Untapped visited the hidden “backlot” facility of the Musées de Paris, located far from the tangle of tourists. In Ivry-sur-Seine, an industrial suburb southeast of Paris, a nineteenth-century industrial building now serves as storage and workshop for the fifteen museums operated by the Ville de Paris.
Untapped checked out the Paris Nuit Blanche festival this past weekend. The pinnacle of the event was the "3-D Bridge" by the We Love Art collective on the Pont Saint Louis, a large complex structure of lighted cubes with a DJ spinning chill electro sounds inside.
One of the most popular Untapped New York articles has been about the prisons of New York City. This fall, you can go into Rikers Island with Untapped New York to run a 6-week advocacy and legal workshop for some of Rikers Island's incarcerated juveniles.
This week marks the 9th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. Untapped caught up with Cristina Castro, founder of Make Out Not War and member of CODEPINK NYC to discuss some of their plans for public space takeover this weekend. The name Make Out Not War says it all--its members have been seen in periodic public displays of affection in Union Square and Times Square.
Untapped caught up with Jack Cesareo, alias Cupcake Man, at his studio in Harlem today. Jack started biking with an oversized cupcake in tow last month and it goes without saying that people are curious. Contrary to our capitalist-laden assumptions, he's not selling cupcakes--it's purely an art project. He photographs the cupcake juxtaposed against famous New York City landmarks and has plans to take it global.
Far from the western seashores of France, on a street near the Montparnasse train station looms a lighthouse atop a craggy rock!
This Saturday is New York City’s first Bring to Light Nuit Blanche Art Festival, a block party of artists, performers and musicians amidst Greenpoint’s urban industrial backdrop of metal workshops and textile factories. In an urban takeover, artists will “create works that inhabit street corners, galleries, shops, rooftops, vacant lots and buildings.”
There's something bold about a store that only sells one item: $45 cups. But maybe it's appropriate that such a store occupies the first floor of Jane Jacobs' home on 555 Hudson Street where she wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I attended the recent "Snapshots in Storefronts" event by the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation (GVSHP) as a volunteer, which allowed me to traverse up and down the stairs of the old home and check out the basement.
Untapped correspondent and photographer, Augustin Pasquet, took a ride on some vintage Parisian subways last week. Once a year Les Journées du Patrimoine runs a series of events featuring the retro subway cars.
Before the world knew about the abandoned City Hall subway station, I photographed it on a tour with the Transit Museum. This is a station unlike any other in New York, filled with stained glass, Roman brick, tiled vaults, arches and brass chandeliers.