Rudéral: identités liquides / Ruderal: liquid identities
Wastelands are territories in ruins. They are the neglected witnesses of past industrial utopias: a metal lookout post where the yellowed paper of a final schedule remains hanging on a cork board, a concrete platform which still bears the insignia of maximum authorised heights and weights, a prison cell – empty at last – covered with graffiti ranging from prayer to obscenity. Paradoxically, wastelands are protected by their hindrances: bankruptcies with no buyer, a lot which no longer appeals, polluted grounds. But from these ruins comes rebirth: weeds sneaking into the crevices of the tarmac, underground springs gushing forth by surprise, migratory birds returning to nest. They are also a refuge for humans who are often “marginalised” – by their social status, their gender, their ethno-racial identity, their political choices, their curiosity – and reclaim a space which has been forsaken by society. From Rome to London, Berlin to Marseille, Ruderal compiles four original tales of hybrid spaces and their liquid identities.
To design this book, Éditions deux-cent-cinq used the typeface Helvetius, designed by Matthieu Cortat and distributed by 205TF. Rudéral: identités liquides / Ruderal: liquid identities is available in their “AAA…” (architecture, urbanism, landscape) collection.
