A NEW SOCIETY CREEPS IN

MIXING CULTURE WITH COMMERCE WOULD HAVE SEEMED VULGAR A GENERATION AGO. BUT NOW... 

Brands take over the historic center, the medieval rampart under the Louvre vanishes under an installation that leads to a McDonald's,x a tablet to rent replaces Marie-Antoinette's cell, x chain stores or shops without personality replace businesses that had a soul, as here and here and a brand takes over Napoleon's tomb:

In museums and monuments, merch can be impossible to avoid... 

• A barrier at the Conciergerie forces visitors to pass the boutique when they leave:

 

• At the Opéra, visitors must pass through three levels of shops before reaching the exit:

• At the Louvre, to view Raft and Liberty one must pass through this room...

While another boutique covers the wall of the exit: 

PHOTO

 # # #

Triviality, consumerism and erasing the past —  is there a connection ?

*     *     * 

 

Next,

Goddesses loom over the city