There is a certain parallel between this Disneyland - born in California and traveling further and further east to conquer Europe - and the Los Angeles-based architect who has just completed two important cultural embassies in Paris: the North American Center and part of the European Disneyland. For the latter, he has designed a 20,000-square-meter complex of restaurants, stores and recreational facilities located between the Magic Kingdom, that unchanging heart of Disneyland presided over by the enchanted castle, and the large hotels for tourists.

Gehry seems to be entering the Old Continent with commissions linked to his interest in the world of design, such as that of Vitra, or of prestige, such as the American center in Paris or the pavilion of the Olympic Village in Barcelona. His choice for Disneyland seems, on the contrary, to facilitate the association of his architecture with the pop world and with that carefree Californian air that has accustomed us to spontaneous, decomposed and fun constructions. Faced with the temptation to pigeonhole Frank Gehry in a comic architecture, it is worth remembering that Magic Kingdom is probably part of the memory of post-war Europeans to the extent that many of our dreams of home and modus vivendi are rooted in Donald Duck's house and in the Disney translation of our ancestors' myths and stories. Perhaps it is because of this memory that the appearance of the Duck, the Mouse and their companions in Roy Lichtenstein's pop avant-garde seems intellectual to us...[+]