The exhibition DYNAMO opened few days ago at the Grand Palais in Paris. About 150 artists from all over the world are exposed in this huge show.
Focusing on kinetic and visual effect produced by light and the perception of the spectator, you will discover artworks from early XXth century as well as from modern and contemporary generation.
Masterpieces such as the Magic Mirror of Ann Veronica Janssens, the aluminium lentil of Anish Kapoor, the Light Corner room of Carsten Höller or Awakening from the American James Turrell, just to name a few, are part of this funny optic adventure.
Although the exhibition Neon (see http://up-and-around.tumblr.com/tagged/Neon for further details) that took place at La Maison Rouge last year was kind of close to the one we are talking about (since it pointed out the neon’s creations in art and you’ll see hips of these in the present show), the purpose was slightly different which let us truly appreciate the experience at the Grand Palais. Indeed, the show allows us to interact with the artworks as many of them are elaborated in accordance with the spectator and his place in relation to the artwork.
If you get lucky enough to get there before it starts to be over crowded, you definitely will find something to enjoy. Make sure you go inside the Daylight blue, sky blue, medium blue, yellow room created by Ann Veronica Janssens. The line is long but it’s worth it !
DYNAMO, Un siècle de lumière et de mouvement dans l’art, 1913-2013, from April 10th to July 22 at the Grand Palais, Paris.
Nanie, as she’s called, is a young french women working on the winding of her imagination. While studying cinema or “how to become the next best director in the Hollywood industry” in Paris, she’s creating these odd fellows.
When you ask her how she ended up with ideas like that, she says « I don’t know men, I just thought he would look better with some kind of scarfs all over his skull ».
Well, he sure does. As much as he’s disturbing our peaceful research for beauty and sweetness. Cause that’s where all the interest of her works is: the awkwardness celebrated in a highly sleight of hand.
I wish you could see her, a tiny sexy lady, always on the top but with a sense of weirdness we love THAT much.
It’s a very nice beginning for the young french LoaP. Thirsting for time, experimentations, and encounters, I would describe this guy from Normandie as a perfectionist prototype. The scientist community he belongs to as well as his, let’s say, moon side, draw his inspiration and feed a beat that kicks us out. Ya’ll catch in his music a little bit of the duality he’s working on daily.
How long did it take you to create that track ?
I thought bout it on the subway after a long night. It took me 3 hours to do it back home.
The one shot recording usually are the best right ?
You tell me ! (laugh)
Looking for a balance, his music is half way between the pragmatism of reality and the lightness of a boundless soul.
Kelly’s EP lately came up with Dharma (http://soundcloud.com/dharma-the-label/sets/dharma001/), revealing a great sense of creation which group together influences from electro and folk. If the songs don’t match all together (Alone in the Storm certainly is different) these groovy experimentations clearly turn the album as one of the summer revelation in the young french electro community.
With many bloggers, music addict & electronic hunter (such as the 106 of Rouen) after him, we should soon have the delightful pleasure to see Kelly live.
I recently produced the best song of my entire career so far, someone told me few days ao. Listenning to this new fancy paire de gants, which perfectly mix a brooklyn vibes and a glamourous french touch, I just can’t imagine how brilliant is gonna be your futur in the matter of human feelings & relashionships exploration through your imagination.
I am very pleased to blog this new jewel, as always-
New success for Marge who decides to flirt with aliens while on the road. Lucky me, I was here when she caught the last one. It was heading to Villers-sur-Mer, France when we saw it.
« I don’t know what I want, I am inconsistent, non-committal, passive ;I like the indefinite, the boundless ; I like continual uncertainty »
After London & Berlin, the impressive retrospective of Gerhard RICHTER just opened in Paris.
For good.
It seems like the Centre Pompidou finally succeed to organize a good show - Paris situation in contemporary art, thanks to Monumenta and a few people (like Jennifer FLAY who desesperatly tries to make the Fiac « something »), starts to climb the abyss she was drowning in since NY claimed she was the First AC Lady- Indeed, the tragic exhibitions Pompidou presents usually do not help France to understand contemporary world of art. I am not talking about the program itself, which sometimes can be questionnable, but mostly of the scenography which often are disastrous : you always get lost in the never ending galleries and it became an habit to start at the end of the show just because you followed the wrong way.
Anyway, this one is almost perfect. Maybe because the Tate Modern and the Nationalgalerie of Berlin was part of it. Maybe because Camille MORINEAU, the curator, chose to use a traditional (at least, understandable) direction : chronologic & thematic.
Of course, the artist presented is just astounding. The paintings and sculptures you will find are quite exceptional. RICHTER might be one of the nowadays rare painter. I mean an artist who do have a deep technique of what an oil on canva is (or should be ?). It is very interesting to see that even if he is an incredible figurative painter, he is also an abstract lover. And so, he represents a junction between old, present and avant-gardiste questions of Art. Those who are against abstraction and her somehow frightened universe, might appreciate the landscapes and portraits RICHTER created. Those who are fed up with what paintings use to bring (images, stories at a time photography wasn’t born) might love his « covering » series.
