II.4.4.d. FIRST STEPS IN ANOTHER LAND

MENU: 2.4.4.d. First steps in another land

A DELAPIDATED EXTERIOR, TRASH, KIDS TO AVOID...

But behind the dusty window, sumptuous robes: Walk slowly and observe.

Atelier Diom Lamine

 38 rue Cave

Walk slowly and observe.

• The neighborhood on a sunny afternoon

• Trucks

• Ebullience

• Vigor strides by

• Detour: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

• Street vendors flee when cops arrive 

• Shops where display does not matter

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The neighborhood on a sunny afternoon

 

THE NEIGHBORHOOD ON A SUNNY AFTERNOON

I PLAN TO COME FOR AN HOUR AND AT NIGHTFALL AM STILL THERE  

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Trucks

TRUCKS

NOON LINE UP ON "MAIN STREET"

(RUE DOUDEAUVILLE ) 

Another version

On the next street, there's a tailor in the background :

More later.

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Ebullience

EBULLIENCE

VITO STARTS HIS ALBUM AT THE CHÂTEAU ROUGE MÉTRO.

THIS WALK DOES THE SAME

A crowd, plus girls selling costume jewelry, boys peanuts... so long as cops are absent.

 

Go straight ahead. 

Notice the cartons.

At the corner, the rue Dejean market.

Take a seat at this café terrace:

Use of the cartons

Béatrice Genaudeau

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Vigor strides by

VIGOR STRIDES BY

SEEN FROM THAT TERRACE 

Having carried loads on one's head explains the bearing of queens:  

Joëlle Finkpon

At the Agbodrafo market in Lomé, Togo

At the Dejean market

Dressing to stand out:

The shawl shows identity as coats of arms did.

Color

Styles proclaim confidence. Dying half one's coiffure launches a trend:

September 2019

Richard Nahem

February 2020

Emphasizing curves and shoulders: 

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Detour: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

DETOUR: "BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER"

WHEN SURPLUS IS RARE RODUNDITY SUGGEST WEALTH, SO BEAUTY

Voluptuous curves and a statue that gives a hero a paunch... 

Zoom

Though he was svelte:

    Zoom 

        Samory Turé, implacable opponent to French conquests in West Africa 

   Zoom

His statue in Conakry

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In early 19th-century Africa...

• A Mauritanian queen is so huge that two servants hold her up when she walks.  

--  Journal of a voyage to Temboktoo by René Caillié, 1828 (in French)

• In Bornu (Northern Nigeria) "Large bellies [...] are indispensable attributes for whoever serves the court. Those whom nature has not favored compensate with a quantity of stuffing that when they are on horseback, give their bellies the singular appearance of hanging over the saddle."

A king is so heavy that his horse collapses outside the city gates. His enemies kill him. 

-- Narrative of travels and discoveries in northern and central Africa

                      by Captain Hugh Clapperton, 1826

Elsewhere

• Mesopotamia

Venus of  Willendorf / zoom

The headdress replaces the face: Primal art eliminates details that distract from the essential, here high social status. 

• Asia

Shop window in Paris's Asian district

• Japan

Scene from The Tale of the Genji, 1850, from exhibit at Scripps College (California), 2024 / zoom

• Seventeenth-century Russia:

Alexis I of Russia (1670-1680) / zoom

Boyards at the accession of Peter the Great wear "narrow caftans, brocaded with gold or silver, on which the beard spread out, Persian sashes knotted under the abdomen, to emphasize the curve of the paunch, rightful object of masculine pride [...] "

-- Peter the Great by Henri Troyat, 1979 (French version), p. 18 (bold added)

• Seventeenth-century Flanders: The flamboyantly large nudes suggest prosperity at a time of shortages and famines. 

Queen Marie de Medici arrives in Marseilles by Peter-Paul Rubens, 1626/ zoom

 

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When cheap, unhealthy food makes the poor fat... 

• "One can't be too rich or too thin," said the Duchess of Windsor

    The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 1937 / zoom   

•  The skeletal model suggests that shopping at the mall on Sunday is behaving as does the elite. 

 

Ad promoting Sunday shopping at a mall renovation site (at place d'Italie, 13th)

The sticker pasted over her face says "Liberty" and backs migrants: There were no comments on the dozen other ads posted along the barrier.

 

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Views of beauty stem from the economy.

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The street vendors vanish when cops arrive