hello, My name is Emilie Po. I live in France. I love to read about other cultures, but I have never left Europe. So I have never been to the US ! I am excited to come to Flux and work on what seems like it will be a magical show. Here are some portraits of people I have seen in Paris. I hope you do not feel I am too weird. I would like to invite them to the show !
Please visit Emilie's
sketches from the street
quartier de l'Odeon
There is a woman I have seen for years who likes to sleep/live on a corner near the very busy place de l'Odeon where all the movie theatres are. She is very drunk, small and round. Often she wears no underpants and shows her genitalia to the street.
One day it was the beginning of spring a beautiful day, every one was out in the street. She got up and stumbled to the middle of the street. Blocking all traffic. All the French people love to honk. She did not care. Smiling. Legs apart. Arms in the air. She started to pee. Right in the middle of the street with everyone honking. It was like she was saying. "I am here" "I live" "I am drunk" "I pee"
near the Hôtel Lutétia
There is a beautiful old hotel, in a part of the 6ème where there are lots of fancy shops. Most nights there is a man with a grey or brown suit, medium size, unremarkable. Always just out of the light, back from the sidewalk, slightly hunched over. Always holding his slim briefcase.
He whispers, mumbles. Every time I pass him I hear only a line or so, "Poetry is ..." or " ... in Poetry". So many nights he is there, always talking. Is he a salesman? Is he looking for someone? Maybe I am afraid to stop.
in Front of the Bon Marché
Maybe the 6ème is popular for weird people, but my favorite guy is always happy. I usually see him sitting in the bus stop in front of the Bon Marché, wearing a very colorful suit, and tie usually a bow-tie. White shoes. A cane, or bouquet in one hand, a bottle in the other. A dandy, drunk. He holds his bottle high and toasts the street, or the people waiting at the bus stop, life, everything. It is hard to resist when someone smiles.
