MASKING THE MONUMENT'S PURPOSE

THE HOMAGE TO MAGNATES IS CAMOUFLAGED OR IGNORED

Their entrance has almost vanished:

The arrow may show its location, though I recall a simpler door at the rear of empty space. I did not think of taking a picture. 

The restored statues are hard, slick and cold rather than almost palpable. 

# # #

How mask the void where the abonnés left their carriages and that underscored their entrance? Two-thirds of the space is neutralized...

• The northern section is hidden until late afternoon because the light is in one's eyes. One sees the colonnade and does not think of the void: 

• The center is a restaurant terrace. Tables and parasols divide its immensity while greenery and a barrier separate it from the street:

• Passers-by do not notice it:

# # #

But the last third was too big to hide. 

• Empty, it stood out. Tables and parasols briefly occupied the full space, but many more clients would have been needed to fill it. So it was abandoned.

 

• Originally visitors had exited through a vast glass portal, descended a staircase that was short but wide, walked through the whole space and left with a sense of majesty.  .

Toward 2019 a small, dark exit led visitors directly to the street. 

It is one of the innumerable details that seem unimportant, and that can reveal what counts most. 

But there was nothing to be done 

about spectators from outside. 

Or so it seemed.

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Next,

   Merch contributes to the transformation,

but is not its cause