Like finding a needle in a haystack!

I know this is a pretty surprising photo! It's just that I wanted to draw your attention on an interesting, odd artist performance that took place in Paris on November 13. Sven Sachsalber, an Italian artist, spent 29 hours and 30 minutes in the Palais de Tokyo (the home of the Paris modern art museum) actually looking for a real needle in a haystack! I'm not kidding, check out the video!

Up a tree!

If you're on social networks, you probably have seen this already. This? Is an inflatable piece of art by Paul McCarthy, an American artist (from Salt Lake City) known for his provocative installations (check this article). Therefore, what on earth could this giant green mushroom that grew over night on the Place Vendôme really be? Various propositions circulated these past days - including, of course, a giant sex toy - but the reality is much less daring... This is simply a Christmas tree! 

An American artist in Paris...

On Saturday, among the Nuit Blanche installations that I visited, I also stopped by the Brooklyn, a bar located in the rue Quincampoix (near Beaubourg) for the opening of an exhibition (Lost for words) by Matthew Rose. Matthew is a great American artist who's been living in Paris for a long time; his work is mostly made of collages. Check it out here.

2014 Paris Art Fair

On March 27 the 2014 Paris Art Fair will start at the Grand Palais. There will also be a lot of art happening within Paris and it's always fun and interesting. To start with, here is the giant iron fist that Chinese artist Liu Bolin (劉勃麟) had installed in front of Le Grand Palais, where I took this photo on Saturday. A beautiful and massive piece of art (7,60 meter high - 25 feet) and 7 tons) that is also - according to Liu Bolin - a political claim.

Open air modern art fair

It's the Fiac in Paris at the moment, a very important modern art fair that takes place every year around the same period. The cool thing is that in addition to the actual fair that takes place at Le Grand Palais, they also have lots of art happenings around Paris. Including inside the Tuileries gardens where I took this photo yesterday. The piece of art is by Hector Zamora, a Brazilian artist and it's called, well, simply bricks on a metal bicycle!  

Perched!

Like you probably guessed I took this photo in the Palais Royal courtyard where the Buren columns are located. If some grown ups still find them horrendous (and expensive! their renovation cost 5.3 million euros!), most kids love them for they make great poles to climb on...  

Artist squat

Here is a place I've been willing to tell you about for a very long time. It's an artist squat called Le 59 rue de Rivoli (for it's precisely located at rue de Rivoli), where you can find about 30 artists on 6 floors. The history of the building is interesting, as prior to becoming this very artsy place, it used to belong to a bank. In 1999 three artists decided to invade the place and managed to fight long enough to turn it into a legal workshop for artists. Anyone can visit it everyday, except Mondays, and, of course, buy art from them. As you can see the whole place is totally decorated - even the facade is... My photo shows the staircase from the top floor, but I recommend you pay a visit to their site, to see more of it.

Fiac 2012

Paris is full of modern art events and exhibits at the moment... Why now? Because it's La Fiac (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain), a huge modern art exhibit that takes place every year at le Grand Palais. I went yesterday morning (Saturday) and even though I dislike the snobby artsy people that you often encounter is this kind of places, I did not regret it. Each booth (that is each gallery) had so much creativity and so many talents to offer that I could not take my eyes off of many of the pieces on display. Nor my camera... I took a lot of photos, but did not have time to post pick the best ones yet. In the meantime let me offer you this beautiful head that I found at the Michael Werner gallery.

When modern art meets the classic one

If you're familiar with Paris, you will probably have recognized the Hotel de Ville, that is the Paris town hall, a typical Renaissance revival type of building. But the reason why I took this photo today is because of the piece of art in front of it... A piece by Alain Kirili, made of concrete and gravels, called Rythmes d'automne (autumn/fall rhythms), that you can actually see better on the Paris.fr site . I like it when modern art meets the classic one; it allows Paris to keep its traditional flavor while keeping in touch with the present trends. Now, about this piece in particular, I'm not so sure... ;-)

Another great sculpture

Here is another of my finds even though it's been there (place du Canada) since... 2003 and I must have passed it dozens of times! This statue shows father Komitas, an Armenian priest and music composer (among many other things) who lost his mind after what is referred to as the "Armenian genocide" in 1915. I don't want to enter a big discussion about this terrible event (you can read all about it here) for it's highly controversial in France (we have a pretty large Armenian population in France). I've just been amazed by the beauty of this statue, made by David Yérévantsi,and by the fall colors that are already showing on the trees!. I simply wanted to show it to you.

Peace!

