Creativity/Disorder
My first impression, the impression of a foreign person coming to Maurepas from far away, was about the organisation of public space. Everything here seems to be very well organised in functional and recurrent way: playgrounds, green areas, segregation of garbage, sidewalks. The space is cleaned very often and regular, each day we can see the people in flashy overalls, who are keeping the place in the same order, who are erasing all unexpected changes, who keep the space homogeneous. Here, the order of public space is something, which is provided – which is quite different than in my country – provided as a kind of obvious citizens right. At the same time the public space seems to be organised mostly from above. This first impression lead me to think about the private venues and the borders between the private and the public, individual and common, inside and outside in Maurepas. It also made me looking for any kinds of individual traces and examples of bottom-up organisation. For me – since I was a foreigner, not knowing the language and knowing almost nothing about Maurepas – the public space was the only representation of social life, that is why I wanted to search not only the space but also individual traces in the community. I am looking for creativity and disorder.
Ton observation est très juste. Ici, en France, l’espace public est fortement ordonné par les Collectivités publiques (en particulier par les municipalités). Comme tu le dis très bien : l’espace public est conçu de manière descendante. J’aime donc beaucoup ta démarche : inverser la logique et partir à la recherche des formes plus ascendantes, des formes de réappropriation (la créativité, les ruses, les interstices…). Dans mon travail, je distingue désormais trois espaces : l’espace privé, l’espace public (ordonné par l’Etat) et l’espace commun (auto-constitué, de manière collective et ascendante). Ces trois espaces sont souvent présents dans un même lieu, pas nécessairement dans la même temporalité, ni pour les mêmes usages. Et mes excuses pour l’absence de traduction (je compte sur nos ami-e-s !). Bonne continuation.
Translation :
Your observation is really correct. Here in France, the public space is highly ordered by the Public Authorities (especially by municipalities). As you say very well: the public space is designed in a top-down way. So I pretty much like your approach: to reverse the logic and go in search of more bottom-up forms, forms of reappropriation (creativity, tricks, gaps …). In my work, I now distinguish three areas: private space, public space (ordered by the state) and the common space (self-formed, in a collective and bottom-up way). These three areas are often found in the same place, not necessarily in the same temporality, and not for similar uses. And my apologies for the lack of translation (I’m counting on our friends!). Good luck.
Merci infiniment
Merci for the comment and for translation!