This new neighborhood is part of a broader scheme to transform the neighborhood of Aubervilliers in line with the new Grand Paris express line, the terminus of which will be based in Aubervilliers in On the right, a photocollage piece by 13bis depicts a cupid, or an angel, seated on waht frm far away may be a pile of rubble, but on closer inspection is a pile of eyes that disquietingly follow the viewer from different angles.
Across from and adjacent to the winged being is aerosol based work, one by ZDV BOYZ represents a smiling cyclops with a handheld bombing device. What is distinct here is street art being deliberately called for as a public mechanism of discussion, commemoration, and transition. As such, it is being invoked as a means for collective conversation, one that is being made legible to a broader public.
Showing the outlines of rooms, distinguished by sparse renderings of recreation a stone couch and television , repose a teddy bear , consumption a refridgerator , and rest a bed , the viewer is left to wonder if what is to be here soon, is not more uncomfortable than the already bare concrete and corroded buildings and automobiles.
The portrait is meters square, the size of a parking lot, and, because of its gigantic size, is impossible to see from the ground. Although visually frustrating, this lack of vision raises important philosophical questions about the place of the site, and its historic and social visibility. Can it only be known, or registered, through aerial views and a large vertical distance Paul Elliot Johnson hazarded that it may work as a reverse punctum, an observation I cannot fully digest yet?
Even if it were recognizable from the ground, would the homage to a local heroine register for visitors many of whom are from outside the neighborhood? And importantly, will figures like Picquart fit within the purview of future development plans? As we moved from the parking lot to the second major accessible space, this one involving an corridor with window-sized pieces, a large parking lot, and then a circular viaduct, a sign advised that the exhibit was intended to.
