Passing By

A walk in Paris following the paths of desire, death, and dreams — side by side with a stranger.

Passing By is a walking experience in which thirty strangers were invited to connect with each other and with the streets of Paris through three existential themes: Desire, Death, and Dreams. The work aimed to investigate how human connection can re-enchant forgotten, or stigmatized, parts of a city — and how that can lead us to look again to the suppressed parts of ourselves.

Prompt cards with intimate questions led to small performative rituals designed to awaken emotional presence within the city. In Pigalle, strangers walked silently before discussing desire; in Montmartre Cemetery, they held hands while reflecting on love and mortality; and in Rue des Abbesses, they shared dreams through prolonged eye contact and conversation. Gradually, neglected urban spaces became living stages for trust, affection, solidarity, and unexpected human connection across difference. Passing By questioned how cities segregate or connect people — and how new rituals can turn unloved or unnoticed spaces into stages for affection, presence, and memory. It demonstrated how shared urban rituals can foster emotional connection across difference: tourists and Parisians, strangers of all backgrounds, side by side. The experience also reflected on gentrification, emotional geography, conscious tourism, and urban resilience by proposing that reclaiming the city together begins by walking, witnessing, and risking new connections. Some participants experienced solidarity through vulnerability: for example, a straight man reflected on LGBTQ+ public affection by holding hands with another man in a cemetery, and others formed lasting cross-cultural friendships that shaped their future paths.