Review: Tous à la plage! Villes balnéaires du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours

Abstract

Tous a la plage! Villes balneaires du XVIIIe siecle a nos jours Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris 19 October 2016–12 February 2017 This was a satisfying exhibition, to the extent that it defined its own story effectively and unfolded in a way that was at once predictable and surprising. Beginning with the theme of health, the visitor was led through the rise of middle-class leisure and seaside urbanism in Europe to the arrival of mass tourism, the seaside summer camps, and the megaprojects of the 1960s and 1970s. A variety of media were well exploited: paintings, posters, models, and films were supported with more personal documents such as photographs, letters, and postcards. This impressive collection of images, documents, and models was first given impetus by Maurice Culot, who in 1980 helped to found the Institut Francais de l'Architecture, the incorporation of which into the Musee des Monuments Francais created the Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. Like most modern exhibition catalogues, the book published in conjunction with Tous a la plage! includes many of the show's most striking images and some informative articles, but it is no substitute for having visited the exhibition itself. The exhibition space at the Cite de l'Architecture is not easy. An endless banana of windowless tunnel in the basement of the wing of the old Trocadero exhibition building, the space takes no hostages. True to the theme, Tous a la plage! was colorful and well …