OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

« Pour moi, mes sculptures représentent le monde de la femme amplifié, la folie des grandeurs des femmes, la femme dans le monde d’aujourd’hui, la femme au pouvoir.  »

The life of the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle is as fascinating as her wonderful colorful pieces that you might have seen in various open spaces around the world. Probably you only know her most famous installation: the Stravinsky Fountain right next to the Pompidou Center that she created with Jean Tinguely, but her work was definitely as prolific as it was provocative, experimental and diverse.

Niki was a model who appeared on the cover of Vogue and Elle, a self-taught outsider, a passionate feminist, and a political activist, and in this beautifully curated exhibition at the Grand Palais you have a chance to get to know her in different stages of her life through large vibrant sculptures, photos, videos, interviews, installations, paintings and a lot of color, love, bullets, large powerful nanas and strong messages. I didn't know much about her and

If you are in Paris, hurry up, as the exhibition finishes the 2nd of February. Booking is extremely recommended. I had to queue for approximately an hour in the cold (the fountain was frozen, as you can see), but it was absolutely worth it. If you can't make it this next week, the expo will be traveling to the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. Absolutely great spring procrastination.

17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

Grand Palais
17 September - 02 February
Every day except Tuesdays from 10am to 10pm

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mond - See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Monday
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

17 September 2014 to 02 February 2015

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays.
- See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

Every day except Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Mond - See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/niki-de-saint-phalle#sthash.aSjEEs2s.dpuf

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

In November, photography month in France, we attended two nice photographic exhibitions: one of the complete work of Roman Vishniac in Paris, and another one of Martin Parr called Paris, in Lille. Both worth visiting and both ending in January, so you still have time and the free days to do it!

After New York (International Center of Photography, 2013) and Amsterdam (Joods Historisch Museum, April-August 2014), the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme is showing Roman Vishniac: from Berlin to New York, 1920-1975. Bringing together some 220 works, many never previously shown, it completely re-evaluates Vishniac’s photography from his beginnings in Berlin until the post-war years in the United States. The expo will be on until 25th January 2015.

Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme
71 Rue du Temple, 75003 Paris.

+33 1 53 01 86 53

Martin Parr's Paris shows us in his peculiar and always refreshing way, a selection of Parisian people, events, traditions, places and clichés. The Festival en plein air, Paris fashion Week, Paris plague, or a game of petanques they're all observed in detail to capture and reveal the absurd, the sublime or the ridicule.

The expo is on until the 21st December, Also, la Maison de la photographie of Lille is a great space that even though is not right next to the city center is well worth a visit!

Maison de la photographie.
18, rue Frémy - 59000 Lille
Tél. 03 20 33 00 22

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

This section's Estimated Time of Procrastination is: 5' 

If you're visiting on the week-end, be prepared to queue for around 15min.

Above: tape installation by Numen/For Use, made up only of transparent Scotch tape.

Mark Manden. Room with Unfired Clay Figure, 2014.

Dran, the French illustrator has taken over the big staircase connecting the two floors of the exhibition.

Andro Wekua. Untitled.

                                    Berdaguer & Péjus, C.28, 2014.This space must be amazing if you get to visit it with                         just few other people at the same time.

John Giorno's Poem Paintings.

Outside the Palais is also lovely.

Curated by Jean de Loisy, Daria de Beauvais, Katell Jaffrès, the new exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris is a great opportunity to immerse in several different "insides" created by more than 20 artists using all sorts of techniques. From quiet and calming, to darker, disgusting, sticky, disturbing, alarming, claustrophobic, naughty, surprising, if something characterizes Inside is its capacity of being very moving and emotional. It is definitely a "risky voyage" as described by its curators.

In the Palais the Tokyo website we can read: "Inside offers visitors a passage to the interior of the self, for which the exhibition space serves as a metaphor. This immense odyssey, both physical and psychological, invites us to walk through two floors of the Palais de Tokyo that have been transformed by artists in such a way that, from one installation to the next, we remain constantly immersed in the works, which lead us within ourselves – from our skin to our most intimate thoughts."

The participan artists are: Jean-Michel ALBEROLA, Dove ALLOUCHE, Yuri ANCARANI, Sookoon ANG, Christophe BERDAGUER & Marie PEJUS, Christian BOLTANSKI, Peter BUGGENHOUT, Marc COUTURIER, Nathalie DJURBERG & Hans BERG, dran, Marcius GALAN, Ryan GANDER, Ion GRIGORESCU, HU Xiaoyuan, Eva JOSPIN, Jesper JUST, Mikhail KARIKIS & Uriel ORLOW, Mark MANDERS, Bruce NAUMAN, Mike NELSON, NUMEN/FOR USE, Abraham POINCHEVAL Araya RASDJARMREARNSOOK, Reynold REYNOLDS & Patrick JOLLEY, Ataru SATO, Stéphane THIDET (we loved this little cabin!), TUNGA, Andra URSUTA, Andro WEKUA, Valia FETISOV, Artur ZMIJEWSKI

The exhibition will remain inside the Palais of Tokyo (excellent view of the Tour Eiffel, btw) until the 11th of January. It will probably hold a little longer in your mind though! If your planning a Christmas trip to Paris you should definitely check it out!  


Address: Palais de Tokyo, 13 Avenue du President Wilson, 75116 Paris 
Website: Palais de Tokyo Opening hour: 12 noon - 12 midnight. Closed on Tuesdays.
Admission: Regular 10 €; Reduced 8 €

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Narcissus, 2002

Line of Destiny, 2006

Shower Curtains, 1985-1986.

