II.3.5.k. TOMORROW'S DESTINATION?

MENU: 2.3.5.k. Tomorrow's destination?

RENOVATING THE CHÂTEAU ROUGE MÉTRO STATION, AT THE HEART OF LA GOUTTE D'OR, WAS INDISPENSABLE...

(IT TOOK PLACE IN 2015-2017)

Vito

...but why make the stop, which has no connecting lines and that leads only to the distant, run-down neighborhood, the city's most luxurious? 

Hand-painted tiles from Louis XV's Sèvres National Manufactory (founded in 1740)

In brief

• A métro station's unprecedented face lift

• The Barbès metro station: accessibility and space for the arts

• A 1920's cinema...

• The wash-house that literature immortalized

• The City-backed couturiers' cooperative

• The Institute of Islamic Cultures 

• Criticism: a bleak exterior for neighborhood arts

• World and urban culture for the planet?

• A portal toward the music of the outskirts

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A métro station's unprecedented face lift

A MÉTRO STATION'S UNPRECEDENTED FACE LIFT

RENOVATIONS AT THE 309 STATIONS HAVE BEEN FUNCTIONAL AND SPARTAN. BUT HERE...

Roots refer to the diversity of  residents' origins.

"A fresco symbolizes the renewal of the Château Rouge métro station" (in French)

Photo in the article mentioned above

By Cameroon's Barthélémy Toguo, who has lived in La Goutte d'Or. The National Library exhibited of his work in 2024.

That decor evokes immigration

in a way that is welcoming, prestigious and reassuring.  

It is directed to outsiders.

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The Barbès métro station's accessibility and space for the arts

THE BARBÈS MÉTRO STATION: ACCESSIBILITY AND SPACES FOR ARTS

THE INTERSECTION OF TWO IMPORTANT LOCAL LINES AND A REGIONAL EXPRESS LINE MAKE BARBÈS EASY TO REACH:

Adapted from an official map

The site also combines an industrial monument, a neighborhood symbol, unique areas for exhibits and performances and a walkway waiting to be put to use:

Zoom

• Ironwork from which exhibits can hang...

Les Intruses ("The Women Intruders"), by the photographer Randa Marufi for the Institute of Islamic Cultures, 2020   zoom

• ...above a painted path... 

• ...that is adapted to skateboarding, bicycling, training...

• ...performances...

The Compagnie Gaby Sourire and Faun Arts, in June 2022

 

•  ...and more exhibits:

Installation by Ange et Dam

# # #

Planned as an "urban promenade" uniting the Barbès, La Chapelle and Stalingrad stops...

(1.28 kilometers, launched in 2019)

    Map obtained through the link above

...the right-wing press called it "a great waste"* and "a court of miracles of peddlers, delinquents and migrants." The project was abandoned.

* "Le grand gaspillage."

A court of miracles? The space in August 2022

The space remains.

It calls out to the imagination.  

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A 1920's cinema...

A 1920'S CINEMA...

WAS ABOUT TO BECOME A WAREHOUSE WHEN THE CITY 

BOUGHT AND RENOVATED IT

Le Grand Rex, across the street from the Barbès métro, now...

Zoom

Zoom

...and in the 1930's:

zoom

The main gay discothèque of the 1980's, 

 abandoned in 1988, 

almost sold to the Tati department store,

restored by the City in 2013

and now a movie theater again.

For its story, please click

(In French, but with many pictures).

 

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The wash-house that literature immortalized

THE WASH-HOUSE THAT LITERATURE IMMORTALIZED

WRITTEN ON THE FACADE: "MADAME MINISTER OF CULTURE, PROTECT THIS THEATER"  

For 20 years a developer tried to obtain the site where Zola set "The Drinking Den's" key scene. When the Socialists won municipal elections, the City acquired it instead.

(In 2020) 

Le Lavoir moderne parisien

35 rue Leon 

The novel

Woman ironing by Degas, towards 1869 / zoom;     Poster by Augustin Daly, 1869 / zoom

 

The scene that begins the story 

Anonymous, 1877 / zoom

For the complete fight in Gervaise by René Clément with Maria Schell, 1956, please click.

After an epic combat the heroine joyously spanks her rival on her bare backside. She will take revenge...

# # #

The second floor is used for events. On the ground floor, a bar, a salon and a theater...

A singer rehearses

Maya, a voice, a musical in French and English: the story of Maya Angelou with Ursuline Kairson 

Program at the end of March, 2023

...because the City stepped in.

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The City-backed couturiers' cooperative

THE CITY-BACKED COUTURIERS' COOPERATIVE

IT PRODUCES PROTOTYPES AND SMALL SERIES UNDER THE LABEL LA FABRIQUE DE LA GOUTTE D'OR ("MADE IN LA GOUTTE D'OR")

It has existed since 2000. The City helps since 2012.

Chaussettes orphelines

Its window can show French, Muslim and African cultures: 

   

Figure invented for Nuit Blanche ("All night," a City-sponsored event) in June 2023  

Detour

Zoom

Austria's Kitty Hartl, artistic director of the event, makes the figure in the cooperative's workshop.

"I'd seen this Yeti at an artistic event in Nantes, and furnished the model. I wanted 200 for Nuit Blanche. Finally there'll be 20 ... I'd first asked fashion schools but they did not answer or said it was impossible. Then I found this marvelous workshop. It was unhoped for.  

# # #

During the first lockdown the cooperative produced a million masks with filters, which the Mayor ordered when they were still rare:

# # #

Orders include the costumes for Opera productions: 

Fadel makes coats for a performance in 2020. "What was that show?" I asked. "I don't remember," he answered. "I've made costumes for six productions since then."

# # #

A meeting

 

 "The cooperative is not for money alone,

but to show that we are useful."

-- Fadel

It also shows the vitality

of a production rooted in the neighborhood.

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The Institute of Islamic Cultures

THE INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC CULTURES

A CENTER ON TWO SITES PRESENTS MUSLIM REACTIONS TO THE WORLD

At rue Leon

At rue Stephenson

# # #

Exhibits present reactions of Muslim artists living in France toward their cultures of origin. In 2019 and 2020:

2019 / zoom

2020 / zoom

2020 /zoom

# # #

The exhibits of March 31 to July 31, 2022 :

• Persian miniature or modern portrait?

Cyrus and the Odor of Lilies by Iran's Ryan Yasmineh

 

• Silences, taboos and the forbidden

"Family Photos" by Oassila Arras, French of Algerian origin

Mounds of tangled threads around which one must tread carefully.

 

• Paintings evoke uprooting by linking a Syrian poet's verses to symbols of the sky

Dialogues by Irak's Himat L. Ali

# # #

A place to appreciate North African cuisine

# # #

The Institute follows Islam's command for charity:

Please click back.

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Criticism: a bleak exterior for neighborhood arts

CRITICISM: A BLEAK EXTERIOR FOR NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS

 

THE "FGO* BARBARA" EVOKES THE BASTILLE AND THE NAME IS HERMETIC

*"Fleury Goutte d'Or" after the small street that leads to it. 

"FGO" sounds like a non-governmental organization and the singer Barbara (1930-1997) is much less known now.

Its design seems meant to keep the public away.

The FGO Barbara

1 rue de Fleury

Its true that its impact is positive. This evening of slam let poets perform for the first time:

Waiting to enter.

# # #

Opened in 2008,

the establishment must have been planned

shortly after the Socialist electoral victory of 2001. 

 

Its opaque name and forbidding appearance

make it impossible to think that

La Goutte d'Or was seen as a destination then. 

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Urban and world cultures for the planet?