Visite du chantier: on site and in a hard hat!

The Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration opened its building site to the public last week. Free tours take place twice a week on Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons. Anyone can attend – you just have to reserve in advance [link]. I have to say I think this is unprecedented; it really is a proper building site, with all the attendant health and safety risks and to do something so unconventional seems to me to be a sign of being willing to see actions through despite the risks. We were accompanied throughout by the project’s (slightly apprehensive?) technical and services manager, who kept up the rear, making sure none of us strayed and occasionally pointing out hazards. The tour was led by one of the architects from the architectural firm running the project, as well as a member of the team responsible for what would probably be called audience development in English. Given that this was Friday afternoon it is unsurprising that not many ordinary punters were in attendance. Apart from me there was a small group of masters students in IT/communications who will be working on a multimedia project with the Cite, a couple of other members of staff and then another group whom I didn’t get to talk to but whom I don’t think were ‘randoms’ either.

After a cup of coffee – a nice friendly touch – and a hard hat check we set off. First stop the architect’s model. As our guide explained the absence of outside windows makes it extremely hard to orientate yourself so it’s useful to have a sense of where you are from the model (all the light comes from above – ‘zenithale’ I believe is the French architectural term.

Not everything is ‘en travaux’ yet, only the sections opening in the first phase that is, principally the permanent exhibition space and the ‘forum’ or ‘hall’ (originally the ’salle des fêtes‘ with its (in)famous frescoes). The last time I visited the site was just before works began back in September and it was fascinating to see the changes that have taken place. Earlier this week I met the designer responsible for the permanent exhibition and saw the exhibition model in his Belleville studio. And two days later here I was in the space, giving me a much clearer idea of layout and size.

Having two people lead the tour made the process of negotiation that takes place inside an institution much clearer. One would say something and the other would look, hesitate, and say, “hmm, maybe” or “it hasn’t been finally decided yet”. The last tour I took was led by the project’s Director on his own and it was easy to assume that everything he said was the definitive version (not least because of his authority). In some ways this more indeterminate experience reminded me of what Ruth Phillips says in her essay in Museums and Source Communities [Amazon] about the need to foreground the process of negotiation in exhibition design:

If the actual processes of research, exchange and negotiation are not made clear, the exhibit will end up occluding its own constructive pluralism and will sabotage the public’s ability to appreciate its dialogic achievement. (p.166)

In other words, we imagine a single voice and unitary author even where there is none. And even if we know this can’t the case.

Although the tours were public I’m hesitant about how much to post here about what I learned this afternoon: a couple of comments of “ah oui, j’ai vu votre blog là,” made it clear that these posts are (sometimes) being read on the inside, so to speak, so perhaps I need to be a little bit careful about what is or isn’t on the record. (Actually, I think this sense of responsibility towards my ‘informants’ is no bad thing – although the ’silent’ readers of my blog who never comment for one reason or another do make me slightly nervous. Alors, c’est plutôt bien? C’est comme ça que ça marche? Dites-moi !). One thing that I see no harm in saying is that it was clear, both from the architect’s model and from a discussion with our guide from the firm, that the ‘espace chantier‘ is no longer going ahead, whatever the website may say. This seems a great pity and I hope other ways will be devised to incorporate the site workers, many of whom are themselves immigrants, into the institutional life of the Cite. It would be good to hear their voices, and not just people speaking on their behalf.

It is extremely difficult to take good photos inside the building because of the light conditions, and indeed one of the things happening in the ‘rehabilitation’ of the building (restoration? not really – this often implies a return to an original state, which ‘rehabilitation’ doesn’t) is the opening up of spaces to more natural light where possible. The workers (not much in evidence on a Friday afternoon, “les 35 heures obligent”) had recently been undertaking a process known as ‘floconnage’: spraying with an insulating material made of cellulose (recycled newspapers we learned) which I suspect is what is now often used instead of asbestos (even Eiffelover didn’t know what ‘floconnage’ is in English). A ‘flocon’ is a flake (of snow, dust etc.) and unfortunately it rather looks like something similar happened to my camera… But here are some of my photos anyway. (Click on the thumbnails for the dusty lense in all its glory):

Above: laying a new floor (for services – would be impossible through the ceiling) and for improved disabled access in the ‘forum’ . The first picture also shows how the galeries are being opened up again; during the time of the MAAO all the ‘windows’ on the upper levels were blocked off.

In a few months time this room will house the introduction to the permament exhibition.

In the permanent exhibition space.

The 1931 diorama cases, being dismantled.

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