In just two hours, Sunday morning, a dozen citizens and street artists managed to bomb Eurotéléport’s Midas wasteland entirely with gold, which has become a real landfill. Why paint it gold? For the reference to the myth of Midas, to highlight the abandonment of this wasteland but also because “whoever lives or works here deserves to have things that shine“.
“Have you seen how clean it is?“It is enough to stay a few minutes near the Midas wasteland to hear these kinds of phrases coming from the Roubaisien who pass here every day. Abandoned in 2017, the old garage was however quickly bought by an investor from the Paris region according to the Voice of the North.
But in the end, nothing has happened since. The site became a wasteland, it was occupied and garbage started piling up. A beautiful wart in the busy Place de la Liberté, a stone’s throw from the center of MacArthurGlen and adjacent to the former Banque de France.
Even if the city provides to the Voice of the North having initiated numerous proceedings against the owner, he had to give him a formal warning last May to finally send a team on site to clean up the site in early June.
Midas et son o
But if it didn’t, the citizens were about to do it. Roubaix’s associative and artistic fabric was activated in early May to symbolically bring the spotlight back to the wasteland. “We heard about Banksy’s exhibition that was to be held at the former Banque de France, right next doorexplains to Street artist who lives nearby. We thought it was time to do something and launched this Midas collective.”
Everyone activates their own network and while an association proposes to reclaim the wasteland (it did not know then that it would be done a few days earlier), other citizens find an offer of accommodation for the people who occupied the place (but they refused). Finally, on Sunday morning, local artists landed on a commando mission with sixty gold bombs to highlight this seemingly forgotten wasteland. Taking advantage of the installation of grids on the wasteland, they metamorphosed the site into a gold bar in just two hours.
“We do not clean for the guests of the fair next doorsays one of buskers. We do it for the Roubaisien who are there every day, because this garbage symbol should also shine.“”It is also a demonstration that we can do a lot with little.“, Adds another member of the collective. The final goal is obviously also to make communities and owners move on the future of the site.
Now that no one can pass through Euréotéléport without seeing the golden reflections of the wasteland, the collective moves on to those who would like to continue their action “andn reclaim this wasteland“. Earlier this month, he had pointed to the town hall a The voice of the north negotiations for the acquisition were again underway. But that if the latter were not successful, an expropriation procedure could be initiated. What doesn’t happen, whatever happens in a few weeks.
