Look At Me

This week I thought I would briefly touch upon the idea of displaying the dead, by using the Parisian Catacombs as an example.

In 2009, while living in France, I made the predictable journey to Paris for a quick, tourist visit. While there were a number of fabulous things on my 'to do' list, #1 was definitely a visit to the underground.

 (myself, at the entrance to the Catacombs.... I believe I was one of the few this excited to go in)

Before entering the "Empire of the Dead", there are a number of informative plaques to tell the viewer about the history of the Catacombs and how it came to be. The hundereds of thousands of bones had been removed from cemeteries to make room for the numerous new bodies, and this space became a dedicated shrine to those who had been displaced.

 (A number of artistic designs were made using skulls, such as this cross... as well as hearts and stars.)

(The continuous 5km wall of bones, bones, and more bones...)

This sort of thing blows my mind. The fact that these individuals had no say in whether the world could stare into their faces for the rest of time instead of peacefully laying in a cushion of dirt. Who were they??

As well, with the number of people that stroll along these underground roads, I can't help but wonder, how many of them acknowledge that these were once people with families, lives, jobs, and walked aound as we do now... Or how many of these tourists are completely detached from their current situation and look at the wall of bones as one more thing out of the guidbook? Check!