European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                They Call it the be Aubourg Paris Centre National d Ariet de culture Georges Pompidou a controversial $200 million erector set escalators worm their Way along the outside of building. Kids can have their fling at the arts Center in a special afe Erdes in fans. Is photos by Pete Milia topside in the distance Cathedral of notre Dame. Page 14 Pompidou s tinker toy the Uil time i Taw it Faubourg culture Palace founder Pompidou. The stars and stripes the first thing to be said about Paris Centre National d Art it de culture Georges Pompidou i that in terms of Public response the controversial $200 million erector set could hardly be greater Success. During its first four months alone it Drew More than two million people. On sundays up to 40,000 of them came teeming in until the line stretched right across the Plaza which is one of the few new open spaces to have been programmed in Central Paris during the 20th Century. Not Only that Plaza but the whole neighbourhood a Square mile in All has been reanimated by the culture Palace familiarly known As be Aubourg or Beautiful Borough after the ironical name Given to the old slum area cleared in 1930 and thereafter a waste plateau. Be Aubourg is on the right Bank of the Seine North of the hotel de Ville the Paris City Hal least of Les Halles and separated from that venerable Quarter by the Boule Vard de Sebastopol. Some parisians believe that Les Halles the great old Market that was Zola s stomach of Paris was pulled Down to accommodate the new Temple of Art and they resent this. The idea for the huge cultural museum was conceived by Pompidou former French president who died in 1974. A variety of disciplines from music to video should be brought together to illustrate the relationships Between different forms of Art Pompidou reasoned. Circling the massive monstrosity adorned with tubes in wild reds oranges and blues visitors warily examine the Art Center As if it were an alien organism recording their reactions. Be Aubourg has been intentionally designed to attract the inquisitive and the daring. Plumbing wiring and utilities encase the outside of the Glass and steel co Truc Tion. Red escalators meander along the exterior of the superstructure. The Interior of the building is carried to the opposite extreme with its Stark Walls decorated Only by the Artwich covers them four major collections of music literature Art and science provide the nucleus. The Institute for research and coordination acoustics music is designed to encourage experimentation through its computers recording studios and laboratories to bring the Public closer  the Library coordinates the entire creation with its vast collection of printed 300,000 volumes and audiovisual information about Art. Few local citizens appear have a Good word to say for be Aubourg. At the mention of the name a flush of deepest indigo comes Over the Waxen features of the average parisian. The building he says is an out rage the activities of the Center a bad joke and its visitors representative of a unlettered rabble who should be forbidden Entrance into the City. The Center runs counter to much of what the parisian stands for. By nature he is reputed to be close suspicious xenophobic property oriented and resistant to change. Be Aubourg by contrast is or was meant to be a working Model of an open society. Foreigners designed and built it people of 14 nationalities were concerned in its construction. Walls were transparent doors wide open where they existed at All. Much of what the be Aubourg has to offer is Given away for free. All this was in parisian and gave offence. So did the building itself. It was not so much that Pari sians found it ugly though Many of them did and do As that they had a moral objection to it. It revealed too Many of its secrets. Parisians like their secrets to be Cov ered up and Here is this alien construction that allows its pipes its ducts its escalators and even its freight Eleva tors to go about their business in full View of the Street. To an unprejudiced Eye the exterior of the Centre Pompidou is the realization of the late cubist Painter Fer nand Leger s dream that great cities would one Day re Joice in Industrial forms rather than seek to hide them and would go on to give them the added emphasis of hot and Strong color. Far from dwarfing or deriding the ancient streets that Lead off from it in All directions be Aubourg makes you aware All Over again of their almost Clandestine allure ments. To walk along the Rue Des archives and come quite suddenly upon those visionary reds and blues and greens is one of the great european experiences. It is also one of the paradoxes of the Beaubout that when visitors go shooting up into the sky in those outdoor escalators they immediately enter into a new intimacy with the historical Center of Paris. Few shocks Are More salutary than that first sight of mile upon mile of Standard parisian rooftops set out before you like an Ocean of old Silver on which there floats Here and there a dome a Steeple or a megalomania acal tall building from our own Day. In this context be Aubourg is the Friend and Henchman of historical Paris. And in other contexts too whereas the grands boulevards for instance Are now quite dead in the evening be Aubourg with its lights blazing and