PARIS , LA NUIT – nocturnal chronicles
An exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris
exhibition time from May 23rd to October 6th 2013
EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION
THIS IS THE TIME OF THE NIGHT
For over a decade, the night has been calling on the political agenda of the cultural and economic Metropolis: it is currently a major focus of development and attractiveness and it shapes the organization of employment, culture and tourism within global cities. In Paris, recent nocturnal activities demonstrate - particularly with the international success of Nuit Blanche - the evolution of sustainable public transport, new forms of 24/24h policies and services lasting into the daylight and experiments to improve cohabitation between urban life and nightlife. Additionally, the Etats Généraux de la Nuit night conferences (November 2010) contributed put these issues at the heart of the debate for the future of Le Grand Paris.
THE EXHIBITION “PARIS , LA NUIT – nocturnal chronicles »
The Pavillon de l’Arsenal has invited AWP (Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, Alessandra Cianchetta) to curate an exhibition whose aim is to show how the night is a major challenge for urbanism, landscape, and of course architecture. The exhibition spans from the mythologies of the City of Light since 1789 to the unknown, unnoticed realities of the current nightscape. This historical and almost archaeological approach allowed the rediscovery of old practices, occupations and abandoned places: cabarets, halls, locks, lighting, factories, dance halls, universal exhibitions gardens, festive night sites, brothels, small business night owls and so on. The iconography of these epic nights will be shown for the first time as urban subjects. To create a well balanced portrait of the modern night, AWP collected data of the metropolitan nightscape at an unprecedented scale, covering the following areas :
• mobility • logistics • maintenance • employment • services • transgressions
• leisure • tourism •culture
A thorough reflection on urban nightlife throughout the history of Paris combined with a significant territorial exploration led to the same conclusion :
The night is an ephemeral territory. Despite its extraordinary quality, we tend to underestimate both its reality and its potential (also in terms of economic growth).
This exhibition will demonstrate how the night can serve as a guide to sustainable, innovative metropolitan strategies addressing :
• new centralities
• new uses of landscape
• temporary buildings
• urban networks
• new services and policies
The night is also studied as an «off» of Le Grand Paris program, and as a new frontier to initiate effectiven and immediate action. Some major stakeholders of the City have understood this and are committing to a series of actions that may be presented during the exhibition.
AREAS OF THE ‘NIGHT’ PROJECT
From Stalingrad to Rosny sous Bois, along the channel and to Chinagora Rungis, from the stade de France to Enghien, the Confluence Seine-Oise Cergy Pontoise, La Défense Paris CBD and St-Germain :
Over 500 students, researchers, and artists have joined the nocturnal explorations conducted by AWP across the Parisian Metropolis to answer these shared questions:
• What are the boundaries and identities that are unique to the night?
• Where are conflicts, collaborations, and groundbreaking places?
• Who is working, who is playing, who is moving, and who is going where, how and why?
• What architectures and landscapes are hiding in the nightscape of the Shadow Grand Paris (Grand Paris Fantasme)?
A preview of such explorations has been undertaken during the Nuit Blanche 2012, and experimented with a participatory atlas of the night – with over 18,000 contributions were projected in real time on an interactive map at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal. This exhibition will continue this approach, punctuated by a new series of creative explorations hors les murs, in the company of urban stakeholders, elected officials and forward-thinking creatives, allowing participants to increase the database and to participate in the debate on the future of the city at night, culminating in the forthcoming Nuit Blanche, 2013.
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