Some travelers are so focused on the pleasures of good food and drink in Paris that they aren’t aware that the powers that be are equally concerned about the other end of the digestive tract.
Five months after the scandal involving the deflation of Paul MacCarthy’s giant butt plug on Place Vendome, the art collective Adeca 75 has inflated a giant colon on Place de la Republique…
… as Paris explores the fine line between art and fart.
No, actually, what has come to be known as MacCarthy’s “butt plug” was supposedly inspired by his vision of a Christmas tree (you can read more about that here), while the group Adeca 75 that I’ve referred to above as an “art collective” is in fact an association dedicated to organizing the national program for cancer screening in Paris (you can read more about that here).
Nevertheless, let this serve as a reminder to travelers to not limit your sense of what goes on in Paris to culinary clichés and highlights from the Louvre and the Orsay, for this remains a city where art is still debated and sometimes sabotaged and where the digestive tract is as long and hazardous as it is at home.
March 27, 2015