The square was supposed to be filled with thousands of protesters, but instead, it was only their shoes.
Thousands of pairs of shoes were placed in neat rows in Paris' Place de la Republique on Sunday. The area was set to be filled with environmental activists ahead of the nearby COP21 climate talks. But in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in the city on Nov. 13, French officials banned large-scale demonstrations, citing security concerns.
Among the shoes were a pair of plain black Oxfords sent by Pope Francis, who has long been an outspoken advocate of climate change awareness and prevention. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon also contributed a pair of sneakers.
Pope Francis' shoes being placed in the Place de la Republic in solidarity with the climate march #StanfordCOP21 pic.twitter.com/mp7M8KCwom— Madeline Lisaius (@mlisiaus) November 30, 2015
Rather than being deterred, environmentalists used the shoes to symbolically represent the thousands who could not gather there.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));I love the Paris "shoe march". Because of the state of emergency currently in France after the attacks, protests are...Posted by Alex Andreou on Sunday, November 29, 2015
Elsewhere in the city, another virtual crowd gathered Sunday night ahead of the COP21 summit, in the form of a large art installation projected on the side of Paris' Assemblee Nationale. The art installation, called 'The Standing March,' was created by Academy Award nominated film director Darren Aronofsky and French artist JR project.
On Assemblée Nationale #TheStandingMarch live til 4am & Nov30 8pm-2am World is watching by @JRart & @DarrenAronofsky pic.twitter.com/ADYtWYgv53— Elodie's Paris (@Paris_by_Elodie) November 29, 2015
The installation features 500 people from all nationalities rotating and staring at the camera. Aronofsky and JR say the group represents humanity, and serves as a reminder to global leaders that the world is watching as they attempt to negotiate a climate deal.
live #thestandingmarch playing in Paris for the next week @jr #cop21. time for change. A video posted by Darren Aronofsky (@darrenaronofsky) on Nov 29, 2015 at 11:34am PST
The critical climate talks begin on Monday and bring together representatives from across the globe to address the man-made sources of climate change.
The goal of the 12-day summit is a new global climate treaty, that would enter force in the year 2020 and help the world avoid the worst consequences of manmade global warming.
Despite the ban on protests, thousands gathered in Paris on Sunday and formed a human chain along the route of banned protest march. But in the afternoon, hundreds of people clashed with riot police attempting to disperse the crowd. French officials said 317 people were detained for violating the protest ban.