Au passage
2007
For many people Paris is « the city of love ». For me it is a place that suffers on the one hand from its history (centralisation of services, financial flows, population flows, organization adn centralization of work, probably a little bit inherited from Louis XIV’s time’s mentality and the history of the urban space itself, early modernity etc.) and on the other hand from its incapacity to adapt and to open up (conservatism, protection of private property, control mecanisms). Due to uncountable prohibitions namely concerning the freedom of movement within the city and its different spaces (for several reasons: the urbanist situation itself, but also overpopulation and private property issues) there are a lot of inhuman means that try to contain the movements of humans in invisible limitations and pre-traced and thus oppressive routes (small doors in the subways. small pavements, closing of parcs in the early evening hours, no banks, anti-homeless-installations in front of shops etc.).
These photos are an effort to make visible some of the things I feel in Paris. It is called « Au passage » which means « by the way » but may also mean « passing by ». Because the city it is a place of « passage », a place where one does not stay (workers go from one end to the other, thousands of people from the outskirts come only for shopping, tourists come and go) it’s a place where one easily misses the details.
