Friday, Jun. 06, 2014 7:30 p.m.
"Paris is not Paris without its suburbs. Aubervilliers is a part of Paris. What I need, as an artist, is to live in a space of truth, and this space of truth exists in Paris. As in almost every large city, the space of truth is its suburbs, their so-called banlieues. In Aubervilliers, as in other Parisian suburbs, one can touch the truth and be in contact with it. It�s in the suburbs that there is vitality, deception, depression, energy, utopia, autonomy, craziness, creativity, destruction, ideas, young people, hope, fights to be fought, audaciousness, disagreements, problems, and dreams. It�s in the suburbs that today�s big issues are written on the building facades. It�s in the suburbs that today�s reality can be grasped, and it�s in the suburbs that the pulse of vitality hurts. It�s in the suburbs that there is necessity and urgency. It�s the suburbs that will save the city center from a most certain death! This incredible energy has to be directed somewhere and be fruitful somehow, find a destiny and a response. This is the problem of �small� Paris. The �small� Paris turns its back to all this energy coming from the suburbs. That�s why I am for �Le Grand Paris.�" - Thomas Hirschhorn |