The ''UX'' (short for ''Urban eXperiment'') is an underground organization of Urban explorers that improves hidden corners of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Their work includes an undercover effort to repair and restore the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

's clock, building a cinema — complete with a bar and a restaurant — in a section of the Paris Catacombs underneath the Trocadéro, restoring medieval crypts, and staging plays and readings in monuments after dark. The group's membership is largely secret, but its spokespeople include Lazar Kunstmann.

History

With its start in September 1981, the founders of the group stole plans of the many underground passageways and tunnels for which Paris is famous. Using this information as a base, the group of anonymous artists and citizens have since restored much of Paris's underground infrastructure, including the

clock, which chimed for the first time in many years after its repair. The group is also responsible for over a dozen other projects, including those which the French government have not chosen to do or for which they lack funds.

Organisation

The organization is divided into teams: an all-female team (the Mouse House) 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, and a team (Untergunther) doing restoration. Untergunther's membership includes architects and historians. In October 2007, they received attention for a project, assisted by professional clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot, to clandestinely restore the famous clock in the

. Never caught, upon completion they announced their work at a meeting with the administrator of the Panthéon, who called the police. La Mexicaine De Perforation (The Mexican Consolidated Drilling Authority) is another subdivision of the ''UX'' which provides clandestine artistic events. In September 2004, French police discovered an underground

movie theatre A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

run by La Mexicaine De Perforation. The makeshift theatre contained a movie screen, a well stocked bar, and a kitchen. Telephones and electricity were brought in from an unknown location. Movie titles ranging from 1950s classics to modern thrillers were also discovered. When the police returned for a formal investigation, all the equipment had disappeared — all that was left was a note on the floor reading, "Ne cherchez pas" ("Do not search").

Official reaction

Parisian authorities oppose the group's actions and have started a police unit to track the group through the sewers and

catacombs of Paris The Catacombs of Paris (, ) are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people. Built to consolidate Paris's ancient stone quarries, they extend south from the ("Gate of Hell") former city gate. ...

in an attempt to apprehend and charge its members. Charges were brought against the four Untergunther restorers of the Pantheon clock. However, at trial, after 20 minutes' deliberation, the judge ruled in their favor. One of the government's prosecutors referred to the charges as "stupid". One of the Untergunther restorers, Jean-Baptiste Viot, was later appointed as the official restorer of the clock in 2018, with his work during the Untergunther restoration cited as proof of his qualifications.

References

Sources

''Urban eXperiment'', the book by Lazar Kunstmann, the spokesman for the ''UX''

Underground ‘terrorists’ with a mission to save city’s neglected heritage
, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 29 Sep 2007

External links

Untergunther web site

Pantheon, user's guide - The movie about the Untergunther and La Mexicaine De Perforation

The New French Hacker-Artist Underground

* ttp://greg.org/archive/2004/10/12/les_arenes_de_chaillot_the_complete_programme_guide.html Underground cinema programming guide
UnterGunther: French Urban Explorers Sneak Into Pantheon For A Year, Repair 150-yo Clock
, ''greg.org'' {{DEFAULTSORT:UX Clandestine groups Culture of Paris Organizations based in Paris Psychogeography Subterranea (geography) Urban_exploration