sleep l imbo escape
travel opportunity by reza aliabadi
observation registration
I wonder, why I am here? Where I am from and heading to? Don’t you reveal my tranquil home, my origin? —Rumi
It was an ordinary afternoon on the 21st of March in 2004; I had a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Toronto. In my itinerary was an 11-hour layover before my flight to Toronto. And I spent all that time in Frankfurt International Airport, the longest stop I have ever had between connecting flights anywhere. I had heard that if you look up to the sky of Frankfurt, you will see at least two airplanes; one is approaching the city and the other one is leaving it. It was true. Today it is the case in many other cities. but at that time Frankfurt International Airport was one of the busiest airports in the world, a real hub. The transit hall of the airport was an amalgam of people of different sexes, ages, races, cultures and countries. It was a miniature contemporary Babel. The whole stew was tempting enough for me to start finding a way to create a project of my own out of this context with so much potential. As an architect/artist I have a kind of disease which is to sort, categorise and archive things in order to study or analyse them. Well, in such an intense and diverse context, this was not an easy task. While I was reciting to myself some of my favourite poems of Rumi (you have already read one at the top of this page) I noticed lot of people had fallen asleep in some corner or spot in the airport’s lounge. This image along with the above poem was the trigger for a catalogue of people who had neglected a given opportunity. The airport is a metaphor of our existing world, a setting that we get to from different origins, we stay in for a while, and we leave from for different destinations. So I considered the situation the same as a gift, just like life itself, a very unpredictable piece of time which we as humans have been allowed to experience, to explore, to encounter, to walk around, to love, to learn, to help, to teach, to have fun, to play, to amuse and to enjoy. How many of us close our eyes and miss our opportunities, our very chance just to be out there! Why, every now and then, do we ignore the very moment of our existence? There are always excuses; to be tired or to be in rush are probably two of the most favourite. It does not matter, where we are and how much time we have. What matters is how we use it.
In Scent of A Woman Al Pacino says ‘some people live a lifetime in a minute’. Why don’t we all?
/
Thanks to all of you who had fallen asleep; this would not have been possible without your collaboration. I have no idea where in this wide world you are now. I dedicate this article to all of you. — March 2004. Frankfurt, Germany
On Site review 24
72
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator