Nico Joana Weber – Tropic Telecom

The artist’s book Tropic Telecom complements the film of the same name and reflects contemporary Paris in its hybrid post-colonial reality. Its starting point is the Palais de la Porte Dorée, which opened in 1931 on the occasion of the Paris Colonial Exhibition. It is the only building of the exhibition that was preserved after the event and is located in the south-east of the city, on the edge of the Périphérique. Its architectural style is a synthesis of the then-modern Art Deco, with its geometric design language, and freely interpreted elements of the art and architectural styles of other cultures.

The still accessible aquarium of the palace, which once displayed fish from the tropical colonies, houses a crocodile pool. As the film proceeds, an albino alligator that has lived in the pool since 2014 embarks on a surreal journey. It leads the viewer through places of French colonial and migration history, as well as through large brutalist and post-modern housing estates on the outskirts of Paris, built from 1970 onwards, which stand for the residential utopia of a post-colonial Paris.