There is nothing like a statue by Maillol to look a the bright side of life! Or course it helps when it's located near le Louvre, when there is a deep blue sky in the background and when there is a little ray of sun to wrap it up! In fact this sculpture is not meant to cheer us up, for it's dedicated to the inhabitants of Port-Vendres, a small town located in the Languedoc-Roussillon (the most Southern part of France you can find!), who died during WWI. Still, it's magnificent (and we should be thankful to Dina Vierny, the muse of Maillol, for giving his work to the French government  in 1964!)

Le Nil (The Nile)!

You may wonder why the title of this post is "The Nile"... Well, quit wondering! It's simply the name of this beautiful statue by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ottoni (1648-1736) - apparently, it is pretty common to represent the Nile as an old bearded man leaning on a Sphinx! I also found it in the Tuileries gardens and FYI, it's actually a replica, made after the original located at the Vatican, in Italy.

DIY art at Gare Saint Lazare

I could have made a little quiz and let you guess what this is, but you'd probably never have guessed... It's actually a close up of a "sculpture" that I found last week at the brand new Gare Saint Lazare (a train station located in the heart of Paris, near the Galerie Lafayette and Printemps department stores). It's called Plastic bags (in English) and it's a collective work of art made by Pascale Marthine Tayou, a Cameroonian artist who asked the people to hang multicolored plastic bags around a huge net! The result is stunning ; have a look at the broader view I took or in the official photo gallery.

Advertising age

Like all underground transportation systems in the world, the French metro makes ends meet by selling advertising space. This, since... 1947 (and a little before too)! Generally rented by the week, this space has seen thousands of ad campaigns since then! One artist - Pierre-François Grimaldi - had the idea of turning them into real pictures. Some of them can currently be seen at Galerie W, near Montmartre. Quite clever - and interesting for "old" Parisians like me who may remember some of these campaigns! 

Doisneau exhibit at Hotel de Ville

It's cold and rainy in Paris at the moment (which might explain why I have a terrible cold right now!), but it's also a good occasion to take interesting photos... Hence this one, that I took at Hotel de Ville today right under a poster that promotes the Doisneau exhibit they currently have there. Not surprisingly this exhibit is very successful, that is why people have to line up, even when it's rainy!

Paris Meridian

No, it's not a manhole entrance (it's much smaller, about 4.7 inches - 12 cm), but just a metal piece embedded into the sidewalk of Paris that I found somewhere near the Boulevard Saint Germain... I looked up on the Web and found something very interesting. It turns out that there are 135 of these "medallions" throughout Paris and that they were  installed by Dutch artist Jan Dibbets in 1994 in honor of François Arago, a French scientist who "discovered" the Paris Meridian. Quite logically all these medallions are installed along a line that represents this Meridian. I had never heard of this...

Paris Art fair 2012

Like I mentioned a few days ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Paris Art fair 2012 last Friday at the Grand Palais, when it was just the opening and not yet too busy. I was in a rush so I could not see everything, but my eyes got caught by the work of Petr Lovigin, a Russian Photographer who was featured on the Galerie Clair stand. I could not find much about him on the web (well not much in English and I don't speak Russian!)... As always, I find it very hard to take photos of photos, so this time I played on the format and the composition of my photo. I kinda like it, even though it's not very original!

Marianne by Liox

Far from the art fairs that are currently running in Paris now (I will come back to them later...) I just discovered a new artist today. His name is Liox and, among other things, he loves to paint "Marianne" (that is the name we give to the lady who represents the French Republic - the equivalent to Uncle Sam in the US). I found two of these portraits near Saint Germain, but you can find many others (and buy them too!) on his website. I love them, but of course, I'm French, so I'm a little biased! Have a wonderful Friday, Paris will still be sunny and beautiful today!

Berenice Abbott exhibit opening

Last evening I went to a photo exhibit opening at the Jeu de Paume museum (located in the Tuileries gardens at Place de la Concorde). The exhibit was about Berenice Abbott, a photographer my American visitors may know of, for she was American and famous for her black and white photos of New York. The reason why I went to this opening last night is that it was staged by my friend Nino Comba who I already featured on this blog a few years ago on the occasion of a Nuit Blanche event. Some may also have recognized the mystery visitor in the photo ;-)

Konny's work of art

I found this painting at Beaubourg on one of the chimney that vent the underground parking lot and I really froze when I saw it - not because of the cold(!), but because of the strength of this work of art. I did not know anything about Konny, but I looked up on the Web and found out her full name is Konny Steding and that she is German. Have a look at her website and have a good Sunday.