Is Paris Burning?
Sure as hell’s kitchen (The Sleepers) it is. Came across some interesting facts about the romantic city while researching for a term paper on ‘The New Museology’.
Since early nineteenth century, key cities throughout Europe began to establish their individual identities through museum culture. Paris, in particular witnessed a phenomenal programme of museum growth fueled by its recognition as a world city for tourism and as the center of the French-speaking world. This explains why President Chirac recently walked out of a conference when he heard one of his ministers deliver his speech in English. This further highlights the indispensability of studying history (wake up you men and women of science) as it so elegantly helps us understand our present and prepare for the future.
The first thing that invariably comes to one’s mind when the words Paris and museum are uttered in the same sentence is the Louvre, right. (and yes, not to forget, Mona Lisa and Hammurabi’s code on a basalt slab). Thanks to Dan Brown, the ‘Pyramid’ needs no introduction. Representing the symbolic, luminous tip of the iceberg, it conceals below ground 50,000 square meters of new space (ooh… that’s where the truth lies!!). This renovation of the Louvre’s central urban stage was done to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Revolution. Under President Giscard d’Estang (of the EU constitution fame – an oxymoron no doubt), the largest science center of the world was established in 1981 at La Villette, Paris called the City for Science and Industry.
Detour – In India, the second science city (first is in Kolkata) is coming up shortly in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. You must visit the gallery on Behavioural Science which houses the fruits of my labour)
Excerpt from my paper - A museum has come to be regarded as a facilitator between a public authority and a local population. The public authority’s involvement is through the experts, facilities and resources it provides while the local population’s involvement depends on its aspirations, knowledge and individual approach. This in turn, has given birth to the concept of an ‘ecomuseum’ defined as a museum concerned with the total ecology and environment, natural and human, of a defined locality by involving people in the processes of both representation and interpretation.
The first such ecomuseum was in Le Creusor, central France, in 1971 courtesy Georges Henri Riviere – ‘father’ of the ecomuseum movement. As far as I know, in India there ain’t any.
Amazingly enough, I see a few bulbs of the roots of the present day disarray in Paris in one of the pages of the chapter titled ‘New Worlds’.
It is interesting to note that the origin of the ecomuseum and deconstruction are the same. They were probably both reactions to a heavily centralized and bureaucratic French state… The birth of deconstruction can be seen as a phenomenon to ‘deconstruct’ the ‘totalization’ of government in France. During the post-war period… the French government may have been the most centralized of all Western European governments. In the light of the failure of the radical politics of the mid-to-late 1960s, the earlier war in Algiers and the break-up of the Empire in Indonesia, the desire to develop counter-cultural, single-interest and local political movements in France may be seen as an obvious desire of French society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
With the present day volatile political scenario, the riots in France against First Employment Contract (Contrat Premiere Embauche or CPE), passed by parliament as part of a broader bill on equal opportunities. It is a new work contract for under-26s with a two-year trial period. In that period, employers can terminate the contract without having to offer an explanation.
This legislation is cited to ward off the high youth unemployment rate (22% - the highest in Europe, double the national average of 9.6%. ) but least I fail to see the logic in it.
After being forced by popular protests to scrap the controversial legislation, President Chirac said that the law will now be replaced by measures targeted specifically at the most disadvantaged young people and that a new law will replace the CPE with new state subsidies to encourage companies to take on unqualified young staff thereby increasing the state's role in the workplace instead of decreasing it!
With the prestigious Sorbonne University turning into a battleground, I just wish somebody would soon step in and put the fire out for once and for all and not through half measures.
Since early nineteenth century, key cities throughout Europe began to establish their individual identities through museum culture. Paris, in particular witnessed a phenomenal programme of museum growth fueled by its recognition as a world city for tourism and as the center of the French-speaking world. This explains why President Chirac recently walked out of a conference when he heard one of his ministers deliver his speech in English. This further highlights the indispensability of studying history (wake up you men and women of science) as it so elegantly helps us understand our present and prepare for the future.
The first thing that invariably comes to one’s mind when the words Paris and museum are uttered in the same sentence is the Louvre, right. (and yes, not to forget, Mona Lisa and Hammurabi’s code on a basalt slab). Thanks to Dan Brown, the ‘Pyramid’ needs no introduction. Representing the symbolic, luminous tip of the iceberg, it conceals below ground 50,000 square meters of new space (ooh… that’s where the truth lies!!). This renovation of the Louvre’s central urban stage was done to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Revolution. Under President Giscard d’Estang (of the EU constitution fame – an oxymoron no doubt), the largest science center of the world was established in 1981 at La Villette, Paris called the City for Science and Industry.
Detour – In India, the second science city (first is in Kolkata) is coming up shortly in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. You must visit the gallery on Behavioural Science which houses the fruits of my labour)
Excerpt from my paper - A museum has come to be regarded as a facilitator between a public authority and a local population. The public authority’s involvement is through the experts, facilities and resources it provides while the local population’s involvement depends on its aspirations, knowledge and individual approach. This in turn, has given birth to the concept of an ‘ecomuseum’ defined as a museum concerned with the total ecology and environment, natural and human, of a defined locality by involving people in the processes of both representation and interpretation.
The first such ecomuseum was in Le Creusor, central France, in 1971 courtesy Georges Henri Riviere – ‘father’ of the ecomuseum movement. As far as I know, in India there ain’t any.
Amazingly enough, I see a few bulbs of the roots of the present day disarray in Paris in one of the pages of the chapter titled ‘New Worlds’.
It is interesting to note that the origin of the ecomuseum and deconstruction are the same. They were probably both reactions to a heavily centralized and bureaucratic French state… The birth of deconstruction can be seen as a phenomenon to ‘deconstruct’ the ‘totalization’ of government in France. During the post-war period… the French government may have been the most centralized of all Western European governments. In the light of the failure of the radical politics of the mid-to-late 1960s, the earlier war in Algiers and the break-up of the Empire in Indonesia, the desire to develop counter-cultural, single-interest and local political movements in France may be seen as an obvious desire of French society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
With the present day volatile political scenario, the riots in France against First Employment Contract (Contrat Premiere Embauche or CPE), passed by parliament as part of a broader bill on equal opportunities. It is a new work contract for under-26s with a two-year trial period. In that period, employers can terminate the contract without having to offer an explanation.This legislation is cited to ward off the high youth unemployment rate (22% - the highest in Europe, double the national average of 9.6%. ) but least I fail to see the logic in it.
After being forced by popular protests to scrap the controversial legislation, President Chirac said that the law will now be replaced by measures targeted specifically at the most disadvantaged young people and that a new law will replace the CPE with new state subsidies to encourage companies to take on unqualified young staff thereby increasing the state's role in the workplace instead of decreasing it!
With the prestigious Sorbonne University turning into a battleground, I just wish somebody would soon step in and put the fire out for once and for all and not through half measures.
posted by optimism at 12:30 PM
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