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BELLA ARGAZAM PHOTOGRAPHY
Coexistence
Some cities today look as if they want to begin from the beginning.
More and more glass, clean lines and buildings that could stand anywhere. Modernity has become a synonym for smooth surfaces, minimalism and speed. And yet cities that try to cut themselves off from their own history very quickly lose what makes them real.
Vienna seems to understand this better than many other places.
At Stephansplatz, a historic tower with a dome and clock stands beside Haas House, the modern building designed by Hans Hollein. One was built from stone, ornament and time. The other from glass, reflections and geometric forms.
They are completely different, and yet they exist next to each other in a natural way, as if they had always been part of the same story.
What is most remarkable is that the modern building does not hide the imperial city, but reflects it. In its glass façade appear old townhouses, details of historic elevations, fragments of towers and squares. It is in this reflection that one can see that the future does not have to be built against the past.
It can grow from it.
Coexistence is one of the greatest challenges today.
It is not only about architecture, but about a way of thinking. It is about whether we are able to create new things without destroying what existed before us.
Whether we can leave space for memory in a world that increasingly wants everything immediately.
Perhaps what is truly modern is not what cuts itself off from the past, but what is able to carry it. A city does not become stronger by erasing its own traces. It becomes stronger when it is able to look at itself as if in a mirror and recognize everything from which it was made.
Like a human being.
Because a human does not become stronger by forgetting who they were.
A human becomes stronger when they are able to carry their past without shame and still build something new.
BELLA ARGAZAM
October, 2022
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