Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber, La Ville Lumière, 2021

La Ville Lumière is part of a series of works created since 2005 by Oliver Sieber and Katja Stuke. In Paris, Japan, or in some German cities, through their silent walks, the artists map and pose their gaze on sensitive urban areas subject to profound urban and social changes: construction of an Olympic village, factory closures, forced gentrification… In a frantic race towards the future and the illusion of progress driven by the same clearly visible forces of globalization and unbridled liberalism. On December 8, 2018, in residence in Paris, they are confronted with the first “acts” of the Yellow Vests movement. From a distance, without taking sides, but without remaining indifferent, they observe how this conflict fits into the narrative of the city. This walk, of 113 photographs, guides them from the rue de Rivoli to the Louvre, from the Madeleine to the Saint-Lazare train station, from the boulevard Haussmann to the place de la République and depicts nothing less, nothing more than six hours of demonstration – an act – of a social drama.