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Wednesday, October 4, 2023

France counts no less than 1,500 of them, equivalent to an area of 500 km2, or 5 times the size of Paris.

Key Points:

France counts no less than 1,500 of them, equivalent to an area of 500 km2, or 5 times the size of Paris.
72% of spending by French households takes place within them, according to the country’s economy ministry.
If that is to happen, we French people will have to learn to look at what are now often commercial ghettos under a new light.

First used in the pages of the cultural magazine Télérama in 2010, the expression encapsulates the forms that urban spread takes: road infrastructure, commercial zones and housing developments.
Never mind that a third of the population resides in these districts, in a mosaic of different socio-economic classes and diverse and changing living arrangements.
The sheer number of ads in all forms in the central areas of the capital constitute the perfect example.
Artists, and photographers in particular, have produced much work that can enable us to appreciate this aspect of commercial zones.

The fascination of photographers for suburban spaces first manifested itself during the Photographic Project of DATAR (Interministerial Delegation for Urban Planning and Regional Attractivity).
DATAR was created in 1963 with the aim of documenting the national politics of urban planning.
In 1984, Bernard Latarjet and François Hers founded the project in order to “represent the French landscape of the 1980s” and to “recreate a culture of landscapes”.

Initiated by the Forum Vies Mobiles (a mobility research unit), “The lives we lead” seeks to capture the diversity of contemporary ways of life in France.
The photography series capture stories, following individuals from all backgrounds, in different regions.
Far from simply documenting, the project focuses on narration, featuring the inhabitants of suburban zones with vivid evocative power.

They are animated by nostalgia, off-beat humour, or are inspired by cinematic influences.
Commercial zones become stories, and their visual qualities, full of contrasts, are sublimated by the art.
“Hexagone : le paysage fabriqué” de Jurgen Nefzger montre des paysages périurbains dotés points de repères et de monumentalité.
Her series ‘Hyperlife’ reveal the social relationships that play out on the carpark of the Intermarché supermarket of Saint-Erme (Hauts-de-France).

'La France moche': French artists rally to celebrate the country's much-snubbed commercial zones