Drownout France

Le Renouvellisation de Paris

Now showing.

When this show opened in Paris, it was just weeks before modern France's showdown with its atavistic past. Literally millions of people took to the streets against Le Pen, and they may as well have stepped out of these photos. Klein has photographed the new Paris and the new French in the 25 years of photos on show here.

That was the political message then.

But there is another aspect: renewal. Paris renews itself, pastiche upon the classics. Just as they entertain rock concerts, pot smokers, World Cup boozing, summer beach volleyball and even "the Fastest Waiter in Paris" competitions in front of the Hotel de Ville, plausibly among Europe's most impressive buildings--just as they installed the massive Pyramid in front of the Louvre or built La Defense to echo the Arch de Triomphe--Paris constantly preserves and renews itself.

The french politicians are invariably interviewed in their beaux-arts offices with striking, colorful modern abstract paintings in the background.

Long-replaced, the palaces of the French kings are still sitting around: as art museums, tourist sites, public spaces, government buildings, and so on. Still around, but suddenly modern.

New York, on the other hand, is another thing.

Renewal? Buildings come down, sure enough: the old Penn Station, for example, or even the twin towers. And they are replaced. Cell by cell, the city erases its past and replaces.

There is a kind of preservation too: achieved through acts of law or litigation, for Historical sites. Such places don't get revised or updated.

Posted by amol at August 5, 2002 12:52 PM