#MarchezSurCali

Photos: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Last week we checked some fantastic exhibitions in Paris, being one of the most amazing and together the one of the Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz at the Jeu de Paume Musée: Protographs, that spans nearly forty years of Muñoz career. Curated by José Roca and María Wills Londoño and co-produced by the Museo de Arte del Banco de la República de Bogotá.

Muñoz mainly explores the role of the photographic image, especially portraits and self-portraits in relationship with memory and ephemerality, and he do it exploring in very experimental, sometimes impossible supports and formats, from video and installations, to glass, mirrors, water and shower curtains. His work is both deeply social and truly innovative. I was moved, surprised and inspired throughout the whole exhibition.

Roca and Wills Londoño point out that if the ontology of photography lies in fixing a moving image for all time, extracting it from life, it can be said that Oscar Muñoz's work is located in the temporal space prior (or subsequent) to the true decisive moment when the image is fixed: that proto-moment when the image is finally about to become photography, hence the title of the exhibition.

One of my favorite pieces was the video/portrait Línea del destino [Line of Destiny, 2006], "in which Muñoz looks at his reflection on the surface of water held in the palms of his hands. The reflected image forms and dissolves constantly as the water flows through his fingers, revealing a fluid portrait doomed to be effaced," as explained in the exhibition catalogue.

At the Jeu de Paume Musée you can also see a very complete retrospective of Kati Horna's work, another great discovery (for me),  and Kapwani Kiwanga's Maji Maji exhibition. The museum is right next to Concorde (1, Place de la Concorde, Paris 8eme), a very convenient location if you are in a hyper-touristic trip, and if you live in Paris, seriously don't miss out on this, c'est de bonne procrastination pour la rentrée!

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

“Henri,” according to American photographer Willard Van Dike,“who was not only an intellectual but a maverick, used to go down to Wall Street so he could find a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac to spit on.”  

(Taken from this Financial Times article).

This week we visited the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The expo covers over 70 years of Cartier-Bresson life, and features over 500 early and recent drawings, black and white photographs, archives, paintings, the films he worked in with Jean Renoir and the ones he directed.

I've read an article by Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian saying that this exhibition was amazing as it revealed some aspects little known of his work, such as his strong political commitment with communism and his surrealistic explorations. I would add that the way the exhibit is curated emphasizes the recurrent themes that Cartier-Bresson was always curious about, and how because of his persistence (as well as his already well-known amazing eye), he managed to create an incredible rich body of work that the spectators have the pleasure to witness in detail at the Pompidou Centre.

If you happen to be in Paris, or if you are coming before the 9th of April, don't miss it, it's totally worth it!

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Henri Cartier-Bresson via rendezvousenfrance.com

In case you needed an excuse to visit Paris soon, this is the one! Sean O'Hagan writes in The Guardian: "The subtitle of the Pompidou Centre's retrospective of the 20th century's best-known photographer could be: Almost Everything You Know About Henri Cartier-Bresson is Wrong. Or, at least, Long Overdue a Rethink. Its curator, Clement Cheroux, has risen to the unspoken challenge that any Cartier-Bresson exhibition now presents: how to shed new light on the life and work of an artist who so defined the medium that yet another celebration of his genius might seem superfluous." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 8'

Photo: Belle de Jour still via BFI.

Since th BFI's movie lists are always great, specially when it comes to meaningful procrastination, this week we are sharing one that will definitely catch your attention: 10 Great Films About Sex. "As Lars von Trier’s Nymph()maniac arrives in cinemas and on the BFI Player, we survey sex on film with a list of some of cinema’s naughtiest classics. Warning: this feature contains explicit imagery!" Read the list in the BFI website. E.T.P. 12'

HER still via happynicetimepeople.com

Emily Ruscoe makes a really interesting comparison in the blog Mediander between Spike Jonze's Her and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.  "Her, Spike Jonze’s new movie about love and tech, may not be too substantive, but it’s very pretty to look at. The action takes place in a futuristic yet familiar Los Angeles filled with jewel-like, colossal buildings and smoggy skies, which has drawn comparisons to another sci-fi flick set in L.A.—Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner." Read full article in Mediander. E.T.P. 3'

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Photos: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

During the holiday break we had the chance to travel to Paris and visited in the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain a wonderful exhibition of Latin American photographs, from 1960 to 2013. A relevant period of time because, according to the curators' timeline Latin American history has been composed of four distinct political cycles: a revolutionary period in the 60s; a counter-revolutionary phase between the 60s ant the 80s; a gradual return to democracy starting in the 80s (despite the survival of authoritarians enclaves); and "a swing to the left" by the 90s and 00s.

Focusing in the relationship between text and the photographic image the Fondation Cartier and the Museo Amparo in Puebla, México, put together 72 artists from 11 countries, some of them are: Marcos López (Arg), Francis Alÿs (Mex), Ever Astudillo (Col), Paolo Gasparini (Ven), Graciela Iturbide (Mex), Alejandro Jodorowski (Chi) and José Figuera (Cub).

As part of the exhibition the Cartier Foundation commissioned a film and the Paraguayan artist Fredi Casco, working with director Renate Costa, traveled all around Latin America in search of some of the artists and photographers presented in the exhibition América Latina 1960-2013. The film, that is absolutely wonderful, called Revuelta(s) was recorded between February and August 2013, and it can be seen in the Fondation Cartier website.

América Latina 1960-2013 can be seen in the Fondation Cartier in Paris until the 6th of April, and then from May 15th to September 17th will be at the Museo Amparo.