its doors wide open till 10 in the evening has just that look of metropolitan excitement for which people prize the Boulevard Des italians 150 years ago. As for the Square it is alive at almost any time of Day with the kind of Street theater mimes acrobats jugglers mystifies of All sorts for which the Square in front of the Cathedral of notre Dame was once famous. It is when visitors get inside that trouble begins. The open society is a Noble concept but after several months of working in a labyrinth of serpentine and shoulder High partitions quite a few officials of be Aubourg have come to envy the life of the solitary Monk in his cell. Arresting As it May be to begin with a completely open space the size of two football Fields be Aubourg is the prisoner of its own Success. Even if they behave individually As Well As the College of cardinals on its Way to St. Peters 40,000 visitors exert a terrific Strain on a new building and have to be discreetly policed in ways that Are foreign to the intentions of be Aubourg. Doors have to be locked and terraces sealed off. Those wide open spaces can turn into rooms hardly larger than a Steamer trunk. The be Aubourg at this time is by Street theater livens up be Aubourg Plaza. No Means the Best place in Paris in which to come to terms with a great work of Art. Where be Aubourg does Excel in is its handling of specialities. If you Are looking for new poetry and new philos Ophy be Aubourg has programs that you cannot afford to miss. If you want to read a particular Book be Aubourg s free Access Library May save you a very Long wait at the Bibliog Cheque National. Be Aubourg is very Good indeed for music. Paris has never had better concerts of 20th Century music than those put on this season by Irlam. The sub department of be Aubourg which is directed by Pierre Boulez. It is very Good for children too in the ate Lier desenfants ecstacy prevails As freewheeling Fres Coes Are whipped up in an afternoon. Somewhere within each of those euphoric faces a free human being May Bein germination. For that is what be Aubourg is All about. It is not so much a museum As an Experiment in education. It is for this reason that it is so Welcome to those who feel snubbed or intimidated by More formal institutions. Whether the Brave new world of be Aubourg will actually increase Man s understanding of Art will be a very pre carious thing to determine. While sceptical observers May continue to regard it As an outrageous tinker toy supporters have reason to pos sess More than a feeble Glimmer of Hope for their play thing. What be Aubourg May Lack in acceptance it compensates for with financial support. With a staff of 900, it has an annual operating budget of $26 million exceeding the budget of All other French museums combined. The 25 acres available for expansion by no Means diminish expectations for be Aubourg s Brave new future and the Centre Pompidou May Well pave the Way for new discoveries in the Domain of communication techniques. For now let s say that it is certainly a Surprise to climb the Steps of Cathedral of notre Dame to catch a View of Paris and instead be confronted by the flamboyant be Aubourg looming Only blocks away. Mon Dieu is Only a mild reaction. Meanwhile Paris other major tourist attraction is the Center of a different controversy. After gracing the Paris Skyline for 88 years Alexandr Gustave Eiffel s creation is under attack again. No one is proposing to tear Down the City s Best known landmark As Guy de Maupassant and other aesthetes of the 1890s urged but the City of Paris which owns the Monument and the operating company la society de la tour Eiffel a profit making private corporation must agree on How to finance a massive overhaul of the Tower s ele Vator system. There is a possibility that the City itself May run the Tower As a Public service like the metro subway system. More Likely is a Compromise that would turn the Eiffel Tower into something like a regulated Utility with a Ceil ing on charges and profits. In France where most Public services Are run by the government such an idea is considered a Novelty. But officials of the City and the society Are considering it. A decision must be reached by next summer because of the pressing need to raise $6.3 million. The Money is needed to rebuild the rickety Hydraulic elevator that car Ries tourists up the Tower which was built in 1889. Meanwhile society and City officials hasten to assure everyone that that the Tower s old elevator is not danger Ous. The worst that could happen is that the elevator might break Down which would Hurt France s prestige and the Tower s receipts says one City official. But if the elevator did stall people might have to climb Down a per Ilous winding staircase that has been closed to the Public for years because it is dizzying and can be Slippery on a Rainy Day. The concern about safety has not affected the Tower s receipts. Admissions in july were up 20 per cent or 50,000 people from the year earlier figure. In All of last year 3 million people visited the Eiffel Tower half of them going to the 984-foot-High Summit on the Creaky ele Vator. The current Entrance fee is the equivalent of 85 cents to visit the first floor or $3 to go All the Way to the top. Sue Stueker Juergen Sas new yrs times wednesday september 14, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15