Sunday, September 16, 2007

A Trick of the Eye


Often, when a Parisian building is undergoing construction, the work is wrapped with a fake facade which looks like a regular building -- an kind of enormous tromp l'oeil, or "trick of the eye" painting. That way, passers by don't have to see unsightly scaffolding and the eye is fooled into thinking that the street looks normal -- unless you get up close. It's probably a good safety measure too since pedestrians walking next to a construction site on sometimes narrow sidewalks might encounter debris from above and a nasty bump on the head.

I have seen a few fancy or extravagant building covers. If I remember correctly, the Louis Vuitton store was wrapped like a package at one point. But I had never seen anything like the fake facade on this building located on Avenue George V, just off of the Champs-Elysees (not far from Louis Vuitton). My camera is not broken, nor have I used special computer effects. This is what the building's construction covering looks like from the street.

Paris is a city of images and image-making. Looks matter, not just to people, but to neighborhoods, buildings, and to the urban space. People come from all over the world to see Paris and expect a beautiful city. Perhaps that's also why construction is put out of sight, especially in this swanky district. People are paying for the beauty. I'm just not sure what they think when they see this building. Perhaps an eye doctor has his shop inside and is trying to drum up business!

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