RURAL EXHIBITION

Rural studio exhibition at the Auburn museum. Hope it gets itinerary into México.

http://www.jcsm.auburn.edu./

OVOIDE

Of the 4 quarters we endured only 2 and the halftime spectacle. The game began at 1.30 p.m. no caps or hats and too much sun. From our position at one of the corners of the goal area all we could see, diagonally, was a group of men aligning themselves to the parallel transversal lines, and then hitting each other. From time to time we saw the ball flying over the heads of these men, just throwed to avoid being tackled behind the lines. Somewhere in the first quarter a group of 6 fighter jets flew over the stadium. They say this is a good way to train pilots and to spend taxes. Now I know the noise and feel of such arms flying over my head.
The spectacle of 1400 cheerleaders and band was worth it. Even the college band adaptation of “Somebody told me” from The Killers.
I´ll be back on three conditions: a late evening game (no sun), beer, and the sound and feeling of 88 thousand people gathered in the same place and hour.

CHATTAHOOCHEE

Charrette of ideas for an abandoned mill now property of the city of Valley, Alabama. Time to go kayaking in the above described river (too complex to write and read again). Beautiful river, wonderful opportunity to the city, very good that they are taking the time to plan what to do in their strategically located site in the core of town. Apparently a healthy river, accompanied by Kingfishers and their prey. We even spotted a peaceful swimming otter get on the top of a sandy protuberance in the river, walk over it, and get into the lake again.

LA ROCHE

It´s been 1.5 years since our trip to Europe, but Adriana had the time to bring here our undeveloped 35 mm films from that trip. We found today this beautiful picture of the Le Corbusier Foundation / Villa La Roche. Picture taken also by Adriana. If we only knew this woman, she would be happy to see herself framed so modern.

REMAINING

We have two projects, that I know, in my thesis studio that deal with present world realities, concerning global warming and the increasing level of water of the seas. I don´t have any idea if this is stoppable, but, what about planning the new remains? The spatial and functional possibilities of the spaces reclaimed by the sea.
Plan the remains: a way to expose and live what used to be, a phisical alternative for future education of humanity on nature.
(Picture of a abandoned sports area in Chernobyl. Source: Google Earth)

TOOMER´S CORNER

This is the main urban space in Auburn. Where people celebrate after a victory of the football team. Where the famous lemonades are sold. Where I get newspapers. And where the street I live -Magnolia- intersects with College St.
The night of the first game of the season we couldnt miss the waste of toilet paper flowering from the trees at this corner. With people freely partying and drinking on the tolerated day.

MONTGOMERY

Last saturday we went to Montgomery. Leaving behind the tailgating crowd, we arrived to a vacant downtown, empty because labor day holiday, the long weekend, and empty because of the inexistence of an urban fabric to support life.
The capitol building is heavy, impressive at its feet, but it´s context is too white, too solemn, too made up, simply artificial.
The cupule ends the axis for what had been the main street of town, now gone. It´s character reduced on reading the small historic signs for a much greater history.
A street where Rosa Parks (I didn´t knew about until his recent death) took a bus to refuse giving his seat to a white, a street where the Civil Rights March ended with a speech from Martin Luther King.
We sorrounded the capitol and looked for the civil rights memorial, just in front of it we asked to a police officer for that very monument; it turned out to be smaller than our expectations. The monument is fine, but the center has a mediocre container for it´s content.
It was just a good opportunity to get in touch with some of the most important recent events in local history with international effect; in the end, is shocking to see all this individuals, simple persons, finally becoming so important, some of them even inadvertedly.
In my first visit to Auburn, in 2004, I decided to stay a couple of days in Atlanta before coming back to Chihuahua. On my way back from Auburn to Atlanta, I just can´t forget the advice of a “normal” white woman, a mother, of not staying in the black area of the city, which turns out to be downtown. I stayed in the non-recommendable area and hotel, just two blocks away from the five points plaza, where I love to see people play chess in the outdoors.
In that same visit I travelled through the Selma-Montgomery highway and took the bridge where the protesters were beaten by state troopers. My guide along the miles continuosly talked about these days, but, I had no idea of the general history of the events.
My colleague John Carroll is starting his thesis in my studio in which his main topic is the presence of racism embedded in the urban form in the black belt of Alabama (cotton white allowed by black soil). He´s done already alot of research and I really admire his focus on the -still- pertinence of his vision. His work is polemic, contemporary, and can really stablish a precedent of this type of studies just right in the target area. If this embeddment can be achieved in urban form, how can we manage to develop urban fabrics capable of social and economical justice? This is not a new question, but generally it´s answers have been too generic.

When I was a kid I remember following the Tom Sawyer adventures, with no understanding.