clog - bjarke ingels group, 2011

in the 1988 film coming to america, prince akeem, played by eddie murphy, travels to america after failing to find a suitable queen in his kingdom of zumanda. akeem's celebrity is so pronounced within his, fictional, homeland that the native women can't help but become enchanted in his presence, transforming into literal bitches, "ruff, ruff", before his eyes. what he wants more than anything in the world is a woman that will appreciate him for his person and not his fame and fortune. it is therefore a quest for anonymity that leads akeem not just to america, but to its largest city, new york, and ultimately to the borough of queens, for "what better place to find a queen than the city of queens?". and while akeem does eventually locate his queen, a new yorker with some natural beauty, smarts, and ambition, it is clear to the audience that her best quality is that for a brief moment she has unburdened akeem of his decoration.

in 2007, with a nod to eddie murphy, victoria beckham released "victoria beckham: coming to america", a documentary showcasing her displacement from london to los angeles after her husband david beckham joined the los angeles galaxy. "when we get to america, it's going to be great. we're going to pick up our bags at the airport, and we're just going to walk through. no one's going to notice us. because people don't know who we are there." while victoria gets mobbed at the airport in one of the first scenes, she does ultimately achieve anonymity as she pulls up to her "giant dusty ice cube" modernist palace in the hollywood hills, its characterless facade indistinguishable from any of the other nearby mansions. penetrating the celebrity masses, victoria becomes but another minor, therefore anonymous, hollywood starlet.

following in the footsteps of princes and starlets, bjarke ingels experienced his own "coming to america" in 2010. while his migration, officially, stemmed from the opportunities bestowed by durst fetner, the allure of anonymity cannot be denied. from a tiny european nation where the name bjarke is now synonymous with architecture, the girth of the american continent allows ingels, for a brief moment, to forgo his lofty civic and social responsibilities and to focus on practice. of course, like prince akeem before him, there is the added benefit of being able to frequent the bars of manhattan without fear of the local women transforming into subserviant dogs.

coming to america

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