Ten years after its resounding bankruptcy, Detroit is gradually getting back on track. The capital of Michigan and the automobile industry in the United States has also become an incredible open-air artistic scene, as demonstrated by this French photographer and guide from Detroit.
18 billion dollars! This is the astronomical amount of Detroit’s debt in 2013. Unable to cope with it, the mayor at the time declared his city bankrupt. In 10 years, the American automobile capital, cradle of the Ford factories, has recovered, thanks mainly to the dollars poured in by American billionaires. Emblem of this renewal: the magnificent “Michigan Central“the old monumental station, built more than a century ago, in 1918, a little away from the city.
Too far from the center of Detroit, the Michigan Central station has never been very busy in the land of Ford and the queen car. It closed its doors in 1988, before its ongoing rehabilitation. (EMMANUEL LANGLOIS / FRANCEINFO)
Abandoned at the end of the 1980s, Ford undertook to restore it to make it its center for new technologies and mobility which is due to open next year. Delphine François, guide and photographer in Detroit, takes us there this Sunday morning: “It is an enormous massive block of around ten floors, Renaissance type, with marble and sculptures, completely emblematic of the era of the automobile industrial boom.”
Midtown, this “no man’s land” between downtown and the chic suburbs of Detroit, is full of frescoes like this reinterpretation of “The Girl with a Pearl Earring”, Vermeer’s painting, by the artist Sydney James, the pearl having given way to the symbolic “D” of Detroit. (EMMANUEL LANGLOIS / FRANCEINFO)
The Frenchwoman arrived in Detroit in 2013, the year of the bankruptcy. After a few trips to Europe, she is now permanently settled there, with her husband, an automotive engineer, and their three boys. Detroit is not immediately discovered by the visitor; you have to walk the streets to find a bit of its soul:
“It’s a battered town, explains Delphine François, with a special history, magnificent buildings but many others, completely abandoned. You have to be interested in the history of the city. At the bend of the streets, we discover magnificent “street art” frescoes, it becomes a real treasure hunt. It’s a special type of tourism.”
Delphine François in front of “Michigan Central”, the old Detroit station, currently being renovated: “It’s a battered city. You have to be interested in its history. It’s a separate form of tourism.” (EMMANUEL LANGLOIS / FRANCEINFO)
The history of the city in full view
Such is the tormented history of Detroit, from the heyday of the automobile in the 1950s, to the deadly riots of 1967, and the flight of the white population to the wealthy suburbs, like Birmingham, where people walks among the villas of billionaires. In half a century, Detroit has emptied two-thirds of its population, which today peaks at just over 600,000 inhabitants.
View of the glass ceiling from inside the “Book Tower”, the last rehabilitated tower in the city center, after seven years of work. (BEDROCK / BOOK TOWER)
In Detroit, what you wouldn’t do anywhere else, you have to push, without hesitation, the heavy doors of skyscrapers to discover inside, the halls of these buildings, true masterpieces of architecture , as the “Book Tower“the last tower rehabilitated in the city center after seven years of work financed by billionaire Dan Gilbert, a native of the country who made his fortune in credit, and today owns more than a quarter of downtown Detroit.
“He’s been taking over the buildings for around ten years, one by one, testifies the Frenchwoman, that he renovates them and brings back life, stores, businesses and restaurants in order to bring activity and population back to Detroit. There are brands that are coming back. Obviously, everything is not yet rosy, and there is still a lot of work to do, but the energy is there to get the city moving again.”
The Eastern Market district, named after one of the oldest markets in North America, is full of frescoes, each more moving than the last. It is here that the “Murals in the market” festival is held every year in September with around forty artists who create live. (EMMANUEL LANGLOIS / FRANCEINFO)
All this eventful epic of Detroit is therefore spread out on the walls. Delphine François discovered it when she arrived 10 years ago: “I took the city’s history in the face, she remembers, with everything that was falling apart at the time. And I found poetry in these abandoned buildings. I was struck by the number of colorful and lively murals at the corner of each street. Detroit is an open-air museum of street art, there are lots of artists who come to practice and I always discover new ones.”
Street art, or street art, even has its festival, “Murals in the market“around Eastern Market, one of the oldest markets in North America, every year in September.
A fresco (or “mural”) in the Eastern Market district, one of the oldest markets in North America. Every year in September, Eastern Market hosts the “Murals in the Market” street art festival (EMMANUEL LANGLOIS / FRANCEINFO)
Go further
Visit DetroitDetroit Tourism Office
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2023-10-22 07:05:26
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