Rue David Bowie unveiled in the 13th in Paris. It’s near Gare d’Austerlitz. It’ll be a must see destination for the millions that visit Paris every year. It’ll be a reason to visit for millions of others. #RueDavidBowie #Paris 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/ANIe2aAzVq
— Nick O'Donnell (@gnickodonnell) January 8, 2024
The inauguration featured a concert and an exhibit.
The street is roughly between the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens and the National Library. It is situated between two modern office buildings, including the headquarters of news publications Le Monde and L’Obs, opens onto avenue Pierre-Mendes-France and will connect to a future bridge linking the avenue to boulevard de l’Hopital, near Austerlitz train station and Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital.
An inauguration party is also set to be held at Salle des Fetes that same day to celebrate the launch, and a variety of photographs and paintings related to the singer will be showcased at the Galerie Athéna until January 14.
While his home country of the UK does not yet have a street named after the late music legend, his birthplace of Brixton does have a famous mural of the singer, painted by Australian artist James Cochran.
Jérôme Soligny, who was involved with the organisation of the event says: “To unveil the plaque, I suggested calling on David’s lifelong friends, George Underwood and Geoff MacCormack, who both accepted enthusiastically.
Today George is a painter and Geoff a photographer, but they are well known to fans of Bowie for accompanying him at various stages of his career. An acoustic concert will also take place at the end of the day at the town hall of the 13th district on the walls of which, on this occasion, paintings by George and photos by Geoff will be hung.”
“Four years after the death of the English rock star, David Bowie, the mayor of the 13th district of Paris, Jérôme Gourmet, decided to submit the idea to his council to give the name of David Bowie to one of the new streets located in the future Austerlitz district. The deliberation was voted at the council of Paris on February 3, 2020.
This “Rue David Bowie”, the first section of which will be inaugurated on January 8, 2024, will be located on a road still under construction in the area Paris Rive Gauche. It already hosts Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat places and will start at 61 avenue Pierre-Mendès-France (where the unveiling will take place) and end at boulevard de l’Hôpital. David Bowie did not have a special link with the 13th district but did have one with Paris. For the mayor of the 13th – a fan of contemporary art also a fan of David Bowie – who is keen to give a strong cultural image to his district, this project makes sense.”
