In his essay film, Jonathan Steiger focuses on the way the Boulevard Périphérique in Paris conditions the movement of people, bikes and vehicles and the possibility of creating spaces for digression around this infrastructure.
Paris’s inner ring is an infrastructure that highly regulates behaviour and movement. It allows one single direction and requires a determined velocity. Once a car enters the Boulevard Périphérique, it cannot stop anymore. There is no possibility to go left or right; not even a service lane allows for a stop. The cars behind push relentlessly.
In this project, Jonathan Steiger is interested in spaces that allow a different form of movement across the Périphérique, spaces that offer an alternative to the types of movement the Périphérique determines. This means spaces that allow a multitude of directions, deliberate decision of pace and route as well as digressions, rest and encounters.
Through extensive site visits by foot, Steiger tried to understand the different movement systems that characterise the zone around the Périphérique. He focused on the space between Porte de la Villette and Porte de Clichy, where he tried to find alternatives to the types of movement that the Périphérique predetermines. He used a camcorder to document and analyse different ways of moving in these places.