Place de l’Europe, 2011

Place de l’Europe I and II take Gustave Caillebotte’s famous Impressionist painting Pont de l’Europe (1876) as their point of departure. The painting depicts people from different social classes standing side by side before an ironwork symbol of modernity. Today, the location, which was also painted by Jean Béraud and Monet and famously photographed by Henri Cartier-Bresson, is a wasteland with a prestigious name, dominated by a traffic circle, parked cars, passing buses, and exhaust-filled air. On nearly every sign, pole, and parking meter, the space is covered with signs and symbols that speak to the extreme left and right of the French political spectrum (e.g., “Ni patrie, ni frontière – liberté de circuler!”, “Fédération anarchiste”, “Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste”, “Les nationalistes sont de retour!”, “Le métissage généralisé détruit la diversité!”, “Paris projet apache”). On the periphery stand personal ads and appeals, ranging from people looking for work to a family searching for a lost loved one.