Fabien Chalon – Le Monde en Marche, 2008
Gare du Nord is not one of my favourite places. Despite people arriving here every day from all over Europe, it’s one of the most unwelcoming stations there is. Especially at 10 o’clock at night. That’s why I was there to meet my friend so I could quickly scoot her away to a lovely warm and friendly place – my home.
As I travelled up the escalator from the Métro, a strange thing happened. I could hear a choir of angels. Friday night is a strange time for a choir. It’s far from peak time, so singing would be a pretty thankless task. To check I wasn’t having some kind of hallucination or getting my final calling, I followed the noise to see where it was coming from.
What looked like a spaceship had landed in the station and everybody was watching it. At that time of night ‘everyone’ was me and a gang of moody teenagers in hoodies. Even though these guys spend most of their time and energy pretending to be unimpressed, I could definitely see a few open mouths.
What we were all staring at was Le Monde en Marche by Fabien Chalon, (translates roughly as ‘The World Walking’). From a bit of Google research I found out that the installation has actually been in the station since 2008. It only works every hour, and that is if somebody pushes the button when it blinks. Whilst it sleeps you could easily walk past it thinking it was part of some construction work.
The beautiful noise accompanied by the magical sparkly lights and mist pulls you in and won’t let you go until it wants to. It reminded me of that famous scene when ET goes home, leaving me a bit disorientated. To have those few moments of escape and excitement in such dull practical place, made it feel human again. Just for a few minutes.
The impact of art is always so much about time and place. If I had seen this installation in a gallery or even during the day I don’t think I’d have been so stunned. But the fact that it was in a train station at night, in the cold made me feel like I had walked through the wardrobe to Narnia.
There’s probably thousands of people who rush passed the installation every day without knowing its secret. When asked about Le Monde en Marche Chalon said, “When you come into the station you are a potential traveller, but when you stand in front of the installation, maybe you will become another type of traveller”.
I attempted to explain my experience to my friend but she’d just spent over two hours on the same carriage as a screaming baby, so I just gave her a Métro ticket and got her out of there.
As I travelled up the escalator from the Métro, a strange thing happened. I could hear a choir of angels. Friday night is a strange time for a choir. It’s far from peak time, so singing would be a pretty thankless task. To check I wasn’t having some kind of hallucination or getting my final calling, I followed the noise to see where it was coming from.
What looked like a spaceship had landed in the station and everybody was watching it. At that time of night ‘everyone’ was me and a gang of moody teenagers in hoodies. Even though these guys spend most of their time and energy pretending to be unimpressed, I could definitely see a few open mouths.
What we were all staring at was Le Monde en Marche by Fabien Chalon, (translates roughly as ‘The World Walking’). From a bit of Google research I found out that the installation has actually been in the station since 2008. It only works every hour, and that is if somebody pushes the button when it blinks. Whilst it sleeps you could easily walk past it thinking it was part of some construction work.
The beautiful noise accompanied by the magical sparkly lights and mist pulls you in and won’t let you go until it wants to. It reminded me of that famous scene when ET goes home, leaving me a bit disorientated. To have those few moments of escape and excitement in such dull practical place, made it feel human again. Just for a few minutes.
The impact of art is always so much about time and place. If I had seen this installation in a gallery or even during the day I don’t think I’d have been so stunned. But the fact that it was in a train station at night, in the cold made me feel like I had walked through the wardrobe to Narnia.
There’s probably thousands of people who rush passed the installation every day without knowing its secret. When asked about Le Monde en Marche Chalon said, “When you come into the station you are a potential traveller, but when you stand in front of the installation, maybe you will become another type of traveller”.
I attempted to explain my experience to my friend but she’d just spent over two hours on the same carriage as a screaming baby, so I just gave her a Métro ticket and got her out of there.
"The Imaginary Historian"
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