#cold room

Luckily, the local restaurant had the perfect place to cool off.

(One for Purple Friday!)

Resident Evil 2 / Biohazard 2 (1998) – Claire (A)

returned to this abandonned cold room, probably a former restaurant's, in which people recently removed a large panel from the insulating wall i guess as an attempt to uncover a hidden room. only to find the cave-like walls of the basement behind

cold room's hygrometer still in place on the opposite side ; this whole part of the buildings is semi-underground and windowless

then climbed to the empty apartments on the two highest floors, had to literally *cut* through lots of brambles to manage to enter there. the whole place is devastated and has like 8 entire apartments empty, a good chunk of it really dark

got an opinion : i don't know how u feel about "urbex", but personally i kind of disavow the term. i did such things way before i was even aware of the word, and i think children and people probably always entered and spent time in abandonned and empty places. it makes me think that in a way the simple act of trespassing in empty places doesn't fully overlap what "urbex" is.

so, what "urbex" would mean then, more precisely ? as it can't simply be trespassing, i think it is left with a few specific things like the broadcasting of the activity, as well as seeing it as an activity on its own, and more importantly, its commodification. you can sell blogs, books, exhibitions, and even actual places using "urbex" as a signifier. the "aesthetics" of devastation as a whole became commodified ; occasionally, you'll see professional urbexers go further and defend "urbex ethics" : do not take anything, do not deteriorate the place further, do not move anything, do not *use* the place (in short, make it a museum)

these fairly common "rules" alongside with commodification are kind of bullshit in my opinion ; it transforms it into a purely aesthetic experience, dismissing as illegitimate any form of squat or scavenging, or to deliver yourself from frustrations, breaking some shit. so many times i thought that the discourse of some professional urbexers radiated a weasely desire to privatize abandonned buildings and control what happens in them, even though they're doing something illegal like us all.

empty and abandonned places have fairly common uses like occasional squatting, and i use them for that ; to find seclusion and space to do stuff i otherwise wouldn't feel comfortable to do, when i'm surrounded with people ; it's an opportunity for some people to sleep a couple nights with a roof above their heads, crack some beers, smoke some joints without being seen ; if there's something interesting to take, i will surely do rather than letting it rot, and i think that's fine and cool.

though i don't want to dismiss "urbex" entirely because it would be a bit pretentious, and i don't think that "urbexers" are broadly responsible for its commodification. some of them seem like geniune chill guys. some people and practices can be blamed in some ways though imo. anyways, some more pics of these apartments :

wish i could someday paint bullshit on my walls like that without having to fear the annihilation of my face by some landlord