The project was conceived and built by Nuno Pimenta and Ricardo Leal in close collaboration with Miguel C. Tavares (construction, documentation e logistics), still under the umbrella of DOSE collective.












The Désert de Retz is an Anglo-Chinois or French landscape garden - created on the edge of the forêt de Marly in the commune of Chambourcy, in north-central France. It was built at the end of the 18th century by the aristocrat François Racine de Monville on his 40-hectare (99-acre) estate. It is notable for the construction of 17 (or 20) buildings, of which only 10 still survive, referring to classical antiquity or in an exotic style. Those buildings include: a summer house (the "colonne brisée", or ruined column), in the form of the base of a shattered column from an imaginary gigantic temple, an ice house in the form of an Egyptian pyramid, an obelisk, a temple dedicated to Pan, and a (now-lost) Chinese pavilion.
De l’artiste A. Claris qui signe cette feuille nous ne savons rien. Il livre pourtant une aquarelle exécutée avec une maîtrise remarquable. Le plan de cette fabrique, brillante de fantaisie et d’imagination, prévue pour un parc agrémenté de vases et de statues, indique que l’architecte propose au commanditaire : bibliothèque, cabinet, salle à manger et salon. L’élégante façade auréolée de têtes de morts ouvre ses yeux sur deux balcons-loggias d’où l’on pourrait entendre les aria de la cantatrice Louise-Rosalie Dugazon. Si les Vanité nous rappellent notre matérialité et la fulgurance de notre passage sur terre, l’histoire raconte aussi que Charon, célèbre nocher des Enfers, embarque les morts pour les faire traverser le Styx. Il a déjà quitté sa passagère et guide sa gondole vers d’autres défunts. Claris a ajouté un figurant, [lui même ?] un pécheur trop occupé pour regarder la scène.
We're all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the sixties.in Thompson, Hunter S. - Fear and loathing in Las Vegas: a savage journey to the heart of the American dream (1971).
That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around amerika selling consciousness expansion to anyone who would listen. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for 3 bucks a hit. But their failure, is ours too, because what Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole lifestyle he helped create.
A generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the acid culture, that desperate assumption that someone, or at least some Force, was tending the light at the end of the tunnel.
This is the premier post of a new blog section entitled "Book Cloud" in which I will present "word clouds" of a given book, cortesy of Google Books. The first one is Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Enjoy!
airport American Dream Amphetamine psychosis asked Att'y bartender bastard beer Boulder City bucks California Highway Patrol Carson City casino Chivas Regal Circus-Circus cops crazy damn desert District Attorneys door drove Drug Conference ether eyes face felt finally Flamingo freak front fuck fucker goddamn Goddamnit Gonzo Journalism hands hash pipe head hell highway Horatio Alger hundred Jesus kill kind knew laughed looking Lucy marijuana mescaline Mister Duke move muttered Narcotics nervous never night nodded Paradise parking lot picked police probably pulled radio Raoul Duke Red Shark screamed seat seemed shit shouted shrugged smiled speed stared stopped straight stuff suddenly sure tacos talk tape there's thing thought told town Tropicana trying turn Vincent Black Shadow waiting Waitress watching Whale What's white Cadillac woman worry Yeah yelled
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Thus the moment of waking reproduces - though in a much more complex way, since it belongs wholly to the individuating continuum of instants and need nor undergo a translation into space - these same border of limit conditions.