While on photography, RICHTER is very close to this medium. Almost all of his paintings are based on the wish to go back to photography through oil. Another way to make mediums and times crossed each other.
The uncertainty he speaks about reminds us that fuzzy state of minds aren’t necessarily synonym of self destruction. No matter what, where, who with we are living, we shoudn’t be scared of the unknown. It surely can reveal marvellous things.
Let’s get lost in these blurred masterpieces-
Gerhard RICHTER, Panorama, through September 24 at the Centre Pompidou, Paris
I found this quote (shall I say definition?) quite interesting. It actually came up with about 249 others equations, most of the time about human relationships.
So many people, related or not to the art sphere think that modern art should not be called art. We all have heard before “this is not art, this is bullshit, my dog could do better…” so what?
The impact of modern art on our society always fascinate me. No matter if we understand it or not, it often makes us react strongly. And if it doesn’t, than I suppose we can say that it’s not good. Or at least not for us as a person. Cause that’s what is interesting from my window: be able to feel the artwork—or not.
So the question is not to say if a work of art is technically well produced or not (although of course it can be a plus) but to see if it produce any kind of reaction over ourselfes.
If you could admirate Olympia, back in the days, who can say if you would have loved it or hated it as the majority at that time? However, it is nowadays known as one of the most important artwork of the world. So if we stick to this exemple (which is one among millions others) we can say that the way we look upon art is dictate by the code of our society and the “culture du bon goût” that is related to the decade we are living in. It also proves that hate something reveals the interest of it.
Anyway, this “attempt to quantify the world using words and basic math” is simple and catchy. A great feelings sum up and way to bring back litterature lover and scientist together.
And please, if you feel like you can create something, do it-
These are great shots made by Kofron a while ago. I choose these ones as they clearly celebrating United-States through their framing, low angle-shot, colours, subjects…
Celebrating yes, but in a very special way. I like the omnipresence of the sky over the nation (the small flag in a never ending blue space) and the sense of humor you can appreciate with the dog as a powerful chief. Little Arby leader, you’re the exact reflection of American pride.
An interpretation of America executed with a fresh eye-
83 artists, 108 artworks from the 40’s to nowadays which try to cover about 60 years of electronic display around the world. As a « wordasart-hunter », I definitly had to check this exhibition, curated by David ROSENBERG.
If the idea is good -as nobody in France ever had presented a show around this medium- it would have been a bit more relevant to organize the artworks. Indeed, there is absolutly no logical in the way the work of art are display. Jumping from Joseph KOSUTH in 1965 to Tracey EMIN in 1998 (picture 2) including Jason RHOADES in 2004 (picture 1) an impression of disorder may disturb the spectator who would like to find a piece of coherence in this luminous accumulation.
From then on, the concept « neon » presented as an auto sufficient moto appears as quite dull. Fortunately for ROSENBERG, it is difficult to fail an exhibition with neon as central feature as it is such an attractive medium !
If we can’t find any instructions (except a small introduction text at the entrance), the colorful atmosphere announced with High heels on the moon by Sylvie FLEURY, Rêvez ! from Claude LEVEQUE or Contained Radiance by Laddie JOHN DILL will leave you smiling, which is, in a way, already good in our grey moody world.
Cause that is, to me, the main asset of this show : how lights can affect your morale ? Why writing « Just love me » in pink is better or, let’s say different, than if it was written in orange ? pass the preconceived idea that love has to be pink, there is a real impact on our sensibility regarding the colour that is used. As pantings, these neons reveal themself through a sense of humour, tragedy, emptyness and will be felt differently just as much as different people will stare at them.
I can hear some skeptical : Come on ! These neons are not art, they are just signs !
Well, indeed, they are signs and if these ones are called art, it doesn’t mean that all the signs you will see tonite are art. The question is not to say « this is art » or « this isn’t art » but to think about how we could make something becoming art from a primary state medium. Although the first function of a gaz station sign is to inform drivers, Jeff BOUWS implacably transformed them into art by shooting them. This is an exemple among many others but it totally reinforce the idea that the way we are looking at somehing is what make these thing becoming art, or not.
Reverse convention-
This work should be turned off when I die (picture 3) by Stefan BRUGGEMANN created in 2010 come with a sort of, shall I say « dramatic scale » . The strict atmosphere produced by the black box you’re entering in, as if SB wanted to remind you that you will end up in a black box anyway, dead though, and the blinding message clearly appears as a memorial. A memorial celebrating life instead of death and nurse to disappear with the artist or at least to lighting off. And you know what? It works.
Before I die I want to fully accept myself and reach my full potential
Before I die I want to go to NY with my wife
Before I die I want to share a piece of cake with an alien
Before I die I want to أستحقخلافةالأرض،أعمرها.. وأتركذكرًاطيبًا
Before I die I want to make a difference
Before I die I want to viver intensamente com minha familia
Before I die I want to fuck Jessica Alba
Before I die I want to go to Disney World
Before I die I want to 證明我能為他人的快樂與笑容，努力而活過
Before I die I want to die fast
Before I die I want to быть доктором и спасать жизни людей
Before I die I want to faire le tour du monde !
