“After Friedrich Nietzsche declared that ‘God is Dead’, the word FUCK has become the most important word in the English language”, says Osho aka Bhagwan in a speech to his followers. He elucidates his point quite hilariously. However, such transgression do not occur in Hipcescu.
This picture of the Cruas Nuclear Power Station in France is very evocative. While pure white fumes go up in to the atmosphere, art and nuclear energy happen to combine wonderfully. In Hipcescu, this is something we have always known.
On the sunny shores of the Caspian, only a four hour flight away from Western Europe, the City of a Thousand Suns awaits you. Hipcescu, a thriving 21st century metropolis, home to the world’s highest building, the iconic Hipcescu Tower (850 m). Visible from every angle of the city, it is a monumental tribute to our Secretary General, V. Hipcescu. And while a highly efficient state-security apparatus ensures your safety at all times, you will thoroughly enjoy our eco-friendly beaches, exciting nightlife, tax-free shopping, reliable nuclear energy sources and excellent real estate investment opportunities. Hipcescu. Come and discover the magic.
In Senegal lives a Great Man. His name is Abdoulaye Wade and He is the Nation’s President. Somewhere in the early 00’s, Wade commissioned the construction of the African Renaissance Monument. It was unveiled in Dakar in front of 19 African heads of state on 3 April 2010, marking Senegal’s 50 years of independence. When I first saw this picture, I thought it was just a bunch of guys in front of a statue, but when I realized that the little dot in the middle was a person, I was struck by the scale of it.
The 49-meter bronze monument was built by a North-Korean firm and cost €20 million. Because it is significantly smaller than Hipcescu Tower, I am very sympathetic towards this picturesque initiative. Its Stalinist elegance points a firm vector towards the future of Africa. I don’t know if development funds were used to build it, but if so, this proves that such funds can actually be put to good use!
According to the Global Post, “Rumblings of discontent erupted […] when Wade announced that he, as “intellectual creator,” would be taking 35 percent of all tourist revenue the state monument earns.” Here we see that instead of being grateful, people complain. This is in the nature of the people. Personally, I believe that 50% – a perfectly normal share in the art world – would have been more appropriate. Thank you for your time.
This here is the Druzhba Holiday Centre in Yalta, Ukraine. The picture, which I stumbled across in yesterday’s the Guardian, was taken by Frédéric Chaubin.
It is one of ninety pictures from his recent book Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed, that documents weird and wonderful works of architecture across the former Soviet Union. Because I am so delighted by this inspiring publication, I have decided to invite Frédéric Chaubin to document the eigth wonder of the world, Hipcescu Tower. Thank you for your time.
This old picture of the Parisian suburb of Sarcelles captured my attention. A pic says more than a thousand words, right?
Originally devised as a social housing project, Sarcelles became a symbol of the problems of the grands ensembles, monolithic suburbs for immigrants. In the sixties, the term ‘Les Sarcellites’ emerged, describing the inhabitants of the grands ensembles. Sarcelles is a only a few RER stops away from central Paris. It’s a good place to unwind after a shopping spree on Champs-Élysées. Take line D1 in the direction of Orry-la-Ville-Coye. Because I’m interested in the effects that architecture and social engineering have on music, I’d like to present to you a music video by Playcos, a young rapper from Sarcelles. In ‘Bienvenue dans ma ville, Sarcelles’ from 2007, Playcos welcomes us to his wonderful world.
Needless to say that in the City of a Thousand Suns, Hipcescu, where social harmony and cleanliness prevail, such transgressions would never occur. Thank you.
Here is a brilliant post from C. G. P. Grey’s blog. I had never heard of C. G. P. Grey. The guy happens to be witty as hell and he’s also a time-management coach. Tim Harris, one of the Founding Fathers of the City of a Thousand Suns, Hipcescu, sent me the link to his blog. I’m happy he did. If you believe in maximizing your intake of kps (knowledge per second) – phrase coined by www.theprofessorshow.com – watch this now! Thank you for your attention.
The other day, I saw this amazing commercial for Tatarstan on CNN. I was very impressed by it. Tatarstan is a very modern place. It almost felt like I was watchting Tron Legacy when I saw it. I was surprised by the ultra-modernity of the place. Take a look. This is the 30″ version.
Like Hipcescu, Tatarstan is designed to perform and optimized for international commerce. In case you hadn’t heard about it, the Republic of Tatarstan is a sovereign state that is associated with the Russian Federation. According to this commercial, Tatarstan is one of Russia’s most business-friendly investment destinations. I wanted to share this with you, because I am a great lover of the country ads they run on CNN. “Incredible India.” “Malaysia truly Asia.” “Egypt. Where it all begins.” “Croatia. A country with 1.244 Islands.” (This is disputed by Serbia, though.) “Montenegro. Experience wild beauty.” To name a few. I’m currently considering a new slogan for the City of a Thousand Suns. I think I’d like to run it on CNN – ”Hipcescu. Where the sun never dies.” Thank you for your attention.
Game Over (2009) is a music video by Booba, a Moroccan-Senegalese rapper from the Parisian banlieue of Boulogne-Billancourt. I tried to find out who the director of the video is, but to no avail. Despite a slow start, this video is worth the watch. The art direction and photography are excellent. The gloomy atmosphere is incisive. You almost sense the roaches on the wall of the claustrophobic apartment in which part of the video is set. This stuff is really fine-tuned to deliver Booba’s message and music.
BOOBA – GAME OVER from STREETFAB on Vimeo.
I’m fascinated by the banlieues that surround Paris. The often monolithic building blocks, called grands ensembles, were built in the 50s and 60 to accommodate large streams of immigrants from Algeria and other (ex-)colonies. From an urban planning point of view, it was a great solution – if you didn’t think about the consequences ten, twenty years down the line. Unemployment, violence and alienation festered inside the grands ensembles, creating a sort of externalized Bastille – stagnant social pools, just outside the Périférique, Paris’ ring road.
Fortunately, also good things like hip hop have come from those massive concrete zones. The ever-expanding library of French hip hop videos provides a great insight into functional architecture and its consequences.
Please note that videos, such as the one mentioned above, could never spring from the suburbs of the City of a Thousand Suns, Hipcescu, because social harmony and cleanliness would make such transgressions impossible. Thank you.
