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

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Wednesday, October 4, 2023
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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.

“Ugly France”: a subjective perspective

    • 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.

When artistic production meets town planning

    • 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”.

New stories

    • 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.

The aesthetic of contrast

    • 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).