BY LOUISE LONG
Beyond the lauded boulevards of Haussmann’s Paris, lies a little-trampled world of ancient cul-de-sacs, bucolic hamlets and secluded passages. Idiosyncratic and largely untouched, these muffled pockets of the city offer unique glimpses into a pre-industrial urban fabric, neglected by the broad brush of modernism.
The experience of walking is quite apart from the fixed, elevated view of the the city gained from an apartment window. Or the hopeless speed and restricted outlook of a moving vehicle. On foot, at ground level, one is in tune with the flux of the city, subsumed by the undulations of its path. To walk amongst the backstreets of Paris, is to encounter new aesthetic orders, speeds and relationships of urban life. Uncovering a bygone era held in the present moment—historic neighbourhoods now nestled amongst leafy 20th-century constructions—marble-fronted iron-wrought, splendid.
Yet the Villas Parisiennes must be sought out. Once home to diverse communities of labourers, traders and craftsman, today they harbour artist studios and coveted family homes—as eclectic as their architectural heritage. To wander amongst the Villas Parisiennes is to enter an alternative narrative, floating adrift from its popular image; fading alleyways displacing the parks and the markets of the common imagination.
Walking stimulates speculation—not only on the connection between art and the geography of city, but on one’s own identity in relation to the urban landscape. In this mode, we can mine for incident, texture, and stimuli. Embracing the displacement of the familiar, and the synthesis of the fragmented. Here, we find shards of a city lived-in and lived out of: loved and unloved, unkempt, overlooked. This is when leftover spaces become liveable fragments. Overwritten, rethought, unseen.
除了被盛贊的奧斯曼時期（1852-1870年期間，由當時的城市規劃師歐仁·奧斯曼主持的巴黎改造運動）大道，巴黎還藏著一個的失落的小世界，由古老的胡同、郊野住區和僻靜的街巷組成。遺世獨立，大半尚未被觸及，這些不起眼的角落提供了一個獨特的窺視前工業時代城市肌理的機會，那些被現代主義的大刀闊斧所忽略的城市肌理。
步行的體驗和從高高的公寓窗戶上望見的固定城市景象是截然不同的，也不同於疾速行駛的汽車上帶來的受限的視野。隨著道路的蜿蜒起伏，在地面步行，人與城市的流動相協調。走在巴黎的後街小巷裏，邂逅城市生活的新美學秩序、速度與關系。在當下揭秘一個已逝的紀元——在綠樹成蔭的二十世紀建造物中，棲息著歷史街區——大理石立面，鐵藝裝飾，太棒了。
還是要去探索「巴黎的公寓」。過去，它曾是由勞動者、商販和手工藝人所組成的多樣化社群的家，今天，他們是藝術家工作室，是家庭夢寐以求的港灣；像他們的建築遺產一樣兼收並蓄。在「巴黎的公寓」間漫步，進入了一種另類敘事，從它的流行意象中遊離開去。消逝的巷道取代了大眾想象中的公園和市場。
步行激發想象——不僅僅是關於藝術與城市地理的聯系，還關於城市景觀與個人身份的關系。在這種狀態下，我們可以挖掘事件、組織和刺激。擁抱錯置的熟稔，碎片的融合。在這裏，我們發現了一座城市的片段，從出生到死去；被愛與不被愛的，淩亂的，忽略的。當殘存的空間變成有生命力的片段。覆蓋；反思，看不見。
Louise Long is a 28 year-old photographer and writer born and based in London. Through analogue and alternative photographic processes, her work explores ideas of place, culture, community in response to the natural and man-made environment. Louise holds a MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, with recent exhibitions of her work held in New York, London, Sweden and Paris.
Louise Long，28歲，是一位出生、工作於倫敦的攝影師、寫作者。通過復古與另類的攝影工藝，她的作品探索場所、文化、社群對自然和人為環境的回應。Louise本科畢業於皇家藝術學院，獲得美術學士學位，她的作品近期在紐約、倫敦、瑞典和巴黎展出。
www.louiselong.co.uk
