Anyway, last night as we were heading off to ‘dance’ enthusiastically (well the girls were enthusiastic, I was moaning about having to pay 10€ to get in and the music would be shite and there would be lots of young whippersnappers about) I spotted it on the other side of the road. ‘Cool!’ I finally whipped up some enthusiasm and was beaten into it by Colleen, but a swift bum bump knocked her out of the way and I flung some poses for my friends below... until I realised I was elevated and visible to all passers by and not just my grinning mates below.
So what’s the story here? Well according to Philippe Langlois (who was the only person I could find who seems to be talking about this and whom I apologise to for any mistranslations – his English seems pretty good), it’s called Embrèvement numéro 3, Installation illicite d'oeuvre en milieu urbain (???[1] number 3, illicit installation in an urban environment). It’s sitting on top of the empty pedestal of Charles Fourier which has been empty since the German occupation of
But who is Charles Fourier? Well according to the experts he was a French utopian socialist and philosopher who coined the term feminism. He believed that care and concern would lead to the success of society. He also had this crazy idea for communes – which he called Phalange[2]- where people would do the jobs they wanted because they wanted to and the less savoury jobs would be paid better. Can you imagine that?
His ideas seem to have influenced the Paris Commune, many cults in the
