed the Bosporus and landed in Europe again. This time not
the territorial Europe of the Fortress, but perhaps the last remaining
stronghold of Europe as an idea that has not been moralized to the
principles of geo-politics. Or already an Asia that is not seen as a big
risk, but as a big chance. Istanbul is in and out, is European and Asian, is
Christianity and Islam (and much more). Istanbul is not either/or, but
both/and, which perhaps will be it major asset in a world that falls back
upon the politics of cultural apartheid. It is also in some way as an
Athens, that resists its Charter. (And itıs Olympics!)
Archis
July 18th, 2004