Habits Make Us Blind: Architectural Photo Collages from MGR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The usual, everyday layout of life introduces us into a kind of comfortable cocoon, beyond which it is sometimes very difficult for us to get out. This is illustrated by the series photo collages "Habits make us blind", created by specialists from the Spanish architectural company MGR, in which its creators are trying to open people's eyes to what they have long lost the habit of noticing.

In every city there are areas in which tourists are not advised to meddle. And the point is not even that it is dangerous there, but that these areas are half-abandoned, half-destroyed, and the guests of the city may have a very perverse attitude about the place where they arrived. In some cities, they try in every possible way to completely ignore the presence of such "ulcers" in them, and in some they try to deal with them in different ways. For example, in Stavanger, Norway, a depressed neighborhood has been turned into the venue for the year-round NUART street arts festival. And in Valencia, the architecture firm MGR has created a series of illustrations dedicated to the degradation in the city center.

Each of us has our own shortcomings. But we, living with relatives or people close to us for some time, get used to not noticing them, ignoring them, although they can infuriate some stranger or unfamiliar person in a second. The same goes for cities. We can live for years on a street, completely oblivious to the fact that half of it is abandoned and lies in ruins. In order to block negative emotions, our brain simply refuses to notice all these inconveniences. And we look around with sincere surprise when a person from another district or city suddenly points his finger at some problem with which we have long been accustomed.

This principle is illustrated by a series of photo collages "Habits make us blind". On it, the guys from MGR showed the most unpresentable places in the center of Valencia, which no one except tourists notices.

Moreover, they show not just these places, but the fact that they can be turned into real highlights of the tourist part of Valencia. It is enough just to get down to business and turn on your imagination. And, of course, for better clarity, when creating these "projects" of reconstruction, the authors of the collages used the virtual LEGO constructor.