Untitled (Los Angeles River) : ELISABETH

Untitled
(Los Angeles River)
Los Angeles, 2014/2015

Departing from the question of how the position of the Los Angeles River has been distinctly related to the city’s image of itself throughout its development history, we have experienced the river of today as a lengthwise city in itself – from an equestrian tradition to gated suburbs to informal residential set-ups to industrial zoning anomalies like the city of Vernon. What is it to explore the cityscape of Los Angeles alongside a constructed line, and to then devise a cross-section of the urban fabric alongside this line? What is it if this line is actually a river, once determining the development of the city and its layout? What is it if this river became was turned into a concrete channel, an anti-icon assembling the remnants of former times, counter cultures, an asylum for distinct typologies? What is it to specifically identify this river as a powerful tool to lay bare different layers of the urban palimpsest that coexist, to experience the myriad of seemingly hidden and invisible cities? What is it to observe the city, so to speak, from its Rear Window to catch a glimpse of everyday L.A.?

Elisabeth Haid u. Josef Schröck
Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program,
Mak Center Los Angeles (Mak-Schindler-Stipendium)

www.makcenter.org

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