The People That Live In A Fridge

Along with the many advantages and joys of being lucky enough to move to a different country, comes the wonderful opportunity to find little gems like the one I found, or rather found me this week.

Paris is known for The Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, The Champs Elysees and how could I not mention the Eiffel Tower.

But how many people know there is an old building situated in the 13th arrondissement that was given a re-birth in the 1980’s and is just as stimulating to me as visiting any of the well known Parisian landmarks?

It is the rock and roll version of the Louvre and it is called Les Frigos.

I was lucky enough for my work to lead me here this week. I had read about it on the internet and had mentioned to Frenchy that we should go and take a visit one day. We hadn’t got round to it, but fortunately this amazing building sniffed me out and lead me to its rusty doors to take a peek.

It started its life as a huge refrigerated warehouse in about 1918 as far as I can gather. There was a train that ran from Orleans-Paris carrying food supplies. The railway ran right into the heart of Les Frigos where the food would be off loaded and stored, but in 1945, the building was abandoned due to diminished supply and demand and was left for dead.

In the 80’s, it was re-born again and taken over as a massive squat to struggling artists who couldn’t afford to rent ateliers in the capital. Slowly the building started to breath again and hoards of bohemians gave the it a new meaning, spray painting the walls, inside and out. In return Les Frigos gave these artists something back, a place in which to create and express, to live and be free to do what they wanted to do.

Les Frigos is no longer a squat. It was bought over and is now rented out legally. I’m not sure how this has affected the more struggling artists as I’m sure the rent for a space in this building has now gone through the roof, but the spirit of its artistic re-birth can still be felt.

As we got to the old rusty door, I could feel a surge of excitement. There is something about this place as it sits in its concrete shoes looking old and decayed. You just know that there is something going on in there. Something exciting. Something unconventional and very much alive.

This is the entrance hallway where the mailboxes are;  

I’m sure this is not everyone’s idea of interior design, but as a space it is jaw dropping. As we walked through the corridors and up the central chimney shape with its huge concrete spiral staircase to get to the different floors, my stomach started to churn. It felt to me like a huge magnetic bohemia. A place where it was good to graffiti, a place where everywhere you turn there was self expression in its most wildest form.

The stairway, 

 

And the corridor,

 

As you walk down these corridors there are huge doors on either side, behind them lie the personal spaces of artists and musicians, free to do what they want with. Vast concrete rooms, each with a different story to tell. You can hear music coming from different areas. The floor above me sounded like a muffled night club, below I could hear a piano playing the most exquisite classical melody.

I stopped for a cigarette on the circular landing in silence. Looking up, looking down, bending my ear to try to catch every sound, craning my neck to see as much as I could, standing quite still to feel the creativity that was crammed within the walls of this place.

The space that my work took me to belongs to an art director. I was lead to his front door that had his name spray painted in huge letters on it.  The door was as you would expect the door to a massive fridge to be. A huge steel slab with a large handle on the side. My excitement grew as I got nearer to finding out the possibilities of what could lie behind. I wasn’t disappointed.

This particular person had used his Venetian culture as inspiration for where he lived. Once inside, it was like walking into a animated camp version of the Sistine Chapel. Huge murals lined the walls along with golden winged cherubs standing guard nearby. Sumptuous velvets hugged corners and embroidered wall hangings hung from the archways that separated each room. The decay of the building and the urban-jungle feel of the corridors was a complete contrast to the decadence of the way this place had been designed. It was.. it was… Well, it just was.

To give you an idea, here is a picture of the bedroom;

 

 

And below are pictures of the main room. The photos do not do it justice as unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, but hopefully you can get a feel of the place.

 

And just to give you an idea of how different these spaces can look, I found a picture of another at Les Frigos,

So there it is. I had to share it. It is a wonderful, exciting place and if ever you are in Paris it is well worth the visit.

After all, it could be home to the Leonardo Da Vinci of the future and who would want to miss out on that?