Paris from fresh perspectives: AND AFTER IT

Saturday, January 17, 2015

AND AFTER IT

LA COMMUNE NOW OCCUPIES A FOUR-METER CORRIDOR, SANDWICHED BETWEEN SPACES ABOUT ELITES

The first space is devoted to the Baron Haussmann...

The second to the privileged of 1900:

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La Commune is inserted in the short corridor that links those topics. Presenting it starts with this account:

The 72 days of the Commune of Paris

(March 18 - May 28 1871)

The defeat leaves France divided. The decapitalization of Paris in March is rejected by the Parisian population. [No mention of social measures.] The national guards create a republican federation (hence the name "fédérés") and regroup on the heights of Montmartre and Belleville. [And throughout the underclass east, north and south]. Adolf Thiers, head of the executive power, orders that 277 cannons [no, 177: an error that reveals the writer's ignorance, as here and here] of Montmartre be taken back, but his troops retreat to Versailles. The political leader and writer Jules Vallès writes, "Paris is reconquered." [An individual replaces the humble population.] On March 26 a general council is elected, in homage to the insurrectional commune of 1792-1794. It is the first experience of communal self-government in [untrue for Paris and for a number of European cities] revolutionary history. The Commune is proclaimed on March 28. A number of measures are adopted (separation of Church and State, recognition of concubinage, election of officials and judges, citizens' control of officials, education of girls... ) [Skips measures that contest the social hierarchy]. But on May 21 mai, Thiers's army invades south-western Paris. The Communards set fire to a number of public buildings on May 23 and 24 [Nothing on army destructions]. 7000 - 10,000 people [a number that is much too low] die during Bloody Week (May 21-28 1871), which marks the end of the Commune.

To its left is a small image of washerwomen at place Pigalle, a rare work to acknowledge the humble but that has no other link with the subject.

Then comes a work about communicating by balloon during the siege of Paris, a service whose cost reserved it to the wealthy. Huge, it eats into part of the minuscule space reserved to La Commune:

In what's left:

On the right, portraits of a revolutionary leader who was absent because imprisoned at Versailles, of a woman who was a Communard's partner ten years later, of a journalist who went over to the far right and of a figure too famous to skip:

The balloon painting takes up part of the passage.

From left to right

Auguste Blanqui. As a prisoner of Versailles he played no role in La Commune.

Jules Vallès's compagnon in the 1880's, who was 13 at the time of La Commune.

Bust of the marquis Henri de Rochefort, a journalist who later changed sides.

Louise Michel, obligatory.

On the other side of the passage...

A space under a glass reflects the bust of the marquis. The official posters that stand out by their large black letters and mean nothing to the spectator.

The arrow shows the bust's reflection.

One must peer closely to see two small images of carnage: That behind the image above is practically invisible and here, the photo's blur show how hard it is to make out the larger picture of the firing squad.

The museum renews the exhibit by replacing these with other images of army violence, but they are as small and as difficult to decipher.

Around the corner, the ruins of the Tuileries palace and City Hall, which it is true that Communards caused...

The small objects in the niche above the picture of ruined City Hall concern its past, not La Commune, unless to emphasize its destruction.

But nothing about army destruction.

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I happened to be present when a high school class arrived. The teacher mentioned Baron Haussmann and the Second Empire, then walked through the passage without mentioning La Commune.