MASKING THE MONUMENT'S PURPOSE

THE HOMAGE TO MAGNATES IS CAMOUFLAGED OR IGNORED

Their entrance has almost vanished:

(Since 2011)

The arrow might show its location, though I recall a very simple door that was always closed, at the rear of the huge space empty except for an official's car. I did not think of taking a picture. The change took place in 2011.

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

# # #

How mask the vast space 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 is too big to hide. Empty, it stands out.* Changing the exit masks the space from visitors leaving the building:

*For a short time tables and parasols occupied the full space, but many more clients would have been needed to fill it. So it is empty.

• They used to leave by a vast glass portal, descended a staircase that was short but wide, walked through the whole space and left with a sense of majesty.

The pothole shows disregard for the past and the belief that since visitors now have their backs to it as they leave, it will pass unnoticed. 

 

• The current dark exit, built toward 2020, leads directly to the street. Because its smaller size is easier to guard from theft of wares from the boutiques visitors have just passed through? (Please read on.) On the contrary: When half closed the earlier glass portal was of the same size and its luminosity favored control.

This new exit is another example of a detail that seems to have little importance, yet throws light on what counts most.

# # # 

 

But about observant passers-by 

there is nothing to be done. 

This photo was not posed

and the onlooker seems to wonder

what is the reason for the huge space,

empty except for the pothole.

*     *     *

Next,

Ignoring the obvious and getting away with it