Inertia Gems

The latest issue of Polar Inertia has been posted, and as usual there are some stunning collections of photographs there, from formidable swimming pools abandoned by water to serial Palm Springs trailers and the absurdist pontifications that come across America's billboard Church signs. Mac's archive is insane. This one, from a set by photographer Christophe Abrassart is, I believe, of the remains of the Atlantic Wall at Normandy built by the Germans during WWII to fend off attacks by the allied forces – the wall being one of the most ambitious chain of strategic fortifications ever built lining the Atlantic coastline all the way from Norway to Spain.


Another fascinating gallery, of perhaps another type of equally fascinating bunker system, which surely deserves more of our attention, captures what’s still in place of the old Men’s Club 45 lingering “on the western edge of Monterrey, Mexico.” This rather innocuous buidling, we learn, was “among the region’s most notorious “tolerance zones,” or government-permitted red-light districts,” up until fairly recently when it was finally forced to shut down. Despite it’s name, photographer John Sevigny tells us, “it was not a single nightclub, but a walled-in complex of strip bars, seedy hotels and brothels visible from the main highway that serves as a gateway to Mexico’s northwest.”
Of course there’s lots more retinal tease at Polar Inertia. Check it out. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, Ted Kane produced a book, Polar Inertia: Migrating Urban Systems published by RAM, which I can’t wait to get my hands on. So, go have a looky look.