Marechaux South Boulevards ( an aborted project )



The work was the fruit of a commission initiated by the City of Paris administration, for artistic projects around the building of a tramway line on the "Boulevards des Marechaux".
The work, intended to be exposed in the street, on the location of the future tramway stations, would have taken the form of long series ef images, posted on the worksite fences.

The commission given to a few artists was cancelled without an explanation.

The work still exists...

The serie "what one sees when going out the metro"is made of 35 photographs. It is an exhaustive repertoire of the first view of the boulevard when looking straight ahead from
the metro exit.

The serie "in the street" is about positions of figures (people) in the public space, during the systematic and repeated surveying of the site of the future tramway line.

In both cases, the aim was to understand this space of transition, for the Marechaux Boulevards are, for its inhabitants, more than the Peripheral Boulevard dedicated to car traffic and too recent,
the border between Paris and suburbs (la Banlieue).
But, in this should be place of communication, gate (or exit) to the city, was installed a transverse circulation on tracks, doubling the barrier of the circular Railway ( chemin de fer de ceinture).

The survey and study of the existant could have helped measure the changes set by the new situation in this urban area.