Earth:Les UX
The UX (short for Urban eXperiment) is an underground organization of urban explorers who improves hidden corners of Paris. Their work includes an undercover effort to repair and restore the Panthéon's clock,[1] building a cinema — complete with a bar and a restaurant — in a section of the Paris Catacombs underneath the Trocadéro, restoring medieval crypts, and staging plays and readings in monuments after dark. The group's membership is largely secret, but its spokespeople include Lazar Kunstmann.[2]
History
With its start in September 1981, the founders of the group stole plans of the many underground passageways and tunnels for which Paris is famous. Using this information as a base,[3] the group of anonymous artists and citizens have since restored much of Paris's underground infrastructure, including the Panthéon clock, which chimed for the first time in many years after its repair. The group is also responsible for over a dozen other projects, including those which the French government have not chosen to do or for which they lack funds.[3]
Organization
The organization is divided into teams: an all-female team (the Mouse House) specializing in infiltration,[4] a team running an internal messaging system and coded radio network,[citation needed] a team providing a database,[citation needed] a team (La Mexicaine De Perforation) organizing underground shows,[4] a team doing photography,[citation needed] a team (Lyonnaise des Os) who explore the catacombs and create sculptures,[4] and a team (Untergunther) undertaking restoration work with the help of architects and historians.[4]
Projects
In October 2007, the Untergunther team received attention for a project to clandestinely restore the famous clock in the Panthéon which had been out of commission since the 1960s.[1] They were assisted by professional clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot, installing a workshop for him beneath the building's dome.[1] The team were not caught, and upon completion they announced their work to the building's administrator, after which the Centre des Monuments Nationaux sought unsuccessfully to prosecute them.[5]
In September 2004, French police discovered an underground movie theatre run by La Mexicaine De Perforation (The Mexican Consolidated Drilling Authority).[6] The makeshift theatre contained a movie screen, a well stocked bar, and a kitchen, and was protected by a security system that played a recorded sound of barking dogs.[6] Movie titles ranging from 1950s classics to modern thrillers were also discovered. Electricity and a phone connection had been brought in from an unknown location. When the police returned for a formal investigation, the cinema had been dismantled[7] and the power and phone lines cut[6] — they found a note reading "Ne cherchez pas" ("Do not search").[7]
Official reaction
Parisian authorities oppose the group's actions and have started a police unit to track the group through the sewers and catacombs of Paris in an attempt to apprehend and charge its members.[citation needed]
Charges were brought by the government against the four Untergunther restorers of the Pantheon clock. At trial, after 20 minutes' deliberation, the judge ruled in the defendants' favor. France has no laws against breaking into public monuments.[5] One of the government's prosecutors referred to the charges as "stupid".[3] One of the Untergunther restorers, Jean-Baptiste Viot, was later appointed as the official restorer of the clock in 2018, with his work during the Untergunther restoration cited as proof of his qualifications.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark's clock ", The Guardian, 26 Nov 2007
- ↑ Sage, Adam (29 September 2007). "Underground ‘terrorists’ with a mission to save city’s neglected heritage". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2554240.ece.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lackman, Jon (January 20, 2012). "The New French Hacker-Artist Underground". Wired. https://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/ff_ux/all/1. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lang, Kirsty (21 November 2012). "The underground art rebels of Paris". BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20433321.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 McCulloch, Brian. "Secret French illegal clock restorer gets the job". https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/Secret-French-illegal-clock-restorer-gets-the-job.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Henley, Jon (September 11, 2004). "Paris's new slant on underground movies: Clandestine group reveals how it built its cinema beneath the city". The Guardian (Manchester). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/11/film.france. Retrieved April 24, 2011. "There are, at most, 15 of them. Their ages range from 19 to 42, their professions from nurse to window dresser, mason to film director. And in a cave beneath the streets of Paris, they built a subterranean cinema whose discovery this week sent the city's police into a frenzy... Until recently very few people did have a clue about La Mexicaine de la Perforation, a clandestine cell of "urban explorers" which claims its mission is to "reclaim and transform disused city spaces for the creation of zones of expression for free and independent art"."
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Samuel, Henry (30 August 2017). "Catacomb thieves drill into Paris cellar to swipe €250,000 of top wine". www.telegraph.co.uk. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/30/catacomb-thieves-drill-paris-cellar-swipe-250000-top-wine/.
External links
- Untergunther web site
- Pantheon, user's guide - the movie about the Untergunther and La Mexicaine De Perforation
- Urban eXperiment - a book by Lazar Kunstmann
- "Interview with Lazar Kunstman about the underground cinema project"
- Underground cinema programming guide
- "UnterGunther: French Urban Explorers Sneak Into Pantheon For A Year, Repair 150-yo Clock", greg.org
 |  |
