- Les UX
les UX is an underground organization that tries to improve hidden corners of
Paris . Their works have included building a cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, underneath theSeine , restoring medieval crypts, and staging plays and readings in monuments after dark. The group's membership is largely secret, but its spokespeople includeLazar Kunstmann .The Parisian authorities oppose the group's actions, starting a police unit to track them through the sewers and catacombs of Paris, and attempting to apprehend and charge them.
The organization is divided into teams: an all-female team specializing in infiltration, a team running an internal messaging system and coded radio network, a team providing a database, a team organizing underground shows, a team doing photography, a team (Untergunther) doing restoration. One project,
La Mexicaine de Perforation (LMDP), built an underground cinema,Les Arenes de Chaillot , next to theCinémathèque Française .Untergunther's membership includes architects and historians. The team has renovated a century-old abandoned government bunker and a 12th-century crypt. In
October 2007 , they received attention for a project, assisted by professional clockmakerJean-Baptiste Viot , to clandestinely restore the famous clock in the Panthéon. Never caught, upon completion they announced their work at a meeting with the director of the Panthéon, who called the police. Charges were brought against the four but, at trial, after twenty minutes deliberation, the judge ruled in favor of Untergunther.References
*" [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2554240.ece Underground ‘terrorists’ with a mission to save city’s neglected heritage] ", "
The Times ", 29 Sep 2007
*" [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/heritage/story/0,,2217212,00.html Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark's clock] ", "The Guardian ", 26 Nov 2007
*" [http://www.urban-resources.net/untergunther.html UnterGunther: Restoration of the Pantheon Clock] "
*" [http://greg.org/archive/2007/10/09/untergunther_french_urban_explorers_sneak_into_pantheon_for_a_year_repair_150yo_clock.html UnterGunther: French Urban Explorers Sneak Into Pantheon For A Year, Repair 150-yo Clock] ", "greg.org"External links
* [http://www.ugwk.eu/ Untergunther web site]
* [http://greg.org/archive/2004/10/10/exclusive_la_mexicaine_le_interview.html Interview with Lazar Kunstman about the underground cinema project]
* [http://greg.org/archive/2004/10/12/les_arenes_de_chaillot_the_complete_programme_guide.html Underground cinema programming guide]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
