Regards du Grand Paris

The restitution of a daring photographic commission

The ambition of the national commission Regards du Grand Paris is to stimulate sensitive, multiple and shifted views on a territory in full transformation, and to invite artists to give their stories and their perception of the changes in le Grand Paris. Supported by the Ateliers Médicis and the Centre national des arts plastiques, this commission is inspired by the DATAR, which asked photographers to represent the French landscape in the 1980s. Six photographers per year, for ten years, have been contributing to the new urban and social representations of the Parisian metropolis. Halfway, this book brings together, in a first volume, the thirty-five projects carried out over five years, which it presents in various ways developed in collaboration with the artists.
Aurore Bagarry has followed the course of waters in the Paris area, recording the traces left by ancient oceans, Raphaël Dallaporta has looked over le Grand Paris from the top of control and telecommunication towers, while Karim Kal has photographed the abandoned landscapes along the RER D at night, Lucie Jean shared the last moments of relaxation of the swimmers in a lake intended to become a site for the Olympic Games, Marion Poussier met people who “live” near the docks of the Canal Saint-Denis, Anne-Lise Seusse, for her part, followed the movement of the objects in the way the “biffins” did…