Yesterday was a Supermoon day in Chicago. The lake was lit like the Nocturnal Japanese Prints. A superman is a Moon that is full when it's also at its closest point(perigee) in its orbit around Earth, since the orbit is elliptical. According to NASA, the Perigee full moons appear about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than full Moons that occur near apogee in the Moon's orbit. A predictable coincidence, but attractive nonetheless. Another coincidence might be Alvaro Siza and me, one sided, similar to the Moon and us as observers.
Mr. Moony's project was in Santiago de Compostela, a small city in Galicia, Spain. I had never heard of this place nor did I have the desire to travel to Spain or even Europe at that time. My parents asked me about where I'm flying and I tried to translate the name into Chinese, like "聖地亞哥-德孔波斯特拉". They said no wonder Chinese tourists haven't crashed that place yet, with such a long name. Peter Eissenman have a big project there, but it was painful, inaccessible and ugly. And there's Alvaro Siza's Contemporary Art Museum, where I saw some art and had some coffee. Two completely different experiences only make Siza's building more beautiful.
When I was desperately wanting my own project to generate the same sense of simplicity that I appreciated from Aires Mateus's designs. I watched one of their interview, in which they mentioned that as Portuguese architects, Alvaro Siza was indeed important to their works. It's when I flip through Siza's Divisare photos and one building appear to be another coincidence. It was that strangely beautiful building I saw when I was with Niaz wandering around Santiago de Compostela under the dim after-sunset light. That one afternoon we had for ourselves. We saw that building when we were confused about the map. She casually pointed to the building and said that's kind of weird. I said, yeah it's beautiful. I probably have some secret connection, telepathic relationships with Alvaro Siza.
I turned to another page, with the name says Mimesis Museum. That's a "fullmoon" again. I named my "twin buildings" mimesis, a name I got from the loose definition I had on my mind. I remember something like the "evil twin brother of the Sun"(BBC documentary voice); or the Greek work "to imitate". It was the only model that I don't want to throw away right after critique. One is wooden skeleton covered with yellow-golden faux fur and another is pink foam and wood colored in bright yellow. The forms of these two parts are almost identical in shape but with slight alterations.
Nature creates similarities. One need only think of mimicry. The highest capacity for producing similarities, however, is man’s. His gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else. Perhaps there is none of his higher functions in which his mimetic faculty does not play a decisive role.
--- Walter Benjamin, "On the Mimetic Faculty" 1933
So when I saw Siza's Mimesis, it's like someone I knew did something within his character.
I can see the mundane parts and limits in his built projects, and also the one I had actually been in. I understood those things or I'm going through them when I'm discovering this. I feel close to him if that's possible or am I simply worshipping an icon? I prefer to call it a Supermoon trilogy.
没有评论:
发表评论