The Great Arc (La Grande Arche)

For Henriette, resident of La Défense, Paris, from 1959 to 2016.

It's a bit of a blurred memory.

We are both leaning on your kitchen windowsill.

I must have been ten.

You are telling me about when your came here in 59.

It was the highest building in the area.

Through that same window,

you could see the Seine River.

And then...

year by year,

you saw the skyscrapers grow taller and taller,

closer and closer,

until one day,

the view from your window sent back your own reflection.

After that, you had your heart attack.

Then, you moved house.

A year passed before melancholy took hold of me and...

with it came the desire to return

to draw the skyscrapers.

The Great Arch

A film by Camille Authouart

Day one...

7:30 am.

It's rush hour in La Défense.

The footsteps echo on the concrete.

Everyone knows their way.

No-one needs their eyes to guide them.

There's a waft of take-away coffee in the air.

There's movement all around me.

However, out of habit,

I draw what's still.

Day two...

Read on the internet:

"With over 70 works of art spread around the district,