We have rented a small beautiful apartment in the 6th until the end of the month. But knowing what I know now the next time I come to Paris we will be staying in the 20th in Belleville. The place is alive swarming with youth and art, an absolute movable feast, in a manner that reminds me of all that I wish could be realized in Los Angeles (which is its promise but never quite sustainable to the point where one feels the artists have achieved critical mass and truly "taken over" and govern) in the area I live in of Silver Lake and in the other areas populated by artists such as Echo Park, Eagle Rock and Downtown. Youth and throbbing mass of young Europeans have descended upon the area. I see the future of Europe here. Should the EU survive in thirty years this will be the norm. The artists always do the heavy lifting in terms of cultural interconnections, revitalization, and renewal while capital and politics ride along their backs until they both eventually take over. Belleville is in that temporary mortal splendor, that golden age, after the first wave in which the community of pioneering artists is established, and the final mortal blow when rent becomes so expensive the beginning artists have to move somewhere else. Right this moment she is open, alive, and throbbing with possibilities, and the actual. If I moved to Paris ... this is where I would live.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 04:51:51 +0000
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