“The Beaubourg-Effect: Implosion and Deterrence” and “America” by Jean Baudrillard prove and highlight his exceptional vision and writing style. Both works are extreme analyses of urban architecture and, compared to each other, complete opposites in tone and emotion. Baudrillard is critical of a museum in Beaubourg calling it “most meaningless, stupid, [and] least cultural aspect” (1997b, p. 214). However, he takes a positive stance on North-American planning style noting its “brilliant, mobile, superficial neutrality” (Baudrillard, 1997a, p. 223). In “America”, the author emphasizes the comparison of his new observations with what is present in Europe. It seems as if Baudrillard finds the answers to why a monument in Beaubourg did not fulfil its mission by travelling overseas.
Baudrillard is dissatisfied with the planning and existence of the Beaubourg monument and uses it to describe a self-destructing nature of cities. He implies that the idea of a continuous and ongoing flow of energy and people, which is the core of Beaubourg-monument, only created paradoxes and conflicts within itself (Baudrillard, 1997b). What once should have been a modern space introducing new culture and thinking, turned into a facade hiding old values and producing homogenous society (Baudrillard, 1997b). Beaubourg-Museum wanted to introduce new, but it only came “crushing and breaking all culture” (Baudrillard, 1997b, p. 211). Baudrillard rejects everything that was put into the construction and creation of this monument of modernity – he dislikes the surplus of unnecessary structures and design of interior spaces that limit people’s vision instead of broadening it.
Nevertheless, he believes that space can save this Beaubourg-thing from implosion. Baudrillard links the paradox of Beaubourg with the current city system, which is built on the fatal expansion strategy. Similar to the museum he criticized, Baudrillard (1997b) claims that cities are self-destroying in nature – “[over]saturation and contraction … as in the physical system of stars” lead to “fire, wars, plague, revolutions, criminal marginality, catastrophes” (pp. 216-217). Although Baudrillard’s statements and writing might be perceived as extreme and subjective, they reflect the flaws of the current city expansion-oriented system, which in turn can cause social instability.
The “America”, however, is an absolute opposite from “The Beaubourg-Effect: Implosion and Deterrence”. Despite abandoning ideals of “eco-architecture” and “eco-society”, Baudrillard found the city-planning structure that could be the saviour of the Beaubourg-effect (Baudrillard, 1997b, p. 219). By observing the architecture of cities and structures from New York to Salt Lake City and Disneyland, the author comes to another extreme conclusion – “they say streets are alive in Europe, but dead in America. They are wrong” (Baudrillard, 1997b, p. 219). The problem, however, is that American architecture is relatively new compared to Europe, which cannot be as flexible and spacious.
Jean Baudrillard is a passionate and sometimes controversial post-modernist. His work on Beaubourg-effect is full of critical analysis, which finds paradoxes that need practical answers. Travelling overseas to North America, Baudrillard was able to find those answers in the use of space and mobility. Unfortunately, they come at a high cost – sacrificing history and ideal ecology.
Reference List
- Baudrillard, J. (1997a) ‘America’, in Leach, N. (ed.) Rethinking architecture: a reader in cultural theory. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 218-224.
- Baudrillard, J. (1997b) ‘The Beaubourg-effect: implosion and deterrence’, in Leach, N. (ed.) Rethinking architecture: a reader in cultural theory. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 210-218.