Hospitality

Paris, september 2010.

A few words on a sheet of paper enclosed in a transparent plastic pocket containing a key, the whole thing firmly attached to a piece of string. That’s it! Everyone would receives this surprising assemblage as a gift from the sky as soon as s/he rings the bell. Friends or invited people are not directly welcome by the apartement occupiers. Instead, two short instructions make explicit the process to reach them: open up the door and let go of the key! But, to succeed, one has to be fast and precise. The occupier is a funny guy. Even if the string is long enough to link his apartment on the second floor to the sidewalk, a perfect coordination is required. Sometimes, the occupier assumes you have already turned the key into the lock, then he pulls the string straight… as if he eventually had a change of mind. Other times, he lets go the piece of string too fast and cannot hold it back. While entering the corridor, you hear the plastic pocket crashes to the ground, following with an embarrassed voice asking you to pick it up. Whether such a technology works smoothly or not, in any case, different actions are expected on the part of the visitors, who experience diverse emotions: amusement, eagerness, surprise, nervousness… Whatever your feeling is, it immediately changes as soon as you eventually enter the flat and receive a constant attention to your own comfort during your whole stay. Since when is writing colder than face-to-face interaction?