JEUDI NOIR

JEUDI NOIR
2006-2008
Installation (video documentation of actions, sparkling wine bottles, confetti, Activist’s T-shirts, photographs)

Jeudi Noir is a movement created in October 2006 by a small group of French activists. It was born out of the necessity of denouncing a problem they were facing on a daily basis: the ever greater difficulty in finding accommodation in the Paris area and other big cities in France, due to the uncontrolled increase of rent. The government, more preoccupied in helping the wealthy than those in need, doesn’t care about this and fails to make any regulations in this respect. Clearly, something needs to be done!
A group of young people aged between 25 and 35 decided to raise their voices against this intolerable situation. The name of this group is Jeudi Noir, which was chosen as a reference to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 known as Black Thursday or, in French, Jeudi Noir. Thursday is also the day when a new issue of the weekly magazine Particulier à Particulier, specialising in accommodation advertisements, arrives on the newspaper stands. After realizing that the motivation to change things was there, the question was how to proceed? How to fight an absurd situation? By making identically absurd actions! The idea was based on a strong image: we will use bubbles to burst the bubble (the real estate bubble), confronting the owners asking for indecent rents with their own absurdity. We thought: «Why don’t we show up and “hijack” the visiting of expensive apartments with cheap champagne, music and confetti?» The motto was formulated: “We cannot afford it, so let’s at least have a party here!” Imagine 40 people drinking and dancing in an 18 m2 flat in front of the eyes of an astonished owner who respects “the laws of the market”!

To gain visibility, we needed to have a media-oriented strategy, even if it’s called “marketing”. Is Jeudi Noir a marketing product? Of course not. However, we use some recipes aimed at creating a visual identity.

Jeudi Noir has taken their activities a step forward, faced with the necessity of drawing attention to a true scandal: the numerous empty buildings surrounding us while people can’t find a place to live and while the poorest sleep on the streets. Jeudi Noir has decided to occupy empty buildings and make the government apply the law of requisition. Our first attempt was a success and what a success! We requisitioned a disused building of 1600 m2 in the center of Paris that belonged to a French bank. We named this building “Ministère de la Crise du Logement” (”Ministry of the housing crisis”) to create a headquarters that would symbolize the housing crisis during election time. The Paris City Hall responded to our action by announcing they would buy the building to create social housing. Twenty-one apartments will soon be built thanks to an action by the citizens.
(J.N.)

JEUDI NOIR (2006, Paris, F). Live and work in Paris. Since 2006 we have been involved in many recent mobilisations for social rights, turning our weaknesses into strength by organising happenings on very low budgets and using the media as loudspeakers. We turn up unexpectedly in small flats for rent, our only ammunition being sparkling wine, confetti and disco music and our best ally the camera of an empathetic journalist: all this to draw attention to the real estate bubble and its implications for the lives of young people, but also for an ever larger part of French households in general. We squat in disused buildings belonging to banks and insurance companies and turn them into headquarters for artistic and activist activities. We want to show who profits and who suffers from the housing crisis.