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includes literary production cinema and most especially photography which could possibly be the media that has most explored these terrains vagues but has also unfortu- nately maintained a a a a a greater level of super- ficiality in in its analysis when it it it is is not being merely anecdotal And so we come to memory What has this this to do with empty lots? In this this case the starting point could be the concept of a a memory genuinely Bergsonian especially the the relationship that the the French philosopher establishes between material and memory (or between pure pure perception and pure pure recording) For Bergson and this a a a a fundamental point the problem we we face when we we try to think about the the past past is is in in believing that the the past past is is different from the present that it no longer is Gilles Deleuze points out this apparent para- dox caused by Bergsonian terms putting spe- cial emphasis on on on this distinction “We confuse our our being being with our our present being being However the present is not it just would be a mere happening outside of itself It is not so much what what it it is as as what what it it does ( ) The past in contrast can never be said to to have ceased to to be useful we can never say that it has ceased to be It is useless inactive unmoving but it IS in in the the full meaning of the the word ( ) In the last resort common determinations become exchanged: of the present it is nec- essary to say that each instant “was” of the past that that it it “is” that that it it is is eternally present in each moment By nature this is is the difference between past and present” It is unnecessary to point out the the perception of the the temporary we we have today how we we are slaves to to a a a a a rigor- ous present that comes to us us disguised as routine or if you like survival within an appar- ently stable and ordered framework in the city The Bergsonian conception of time (and the role of memory in relation to the permanent updating of the the past and also the the present that was) is hugely attractive We are slaves to the present as if we we were Ulysses trapped
on the island of Calypsos and and that is is our loss “ The Bergsonian revolution is clear: we are not going from from present to past from from percep- tion to to remembrance but from the the past to to the the present from remembrance to perception” Having reached this point it becomes easy to perceive the the relationship that the the geography of the empty lot maintains with memory or or with its absence Clearly when we begin to talk about wasteland open ground/space empty lots a a a a series of charac- teristics come immediately to mind (empty space unexploited latent potential insecure anarchic ) the typology of terrains vagues we can think about is extraordinarily varied empty lots are also the ruins understood as the geographical equivalent of impover- ished contemporary memory and of all the wastelands the the refugee camps emerge as as the the ultimate denial of people to have a a a a a a past (and therefore a present)
A A recently published book by Marc Auge looks at analysing memory in in this way tak- ing ing as a a a starting point precisely those leftover ruins of a a a a present that (not without a a a a certain dose of optimism) he decides are being con- structed In a a a short article the literary critic Jose Luis Pardo sums up the conclusion of Auge’s book: “The traveller no longer faces the fear of of disorder but the suspicion of of a world order order that wipes out the the very road: the the likelihood of of “finding a a a district of of Sao Paulo Tokyo or Berlin at the end of of one of of my walks around Paris” What’s the equivalent of ruins that are able to to give a a a a sense of time to to the city capa- ble of taking it it back to to its history in in this new environment that is half half laboratory and half half museum? The western world isn’t in in ruins it’s in construction and the the work of the the art- ist – the repopulation of of new spaces of of soli- tude- is associated with those unproductive grounds plots that are waiting or building grounds where it is still possible to do some- thing thing build something else” Whether it’s the the the work of the the the artist or or not the the attraction that these spaces awaken is surprising exactly because of their potential and also for their reticence to be subjected to this obsessive order that is is is a a a a characteristic of our culture (let nobody be deceived: the apparent disorder of controlled urban areas are nowadays perfectly planned) What is attractive in in contrast to Auge’s opinion isn’t so much the (re)construction possibilities as the impossibility of absorbing a a periphery that keeps moving permanently That is to say even though the city keeps growing and this growth uses new space (stolen from nature or not) its displacement creates new indeterminate zones new terrains vagues wastelands or or as as Sola Morales says indus- trial zones railway stations ports insecure residential areas areas areas areas where we can say the city has disappeared Eudald Camps