27 October - 15 November 2008

The present-day Boulevard Péripherique (Paris ring road) has replaced the historic fortifications that once marked the the city's boundary. Profound changes are afoot: Paris will no longer be the encircled capital we knew as children, but instead a megalopolis with an ill-defined, blurred outline. Photography can preserve its moments and atmospheres a little longer. Curves, blocks, spaces: urban geography, a desert devoid of solidarity, a scarcely human place where everything seems remote, where vulnerability is the lot of the pedestrian in transit. The Boulevard Périphérique will always be, for the most part, a concrete ribbon where life is just passing through. But it will no longer be the no-man's-land where the poor seek refuge, where nocturnal forays are possible between oases of light, and where urban charm works its spell in an atmosphere of open space and electricity.



Centre des Amandiers
110 rue des Amandiers, 20e. Métro : Père Lachaise ou Ménilmontant
Téléphone 01 44 62 85 40
Open daily except Sundays 10 am - 7 pm.
Admission free