…
This project has something universal.
Candy CHANG is an artist, designer, and urban planner who likes to make cities more comfortable for people.
It started in New Orleans a year ago when she turned a wall of an abandoned house (picture 1) into a huge blackboard with a simple inscription on it :
Before I die I want to ________________________ giving the opportunity to all people around to write down their deepest wishes.
She created a huge interactive work of art which reached our neighbours. Indeed, although Before I die was born in New Orleans, the concept has been travelling since (a toolkit is available on her website) and so, citizens of London, Montreal, Amsterdam, San Diego or Querétaro already had a chance to participate to this beautiful team adventure. Last wall was in Brooklyn, on the corner of Adam Street and Fulton Street Mall (picture 2) and has been removed 2 months ago.
A powerful way to share dreams, ideas, distresses, to realise that no matter where we are, the place we are coming from, we are all together in the same ship. Also, the need to feel real special is common to all of us. But have something in common doesn’t mean we are not unique. And that is all about this great art work: share our loneliness, state of mind and personality by expressing ourselves next to someone esle. Little invisible connection embodied by colourful chalks on a blackboard. Same feelings but different ways to experienced them. Same questions but different answers. Same hopes but different ways to express them. Same fears but different ways to hide them.
I have been very touched when I have red all these confessions scrolling over my screen. Sentences from all over the world and so many similar things. Funny one. Sad one. Terribly human anyway.
If you were not in BK lately and before the arrival of the project in your city, an internet page has been designed to extend the project as much as possible.
Anonymous or not, if you are looking for a way to confessed something and as a person in an ocean of thougths, share your dreams:
Here is a quite good video showing the fiendish Solveig REDIGER-LIZLOW having sex with a horny trash touch.
Certainly violent, provocative and dark, it is also well directed and imbued with interesting references.
The sharp-eyed game and the influence of a demon on the women evoke Rosemary’s Baby, directed by POLANSKI in 1968 (itself based on the novel of Ira LEVIN published a year earlier). If the women is not the victim anymore, she is acting under a diabolic impulse that reminds POLANSKI’s interpretation.
As a gorgeous krakenlike creature, she’s hunting and trapping Cédric BLAISBOIS himself and is close to the mermaids of Homère: young, amazingly attractive, a little agressive glimmer in her eyes and…terribly psychotic at the end.
A Partizan production (of course) that reinterprets men antique fear of women. Women as a beautiful & dangerous subject they should be wary all the time.
Although this piece was created in 2006, I thought 2012 should start this way. Actually, this work of art draw her strength from her timelessness.
Fiona Banner is an artist from England who has been working with letters & text her entire career. And what can be better than words to express creativity ? To express Life ?
It’s a theory as many others. I believe images without words sometimes miss something. I believe words were meant to be. I believe words are some kind of magic stuff we have invented to develop all our others artistic behaviour. I believe words came to allow music, painting, sculpture, photography, cinema and every kind of story to be told, to be showed, to be felt. To Be. Or… not to be?
Because yesterday basically left them as you are this noon. Because we still don’t know where tomorow will lead us. Because we still trying to find ourselves. Because we still don’t know which way is the best and because there isn’t just one. Because uncertainty stay the option human feel to improve themselves, to go further on, to overview their fears and limits, to dream about something, someone, somewhere else, I found this art work simply smashing.
Ladys & Gentlemans, I am pleased, super-duper proud to blog this young femme fatale directly from the Wild Northern Territories, I’ve named Finland.
A 16 years old incredible piece of rhythm that I discovered on SoundCloud last night through the golden “followers library” of Kelly.
A striking vocal work that bring us to the air, on the top of the atmosphere, somewhere distances do not exist anymore. A beautiful “touche-à-tout” artist in progress that reminds me, among others, of Grace Slick perfoming Triad for Jefferson Airplane back in the 70’s.
Please, check her profile and make sure you play Go and Get Her,Don’t Try to Tease Me, Thoughts, Eagle as well as August before turning back to your busy lifes. You will have, at least, one revelation today.
What makes a moment special ? Is it the moment itself or the person you are with ? Is it the idea you have about it instead of the reality or the reality undressed ? Regarding my experiences, the best moments I had in my life are those I spent on my own. But…
Today is a magical day. Today is a blessing day. Today is a day that may appear as yesterday to you. But it isn’t. Today is January 15. Today, one of us is 25 years old. Today is one of the 6 840 507 000 human being birthday. Today is a day that should not disappear behind the night.
Today I wish I could stand by you, hold your hand and whisper you how great, sweet and powerful you are. How handsome you are. How brilliant is gonna be your life. Today I wish I could share a piece of cake with you, remembering our memories, listening to your fears, projects and dreams.
