04-03-14 // FROM EXHAUSTED TO EXCITED

Bernd Upmeyer contributed a piece called “From Exhausted to Excited” to the New York/ London-based publication “BI” that is edited by E. Sean Bailey and Erandi de Silva. BI describes itself as a publication focused on the exchanges between architecture and its wider cultural context. This particular issue was focused on the topic “FREE”: “There is implicit conflict in the word ‘free’. While culturally we celebrate the infinite opportunities afforded by the ‘freedom to’, the term also alludes to emancipation, a break from a captive state, or a ‘freedom from’. ‘Free’ is, at its core, an architectural concept. Architecture is a discipline directly engaged with shaping enclosure, of erecting and toppling barriers or — more explicitly — of extending and limiting ‘freedoms’…”

From Xhausted to Xcited
On the Difficulties of Seemingly Infinite Possibilities and Freedom within Contemporary Cultural Production

Seemingly infinite possibilities, a multiplicity of choices, and the lack of all-encompassing ideologies in our contemporary society, and particularly in contemporary architecture and urban planning, must not necessarily be something negative, something to be afraid of, or something to fight against. To the contrary, this condition – characterized by multiple choices – describes very well what contemporary culture is all about and should be considered as something ultimately positive…

…continue reading the article in Publications.