Fucking Columbus
F U C K I N G C O L U M B U S The news is already on everyone’s lips, on the front page of every newspaper in every country around the world. Words have been murmured and pictures spread: today is a day that will make history. The project of Ulysses WebB, a finely cultured man, a comedy writer (or better, a tragedy writer), set out at the first light of dawn. Yes, the project of a fourteen year old has finally come to a successful conclusion. After many revenue stamps, licenses, post offices and international courts and after many bureaucracy ups and downs, the project FUCKING COLUMBUS finally came to reality. The isle of Manhattan would be cut at the height of the 110th Street, with the almost total support of the residents.
Central Park will remain on dry land, as a green wharf, the new arrival dock to a city that wants to start over and reinvent itself. Today many people were there to see the parting of the city. Among the crowd, between joy and emotion, many were waving their arms to say goodbye, others were trying to fix a final picture of Manhattan in their head, mixing streets and memories in their minds to the furious wind which ran through the chimneys of the high glazed buildings, before disappearing in the city grid underneath the yellow cabs. Many of those people worked in Manhattan, some of them used to live there and they all had accepted the decision, for a greater common good. The intent was to bring back a balance to a situation which was, literally, tearing apart the city.
We were able to meet Ulysses whilst he was coming out of school, who allowed us an interview, after saying goodbye to his classmates.
Journalist: So Mr WeB, what is the project FUCKING COLUMBUS?
Ulysse: WebB: It basically consists of /detaching Manhattan and bringing it around to the various cities of the world. Manhattan will stop in every city and its present will reinterpret the future. “Clay shaped into the past, ready to be molded by men for men”. Its past will not be destroyed, though. It will be only transformed.
J: So is today’s action going to solve the problems of the city?
U: Well, the problems of our city, or of any city actually, are right under our nose, under everybody’s nose. Living the city is difficult. Uncertainties and chaos are crushing us into a geometric trap, where individualism and social climbing appear to be the only accepted qualities. Everything is more complex, not only because of the market. Of course, we can’t solve everything with another zoning resolution… or resolution? I can’t remember.
J: Why not aim at public spaces, at new technologies, at the environment, or at those smart objects that seem to make the world and our lives better?
U: Yes, well, these all sound like good intentions. And life does occur more often indoors, at home, whereas the world outside needs bigger spaces, and takes them in any possible way.
J: You sound like the ghost of Rem Koolhaas.
U: Well, actually I feel more like Borges! In FUCKING COLUMBUS I see the Aleph, the One imagined by Plotinus, a starting point with no clear arriving point but with one direction.
J: So, why did you decide to unhook the isle of Manhattan?
U: I remember that one day I read a sentence by Valery on one of my father’s books: “Tout commence par une interruption”. I stopped suddenly. That was what I needed to hear. Maybe that idea was not so bad. Bringing a balance back to the situation, to the choices of the lives which make a city alive. Detaching what is considered to be the centre of the world means first of all that all those functions which existed before will now be moved, repositioned. There will be more jobs and opportunities for the remaining part of the city, the one which has been abandoned until today. It is mainly about human and cultural resources, the lymph which will help fighting troubles, the hope that people, working together, will build today’s history with tomorrow’s means.
J: How can we give hope, if we destroy certainties and myths?
U: We are not destroying anything; this is just a rupture from the current situation. Let’s start by observing this altered space with the eyes of a culture which mistakes slowness with slackness, living with controlling, acting with choosing. Everything is arranged for us, and we just do it.
J: Well, I’m sorry, but I haven’t understood yet what you mean by ‘future’ and when this will be.
U: (clapping his hands at every word) Future Future Future (he interrupts and smiles) While we stop the present, we give an endless future to New York, don’t we? Space and time are bounded to form a continuum which will take care of humanity.
J: Is New York going to be some kind of an invisible city?
U: I would say more of a possible city. New York will not just stop at one city, it will have to move towards another, then another one, where its past will be waiting. Or maybe, something similar to its possible future, which is some other city’s present, might be there waiting.
J: A journey as architecture then. But is New York going to relive its past? Is it going to find its future?
U: The traveler recognizes the little in his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have.
