Balades nocturne à la quête du noir urbain
Nocturnal Strolls, In Pursuit of Urban Darkness is part of a broader artistic investigation into the sensory and political dynamics of public spaces at night. The research and development of this project aimed to conceptualise darkness not as absence, but as a space of potential.
At the beginning of the Design des Territoires residency at La Villette Park, conversations with members of the management team highlighted one of the institution’s main directions: to gradually transform the park into an urban refuge for flora and fauna. From this idea, an initial line of inquiry emerged, focusing on the study of the public lighting system on site and its effects on local biodiversity.
Gradually, attention shifted from the sole issue of lighting to a more conceptual and sensory dimension: that of darkness as a spatial phenomenon. Initially, the focus was on the benefits of darkness for non-humans, before moving in a new direction: exploring the benefits that human beings can derive from experiencing darkness in public spaces.
This investigation led to a series of individual nocturnal observations carried out on-site throughout autumn and winter, at all hours of the night. These explorations allowed for the mapping of the park’s darkest zones, identified as areas conducive to transforming one’s habitual perception of the urban landscape. This phase of dérive was accompanied by readings including Walkscapes by Francesco Careri (Stalker) and Le Paysan de Paris by Louis Aragon.
Louis Aragon described the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont as the place where “the unconscious of the city has nestled,” reinforcing the notion of darkness as a potential space, traversed by collective imagination and the unconscious.
A few chance encounters within the park revealed the mental projections triggered by nocturnal experience: unease arises not so much from the presence of the other, but from the image constructed in the dark — the fear of fear itself.
As an extension of this research, a collective night walk was organised. Each participant was invited to perform a visual and sensory sketching exercise, capturing traces of the mental projections evoked while traversing darkness. The materials produced during this experience nourished an installation presented at the Jardins Passagers during the residency’s final presentation.
The nocturnal walk, as a practice of observation and relation to the urban night, revealed darkness as a potential space — one that carries intimate, political, and ecological dimensions. As Aragon suggested when evoking the unconscious of the city nestled within its nocturnal spaces, a collective passage through shadow does not seek to dispel it, but to experience it as a poetic and sensorial resource offered to public space.
Photos by David Aubriat