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Culture in France

Paris celebrates the call of nature

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Throne, loo, WC, bathroom, latrine, bog, the good old toilet goes by many a name, its function remains the same. And in a world where some 38 per cent of the world’s population has no access to proper toilets, the Chiottissime photo exhibition shows us some differing approaches to this most pressing of occupations.

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“Oh look Spiderman on the bog!” shouts Souleymane and a hoard of his classmates rush over to savour their superhero reduced to the state of common mortal. What’s more he’s reading a book: a frequent activity while on the throne.

The photograph, by German photographer Gerhard Westrich, is just one of 46 images from 31 countries on show in Chiottissme, a free outdoor exhibition along the Boulevard de la Bastille here in Paris.

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It’s amusing, thought-provoking and a treat for unsuspecting passers-by.

Chiottissme, from the French slang word chiotte meaning bog, is the brainchild of the Parisian public sewage company Siaap and part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.

The photos range from floating wooden public toilets on the Mekong River in Vietnam where fish consume the excrement, Marton’s restaurant in Taiwan where diners actually sit on toilets and consume lavatory-inspired food, to the 24-carat gold loos found in shops owned by Hong Kong millionaire SW Lam.

“There’s great diversity in the photos,” says Martine Moëllic director of communications at Siaap, “Some are funny and off the wall, others sad or serious. In one way or another they explain the world we live in.”

And it’s a funny old world, full of disparity. Francois Cuel, who created the exhibition, hopes it will get people both smiling and pausing for thought.

 “Toilets are important because let’s not forget 2.6 billion people don’t have access to proper loos,” he says. Indeed more than one billion people have no toilets at all.

“Gandhi made three speeches about toilets saying how important it was for everyone to have access. He’d immediately seen how they related to human dignity.”

A surreal photo of a dirty toilet and washbasin standing alone in the middle of the Sahara desert in Morocco draws our attention to the lack of water in the world, as well as the huge water reserves under the desert. Another, somewhere in China, shows a man pulling mobile toilets around the streets, attached to his bicycle. 

While some pictures are taken by famous photographers like Willy Ronis, Robert Doisneau or Eve Arnold, the majority are by lesser known photojournalists whose work is nonetheless essential says Cuel.

Frédéric Huijbregts/Terre Bleue

 
“All the problems of water and sanitation have moved up the agenda because of their work.”

Let’s face it, we generally prefer not to talk toilets.

While the Chinese are very open and relaxed in their lavatory habits, Cuel says, people in other parts of Asia and here in Europe tend to be more reserved. This is relatively recent, however, dating back to the French Revolution with British toilet technology reinforcing the trend.

“It all changed when the water closet was invented in Britain in the 19th century.  People became more prudish.”

Since then the little closet, those few cubic metres, has become a kind of refuge.

“It’s an important room - a place where you can close the door, a place for battered wives and children. In the civil war in Lebanon, the toilet was a place you went to escape the bullets.”

Chiottissime runs to 20 October, Bd de la Bastille, Paris 75004.

 
One particularly poignant photo by Francesco Zucola shows toilets in a church in Kuito, Angola, after heavy bombing during the civil war. A young boy on crutches stands in the doorway next to a figure of Christ on the cross. In times of war, toilets can provide a sanctuary for things of value.

“It’s a dramatic room, too,” adds Cuel, “because you’re closed, locked in, so you can do a lot of things”. Such as read, reflect, or even get a fix. Cinema has seized on the dramatic possibilities of the smallest room: The Godfather and Trainspotting to mention just two well-known films.

Then there’s the act itself which can be very expressive. We do say “to relieve oneself” after all.

One photo taken in Iceland after the financial meltdown shows a man peeing on the photo of a banker which has been stuck on all the urinals.

“It’s a form of aggressivity, says Cuel, “a way of saying I piss on you. Their aggressivity against bankers was really high … and I think they’re right.”

The Icelanders were not the first to vent their anger this way Cuel adds.

“During WWII someone made a chamber pot with a picture of Hitler on it. A way of telling the Nazis what they thought.”

And a way of helping the male population to aim correctly, n’est ce pas?

 

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