Silent Blocks

In the spring of 2020, in Toronto, David Cayley reflects on the Covid-19 pandemic and its management by Western states. Drawing on the work of philosopher Ivan Illich, he warns of a form of death denial that “conceals everything else, namely the large-scale experimentation with social control and social obedience, the legitimization of telepresence as a mode of sociability and teaching, the increase in surveillance, the normalization of biopolitics and the reinforcement of preventive measures as the foundations of social life.”

In Paris in the spring of that same year, with the introduction of containment to curb the pandemic, the streets suddenly emptied. The combination of a health system and a police force enabled the government to step up its security policy—without encountering much resistance—which had been initiated years earlier with the Vigipirate plan. Photographer Myr Muratet has documented the silent city in his own way.