WEEK 6 READINGS

“Bloody Sundays” by Hollier

• Architecture is society’s way of structuralism and institutionalized control. Although it doesn’t always appear in the same form or design, its primary purpose is the same. When I say this I think of fascist architecture which is very sharp, symmetrical , dominant and imposing. This is an obvious example. On the other hand, you can have beautifully decorated Parisian buildings that express romance, however they still structure it because of its uniform disposition and seriality, and also impose the bourgeoisie lifestyle.
• “Loss of meaning” and “Architecture against architecture” : I interpret these two statements of La Villette as follows; La Villette’s space and disposition creates a different movement flow than normal buildings. It doesn’t stick to the structured architecture that has a particular purpose. It doesn’t reference dominance power and institutions in the typical book.
• “Whereas the killing of the minotaur is usually presented as a humanizing exploit through which a hero frees the city from whatever archaic and monstrous, bringing society out of the labyrinthine age, for Bataille the sacrifice functions in an opposite manner: striking a blow at the organic image, it opens up the labyrinth up again. With his grandiose humor, Bataille- relying on Marcel Mauss’s theory of sacrifice as a basis-gives the slaughterhouse of la Villette a religious , sacrificial dimension. But what we have is a deserted unconscious religion : no one attends the sacrifices.” He refers to the other reading we had by Bataille who traces back to religious sacrifices in sacred temples. Now we are the victims of a curse where we cannot stand the horror and filth of our own making, so we hide it in a common effort to ignore and forget it.
• The opposition between the museum and the slaughterhouse, that one attracts and one repels I get. However I think that the fact that you go to a museum on a Sunday and the link of cleanliness and religion is a bit far fetched in my opinion. I and most people go to a museum when hey have the time, when the weather conditions are appropriate, when they saw an exhibit that interests them and when the chemical reaction of impulse happened in their brain. I believe in those variables and coincidence and timing.
• I agree with however with the leisure aspect of Sunday and the bois de boulogne, where you get fresh air and when your sorrows and city problems like money wash away. You come back in touch with the natural, the pre Anthropocene, the simple things of life light sun and the cycle of life. Additionally, I think the fact that it’s outside the city centre helps fulfill that purpose.
• Zola’s utopia and absence of loss in opposition to Bataille’s Concorde which is defined by loss and carnage.
• “ There is no carnival without loss, no Luna Park without a slaughterhouse”. I think this is a great way to end this text and probably a great sentence to keep in mind as we go through life. I think the beauty of having something is in the fact that you can lose it. In the same way that the beauty of being alive is that it isn’t forever. If we could have anything forever it wouldn’t have value. And if you think about it our whole society and functioning as humans and living beings is based on that.

“Defacement” by Michael Taussig

• “ For characterization of defacement can never confront its object head-on, if only because defacement catches us unaware and can only be known unexpectedly, complicit with the violence of daily life.”
• “The labor of the negative”. I don’t really understand what that means.
• “Truth is not a matter of exposure which destroys the secret, but a revelation which does justice to it”.
• “Knowing what not to know. Does Defacement destroy the secret or further empower it ?” I think it further empowers it because the fact that a lot was done to hide it shows it holds more power and weight. It stays between its walls, immortal in the purpose and existence of the defacement itself.