Art in the street

I love it when the Fiac (Foire internationale d'art contemporain) takes place in Paris for not only do art professionals get to meet and trade, but the average Pierre gets to see art everywhere. They have "Hors les murs" (outside the walls) installations everywhere in Paris and it's really great. I will show you several ones, but to start with, here is a gigantic installation called Magna Mater by the Chapuisat brothers that I photographed in the middle of Les Tuileries gardens. Beautiful.

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! 

Cleaning the Gare Saint Lazare's clocks!

You may remember this piece of art by Arman called "L'heure de tous" that has been in front of the Gare Saint Lazare since 1985. I already photographed it in 2008, but at that time I had to make a close up for it was really dirty and full of pigeon droppings! Recently it was totally cleaned and it's really much nicer.

Les enfants du monde...

In the Parc de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement, you can see a bunch of sculptures representing the "children of the world". They were made by Rachid Khimoune and they show children from 21 countries. A bit stereotypical of course (Mexicans have large hats Asians pointy ones...), but really cool to see. And this park is great too - I already posted several times about it. 

Flags!

I don't resist showing you another of these installations they made for La Fiac, the art exhibit I was telling you about a few days ago. This one is on the passerelle Léopold Sedar Senghor, the bridge that goes from Le Louvre to Le Musée d’Orsay. It's made of no less than 193 flags... These flags are the ones of each nation sitting at the UN, only they have been redesigned with "camouflage" motives. The press kit uses a lot of fancy words to describe this art piece by Société Réaliste, but I mostly saw a cool photo set: grey sky, colorful flags and passers by! More on the the Galerie Poggi site.

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!  

Soon to be destroyed...

I don't know if you remember, but I already showed this building. Only it was slightly different at that time... (I have been unable to find my previous photo!). Anyway, it's a building facing the Seine in the 13th arrondissement  which is going to be destroyed soon. Before they tear it down they opened it to street artists. And it has become a true phenomenon. You have to wait in line up to 8 hours to get in! It's amazing... There are 9 more days left, so hurry up. There is a superb website that allows to see more of all this, visit it, it's really worth it.

The longest graffiti wall in Paris

I had a super long day in Lille (North of France) today and I'm REALLY exhausted, but I managed to save some energy (the very little one that I still have tonight!!) to post this photo that I took a few days ago along the longest graffiti wall I know if in Paris. Look how vivid the colors are, it's amazing. I don't even know what's behind this wall located in the 18th arrondissement, the only thing I know is that every time I passed by it, the scenery changes!

Firemen training tower

You think these two buildings have more or less the same height? Well, they don't! The "old" one is a 6 or 7 typical Paris story building, and the "modern" one is only 11 meter (36 ft) high. The latter is actually a  sculpture made by Chinese artist Wang Du and is dedicated to the Paris firemen (it's actually a replica of a training tower) next door. For yes, the "old" building next to it is a fire station. Pretty cool ;-)

Poetry!

Here is a nice change from the usual graffiti... Even if technically it's not very different! Only this time it's legal and qualifies as "work of art". "It" is Le Bateau Ivre (The Drunken Boat), a famous poem by French poet Arthur Rimbaud that all French pupils have learned at school (at least partially). Thanks to the Dutch Tegen-Beeld foundation who committed calligrapher Jan Willem Bruins to write it on a wall, well you can now admire it on 300 sq meters (3229 square feet) at rue Férou (right next to the Pantheon Saint Sulpice) Dankü!

Paris dragon!

I'm surprised this piece of art is not more famous... It's a part of a "dragon" that seems to emerge from the ground at place Augusta-Holmes on rue Paul Klee in the 13 th arrondissement. It's actually a fountain (there is water running inside, even though there was none when I took the photo) called La Danse de la fontaine émergente. It was designed by the French-Chinese sculptor Chen Zhen (who died in 2000) and it took no less than 7 years to build it. I think it's really cool even though my photo does not do it justice really. Click here for a broader view and here for more information.

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... ;-)

Belleville artist worksops

Every city has its artists district. I'm not talking about galleries or museum but more off scene workshops, where young, not academic artists, gather and create what might one day become very successful. In Paris, this district is located in Belleville, in the 20th arrondissement. Yesterday, they had a "Portes ouvertes" day (open doors), where everybody could walk into their workshops and admire their work. I saw many interesting things, including this rather unexpected Buddah style temple in front of a giant wall covered in graffiti. More information here.

The Venus of the arts

I never noticed it, but at rue Jacques Callot, there is a stunning sculpture by Louis Arman (a famous French sculptor). It's called La Vénus des arts (apparently after the Venus de Milo, a well known sculpture that can be seen at the Louvre museum) and it's made of several musical instruments and picture frames. It's been in this street for more than 14 years and I only discovered it last weekend!!

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...

The Mask!

Another discovery of one of these embedded masks that you can find everywhere in Paris. Let me remind you that they are made by Gregos, an street artist who started posting white/blank faces about 3 years ago. He started introducing color at the beginning of 2009. I love them. I photographed this one at rue de Picardie in the 3rd arrondissement.

Icarus at La Défense

I had a meeting at La Défense this morning. La Défense - for those of you who would have forgotten - is a business district right outside Paris where mostly skyscrapers are to be found. But not only... there is also a lot or "street"(there are no actual streets over there!) art, like this one, a stunning statue of Icare (Icarus), made by Igor Mitoraj.

Le Cyklop

Let me introduce you to Olivier, aka "Le Cyklop". If you're at least a one year follower to PDP, this name should ring a bell as I already talked about him when I photographed one of his early work at Place Saint Sulpice. Le Cyklop uses the Paris bollards and turns them into works of art - especially the round part at their top that he turns into "eyes" (which explains why he calls himself the Cyklop). Nice guy too, I was happy to meet him. See more of his work on his site.

Jeff Aerosol

You know how I love to show you the street artists I come across when I walk through the streets of Paris (see several examples here). The most famous one, to me, is Jeff Aerosol. Last Friday, as I went to the opening of a Urban Art exhibition at Gallery Uni-ver I finally got to meet him (and yes, as you probably have guessed, he is the little man in this photo ;-) As for the blue figure in the foreground it was made by another well-known street artist: Zlotykamien.

A little glamor...

I found this poster at Beaubourg, just above a restaurant and I really loved it right away. The "curtain" is actually a garland (probably a remain from Christmas?!). I thought that after yesterday's demonstrations and the sh... weather that we're experiencing at the moment, it was time for a little glamor. And when it comes to glamor we have our share in Paris, but Marylin is eternal ;-)