Tuesday, July 08, 2014

French Communist Party HQ

In France, we still have a Communist Party (Le Parti Communiste Français) which never changed its name, even after the fall of Soviet Union in the 90's. Its heaquarters are very famous, because of the architecture of the building, designed by Brasilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1965 (the white dome was built later in 79/80). Between 1994 and 2002 the French Communist Party had to face a real decline and money shortage. That is why this building was rented for several very capitalistic events, like fashion shows (Prada, Issey Miyake, Dries van Noten, Yves Saint Laurent, Vuitton...). I took this photo recently, taking advantage of a nearby meeting.

12 comments:

  1. The building does have a cold sense to it... which probably makes sense given the politics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know if it was intentional at that time. The architect who designed it emigrated to France to flea the military dictatorship that was in power in Brazil at that time. So I suppose he was a real fan of the french communists.

      Delete
  2. Interesting ! "Very capitalistic events" : indeed...! it surely will not be the first nor the last of paradoxes but it is true that it is still pretty incredible... The French communist party probably needs this money. What does it use to is another story.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes they were really broke when they did that - and they still are (I think most of the building is rented out as office space). Now the French communist party has teamed up with another left party, but never managed to regain market share.

      Delete
    2. They surely need to do so in order to keep these offices as their headquarters. Instead of which, they would have collapsed even more. So this is quite smart !

      Delete
  3. There's something about this photo that makes this scene seem like it's a miniature version of the real thing!

    Interesting history, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Quite a building. I can't help but feel that for those who work there it must be a constant reminder of their party's decline.
    The Communist Party in the UK seems to be almost extinct. They still have a headquarters outside London but much more modest. A sign outside offers the premises to hire for 'weddings, christenings, meetings, parties and wakes'! Those 'parties' don't appear to include the Communist Party which is nowhere to be seen on the sign, perhaps best not to mention it for commercial reasons. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here. In France, ironically, the real communist Doxa has now moved to... the right wing party (Front National), which allowed it to get most of the workers votes.

      Delete
  5. Kind of ironic that they've had to rent their space out to the capitalists, no? Also, sorry to say it, but the dome just makes me think of a silicone breast implant. On the other hand, your picture of it is perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOOOOOOOOL Maybe that's were they have secret plastic surgery operations!!

      Delete
  6. I do not remember the building being clad that way, so glassy. I remember concrete instead.
    It is a real pity what most communists parties have managed to do to the communist ideal of Marx and some of his friends. Such distortion in the end, just as bad as capitalism can be : use and abuse.

    ReplyDelete