IV.8. HAVE THE KINGS BECOME SUBVERSIVE?

4.8. HVE KNGS BECME SUBVERSVE?

A NEW KIND OF DIVINITY REPLACES THEM

 Sun King image on the gate of Versailles / YouTube

 The ruler lights up his kingdom as the sun lights up the world.

Perfume ad at the summit of the Hôtel Lutetia, 7th, 2015

An invincible goddess hovers over Sèvres-Babylon crossroad on the elegant left bank.

In brief

• A new society creeps in

• Goddesses loom over the city

• Kings and globalization

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Next,

4.8.1.

A new society creeps in

4.8.1. 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, a tablet to rent replaces Marie-Antoinette's cell, chain stores or shops without personality replace businesses that had a soul, as here and here.

• A brand even takes over Napoleon's tomb:

Claude Abron

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 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 exit's wall: 

PHOTO

 # # #

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

*     *     * 

 

Next,

4.8.2.

Goddesses loom over the city

4.8.2. GODDESSES LOOM OVER THE CITY

COINCIDING WITH THAT EVOLUTION, GIANT ADS

(SINCE 2011)  

Place des Victoires, 2015

       Opéra, 2015

    Departent store, 2016

Commercial street in the wealthy 16th, 2017

                                                                                                                     Opéra facade, 2023

For their underlying message

please click and scroll down. 

*     *     *  

Next, 

4.8.3.

Kings and globalization

4.8.3. KINGS AND GLOBALIZATION

THE CRACKS AROUND THIS PAINTING WERE FINALLY REPAIRED... 

(IN 2023)

Louis XIII Bows Before a Crucifix, church of Saint-Paul Saint-Louis, 4th

But though people stop there to meditate or light candles, I have never seen anyone contemplate the giant painting of homage to the king, in a church built to honor monarchy.

That past has been forgotten.

# # #

Compare that work with images like this one: The colossal figure looms over town like Big Brother, in hommage to a brand for which purchase has no reason. In an economy based on consumerism, buying is an order.

And all else, as these pages show, is left out.

The pont d'Arcole in central Paris

To fall for that one must be submissive, credulous and have no conflicting frame of reference: The monarchs' majesty

stands in the way of such annihilation.

As well, it has left a legacy of artistic and architectural grandeur that makes consumption-ism insignificant. One does not reject it — one ignores it.

Pamela Spurdon

Louis XIV in the courtyard of the Louvre.

The kings re-enter history when we notice
 the majesty they transmit.

End of Part IV.

*      *      * 

The other great reason for Paris's beauty,
the fear that insurrections inspired,
is even more suppressed than are the kings.

Part IV addresses that gap.

 V.
Cradle of upheaval