The Arcades Project - Operi

A factory producing cockades for weddings and banquets, "finery for marrieds."
1. {Not long ago, a piece rf old Paris disappeared-the Passage de rOpera,
which once led from the boulevards to the old opera theater. Construction of the
Boulevard Haussmann swallowed it up. And so we turn our attention to the arcades
that still exist, to the brighte1; livelier, and in some cases renovated arcades
rf the opera district, to the narrow, often empty and dust-covered arcades
rf more obscure neighborhoods. They work., the arcades-sometimes in their totality,
sometimes only in certain parts-as a past become space; they harbor antiquated
trades, and even those that are thoroughly up to date acquire in these
inner spaces something archaic.} Since the light comes only from above through
glass roofS, and all stairways to the left or right, at entranceways between the
shops, lead 11110 darkness, our conception rf life within the rooms to which these
stairv.;ays ascend remains somewhat shadowy.
1 a. The Illustrated Guide to Paris, a complete picture rf the city on the Seine and
its environsJrozn the year 1852, writes rfthe arcades: .
no resbollSibilitv
toward the new
age.' it can come
no more in the
jitlure
2. At the entrance gates rfthe arcades (one couldjust as
well say 'xit gates," since, with these peculiar hybrid
firms rz/llOUSC and street, eve,y gate is simultaneously
entrance and exit}-at the entrance gates one}inds, on
either side) remarkable and sometimes enigmatic
inscriptions and signs, which oftentimes multiply along
the walls within where, here and there, between the
shops, a spiral staircase fises into darkness. We
surmise that "Albert au 83" will be a hairdresse1; and
''Maillots de Thedtre " will most likely be sdk tights,
pink and liglzt blue,fin· young singers and dancers; but
these insistent letterings want to sco' more to us and
something dfffirent. And should we find ourselves
crowded out by those who actually buy and sell, and
lefl standing between overloaded coatracks at the
bottom rf the spiral staircase, where we read "Institut
de Beaute clu Prqftsseur Alfred Bitter/in," we cannot
butjeel anxious. And the "Fabrique de Cravates au
2'''-Does it make necktiesfor strangling? Oh, the
needlework there will be quite inqffinsivcJ q/coursc,
but these dark dilapidated stairs make us fiel qfraid.
But: "Union artistique de rance au 3c" -VVhat
can that be? (In all arcades-the wide and crowded
ones rf the boulevard, no less than the narrow deserted
ones near the Rue Saint-Denis-there are displays rf
canes and umbrellas: serried ranks rf colorful crooks.)