I couldn’t sleep that night. My body was resting but images were dancing in my head: artificial lights, anarchic buildings, unattainable people… It was an incomprehensible world depriving me of sleep. After a while, I decided to get up, get dressed and leave the house. It would have been the perfect opportunity for a nighttime walk, but I didn’t go outside. Having lived for many years on the ground floor of a Parisian building, it had never occurred to me to go upstairs. I turned on the light and started climbing the stairs.
The first landing was a surprise. Although I was familiar with the decorations—the Persian patterns, the corniche, the color of the doors and the texture of the walls, this place seemed foreign to me. With a mixture of fear and excitement, I climbed up the next flight of stairs. There’s no law that says you can’t wander around your own building at night, but I still felt like I was doing something wrong. I kept climbing and my intuition told me that I was doing something whose logic would only become clear later on.
The only light came from the skylight, ran along the wall , spilled onto the floor and up the service ladder hanging there. It was used by roofing workers, chimney sweep and antenna salesmen to get on the roof.
The lock had been left undone. I saw a sign inviting me to go up further .I dragged the ladder to reach the openning and went out taking the ladder wit me and closing the window,
I stood up slowly and felt a great calm.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil.
EXHIBITION
Sur Paris by Alain Cornu
Through July 24th, 2015
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