The Birdman from the Centre Pompidou

Giuseppe Belvedere was not part of the noble families, he was not a duke or a prince, and yet he was an important part of the landscape and social life of theFourth District In the last 40 years, since he emigrated to Paris from Calabria in southern Italy.

Over the years, he became a prominent figure in the field and a real attraction: photographers and tourists photographed him every day at work, painters painted him, a talented sculptor created a stone statue of him, filmmakers wrote scripts about his life story, journalists reviewed his movements, a Facebook group bearing his name was established, and social networks are full of his pictures.

He had thousands of fans. Twenty thousand people signed a petition calling for help. On the other hand, many haters harassed him, beat him in the street, destroyed his meager possessions and complained about him on a regular basis. The police and the municipality harassed him and tried to prevent him from carrying out his life's work - feeding hundreds of pigeons in the square. Center Pompidou.

One man's life's work has come to an end.

On January 11, 2022, Giuseppe fulfilled his mission for the last time. The next day, on a particularly cold winter night, he was found dead in his old white van, which had been donated by his supporters and had served as his home. The “Angel of the Doves” was 76 years old when he died.

Since 2005, he has been seen every day pulling, with the last of his meager strength, two tattered shopping carts full of bird food. Several times a day, in the cold, in the rain, in the heat, Giuseppe continued to help his hungry little charges. Nothing could stop him from fulfilling his mission: neither the weather nor human wickedness.

The pigeons would recognize him from afar. They waited for him every day at the appointed time with a visible smile on their faces. Sometimes it seemed that some of them would break out into a wild dance in his honor. Between them there existed a kind of contract of mutual guarantee – he lived for them and they survived because of him.

In the past, Giuseppe worked as an accountant, lived a normal life, paid taxes legally, until the day he saw a demonstration in front of his house in which a group of people condemned and denounced a plan to exterminate the city's birds. The issue touched his heart. He joined the group's active activities.

The next morning, he went out for the first time in his life to feed the birds of the district. It was the first step that led to dedicating his entire life to the birds. The feeding operation grew. Soon, hundreds of pigeons were gathering every day in the square in front of the Pompidou Center in the heart of the City of Lights.

The tragic story of Giuseppe Belvedere, nicknamed “Mr. Dove”

Giuseppe fed them with endless devotion, displaying immense devotion to the cause. At the same time, warning letters and fines began arriving at his home from the district municipality stating that his activities were illegal.

Lack of compassion and great cruelty on the part of the municipality led to his eviction from the social housing to which he was entitled. In 2011, he was thrown out onto the street. The municipality, which failed to stop his activities, took away his personal dignity. Discovered here Paris Otherwise – Paris is ugly and inhumane.

Giuseppe was left with a small pension. Despite his age, he moved to live and sleep in his car and created a shelter for injured pigeons in his vehicle. Almost all of his pension income was used to buy grain to feed the pigeons and to purchase medicines and treatments to heal sick and injured birds.

Some of the residents of the area also proved ruthless and aggressive towards him. His hobby was received very badly by some residents of the Beaubourg district behind the Pompidou Center where he operated. They did not hesitate to show their hostility towards the old man and his customs.

It is said that people with bad intentions added rat poison to the seeds he scattered. They claim that his activities are a public health hazard because pigeons are dirty and transmit diseases. His rusty van was repeatedly vandalized, his tires were slashed, and he was the victim of repeated verbal and physical attacks.

Once, unknown people tried to burn his car with him inside. He miraculously survived. Another time, the city of Paris even towed his van with all his belongings, his medication, and 23 injured pigeons that were in his care at the time.

He wasn't always nice, sometimes he showed verbal aggression towards curious people trying to penetrate his narrow world, getting too close to the hundreds of pigeons and scaring them. Because of his reprimands of the harassers, the authorities sought to have him committed to a mental institution. They almost succeeded.

Twice he was forcibly taken to a madhouse but was soon released. You could say anything about him, but he was not crazy. Twice he was arrested, but was released 24 hours later. He and his birds had at least one thing in common – they were free.

The years were not kind to Giuseppe, he found it increasingly difficult to walk, and he was no longer able to stand up straight. However, when he arrived at his most important daily task, his strength surprisingly returned for a period of time that was just enough for him to finish his shift.

The pigeons were a substitute for family for him. He felt more comfortable in their company than in the company of humans. He trusted them, he communicated well with them. For the pigeons, his arrival at the shift was a kind of daily “coming of the Messiah.”

I have photographed him every year since 2008. I have called his photos that I have presented in several exhibitions: “The Restaurant Manager,” that is how he was perceived in the eyes of the pigeons for whom he tirelessly cared.

Several years ago, I stood and listened to his conversation with a passerby. Although he lived on the margins of society, he turned out to be a sensitive, wise, and intelligent man. He said something like this:

Politicians cannot decide for me how to live. On the contrary, they must listen to my needs and take care of them. A civilized and proper country should protect its pensioners. Not throw them out into the street. All I asked for was the right to continue living my life. It is true that pigeons poop, but cars pollute the city much more.

Giuseppe did nothing wrong in his life. He didn’t steal, he didn’t hurt anyone, and he didn’t even drink. His only “guilt” was that he wanted to stick to his life’s work no matter what. One of the main lessons from Giuseppe’s ongoing story is that: even when you have nothing in life – you can still give something to others.

He was one of the few homeless people who remained on the streets by choice. It is true that he was thrown out of his home in a scandalous and questionable manner, but he was offered alternatives. Since they involved a considerable distance from his “place of work,” he insisted on staying where he was and refused to save himself. He preferred to die than sacrifice his pigeons, because Paris without pigeons is not Paris.

It is unclear who will now feed the pigeons, how, and whether they will survive. Will the Fourth Ward municipality allow someone else to step into the shoes of the “madman” who sacrificed his life for the pigeons, and will such a candidate even be found?