Paris weekend

[imomus]

I spent the weekend in Paris. Here's a little round-up of what / who I saw / did.



Friday

Said hello to Hypo at the St Michel branch of Gibert Jeune, the record store where he works. Headed straight for "Japanese Paris", visiting Opera bookstore Junku and Book Off. Saw the Simon Henwood exhibition at Colette, where I spent a lot of time admiring the new Mick Rock book of photos of Ziggy Stardust. Up to Gilles and Flo's place on the Rue des Martyrs in Pigalle. To the Indian arcade, Passage Brady, for a vegetarian curry lunch. To the Pompidou Centre. The big Dada show was somewhat over-familiar and exhaustive / exhausting (the best thing I saw in there was a folkie beardy fellow dressed up as a Peruvian, a fellow visitor, blurry snap below). Also saw a flashy William Klein photo show and a shadows show for kids, but the best thing at Beaubourg was the Charlotte Perriand show. Perriand was a Modernist interior and furniture designer who worked with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, and was profoundly influenced by Japanese style. One of her last works (when she was 90!) was a tea house. Met with Xavier, my future publisher. Good meeting, we will now proceed to contracts. Missed an Active Suspension party at o.lamm's place because of a headache (I often get these after flying).



Saturday

To Tang Freres on the Avenue D'Ivry, and the Olympiades Oslo shopping centre, where I looked at Cambodian record sleeves, vowing to incorporate their cliched breezy blossom ambience into my album. To Rue Louise Weiss to see the commercial art shows. Nicest gallery, as usual, was Air de Paris, and the "marshmallow aesthetics" of Lily van der Stokker. To the Rue Mouffetard, then the tea room of the Paris mosque, where sparrows fly around the tiled, heavily ornamented room as you sip sugary tea. To the very dim and grand Natural History Museum, established in the second year of the Revolution. Down with aristocrats, up with animals! Wander through the Jardin des Plantes at dusk. Back to Gilles and Flo's place, where I see a top secret project they're working on. To the Palais de Tokyo for a snack dinner. The art is rather poor at the moment, with some horrible Robert Malaval paintings, Artur Barrio's slippery room full of coffee grounds, and some silly babies in tea cups by Shu Lea Cheang. Spend a lot of time with Brigitte Cornand's films of New York art, though (land art, etc). A quick glimpse of the Champs Elysees Christmas lights.



Sunday

Had hoped to see the Indian Summer show at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a survey of 24 young Indian artists. But it's shut, so we head up through the Louvre, the Palais Royale and Passage des Panoramas then take a train to the Canal St Martin and attend David F's Circuit Bending Workshop at Point Ephemere. The idea is that, starting from scratch, people construct instruments from junk, bang on them, give a concert, record the results, and release a CD complete with sleeve design the same evening. I couldn't hang around long enough to hear what it sounded like, but it was jolly nice to see o.lamm, Kumi, Johann, Mehdi, Kahn Linh La, David Fenech, and the rest before I had to rush from Jaures to Orly (from one late Brel song to another).

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

I often get these after flying

You're just flying around on purpose to wind us up now, aren't you?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I have wings on my Achilles heel.

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

surfing from the lily stokker link on, I found this incredible beautiful works by daniel dueck



aaah, they look like stills from 50s czech animation series

[chuckdarwin.livejournal.com]

Your trip sounds a lot more fun than the one I just returned from.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough I felt completely the opposite at the Beaubourg. I thought the Dada was full of unfamiliar and fascinating stuff - those magnificent collections of letters/sketches, the posters, the films, the minor works by Duchamp etc - whereas the Charlotte Perriand was rather staid and predictable (it also seemed to miss the chance, as bios of Perriand frequently do, to explain her involvement with the occupied French government during WWII).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

A Google search for "Charlotte Perriad collaborator" brought up only her collaborations with Le Corbusier. Which some anti-Modernists (including David Byrne, who recently urged France (http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2005/12/france_le_corbu.html) to "admit that Le Corbusier and his legions of pseudo-followers were wrong") would think just as bad.

[(Anonymous)]

My only problem with modernism is that it thought of itself as a moral choice when all it was was another style. Often, in imaginative hands, it is a style that I like.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

That was me again, forgot to log in!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I don't know what your feelings are about Prince Charles, but I must say I thought David Byrne's attack on Le Corbusier was a bit Prince Charlesish. Paris is of course lovely, but I find myself gravitating quickly to the uncharacteristic parts, like the high-rise Olympiades in the 13th arrondissement Chinatown. I find all that picturesque village architecture (the Rue Mouffetard) or the grand and posh Haussmann boulevards stifling, and I find a city that decides to fix its identity in a style several centuries old somewhat museum-like. The best thing Paris ever did was build the Pompidou Centre, it seems to me.

(And of course your point about Charlotte Perriand applies to the whole of Paris: it kept its antique architecture by offering very little resistance to the Nazis, allowing itself to be occupied so as not to be bombed and "lose its looks".)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

To expand that thought, there's a scenario in which Paris resists the Nazis, is bombed to smithereens, then after the war Paris is rebuilt by Le Corbusier and becomes the most exciting modern city in the world, outstripping New York. Paris rather than Brussels becomes the capital of the united Europe, which Britain happily joins (following its successful wartime collaboration with France). The EU constitution is not voted down, and there are no race riots in the Paris suburbs (which are indistinguishable from the centre of the city). Paris is as modern a city as Tokyo, and Europe a vibrant place smacking of the future, not the past.

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Despite your raving comments about Venice, Italy is a place I'm just not interested in going. A place where people live in 16th century built houses belongs to another planet for me.

About the obsession with old architecture: the same thing happens in the Americas and Australasia, where people want to preserve their "historical" (that means "built 100 years ago and falling apart, just like the London plumbing") colonial style buildings and houses because... well, just because. In the end, it's just inconvenient and bothersome to dwell in one of them.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

To dismiss the old out of hand is just as thoughtless as dismissing the new out of hand, don't you think? Both seem to be strains of phillistinism.

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear. But what I'm trying to say is that the majority of old houses I've seen in different continents are just... not liveable.

...to my standards that is.

(I had to include this very last sentence just to please stanleylieber, otherwise he will tell me off ;) )

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Yes, but Goreme's real estate market is really heating up right now. This little creampuff just went up fo sale. Something of a fixer-upper, but the schools are very good:

http://www.viaggiaresempre.it/05TurchiaCappadociaGoreme.jpg

(It would be wonderful to have dwellings like this with modern conveniences, though. Can you imagine?)

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Eventually people will have to live in places like this, after global warming has taken over. Sorry sir, no air-conditioning available.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Won't need it--the air is quite dry, and the natural stone stays cool in the warmer months.

Now we just need to learn how to grow houses instead of building them.

[(Anonymous)]

please,
Attention au vocabulaire!!!
no race riots in France, it's never been question of race (we're not in Australia for example) it's a problem of poor french people (children of arab, african immigrants, but not only, "white" people too) that want to make us realize how deep they're in despair. They show us how they have problems to get jobs because of racism, yes, but because of where they live, because of National Education problems, and they're not belonging to ONE cultural community, so it can be question of race riots.

[nomorepolitics.livejournal.com]

I can see your point, but not all modern architecture is that great; there are a lot of bad designers out there, and for the most part, where I live, modern architecture mostly consist of collasal tin box shacks. But I know what you mean by really nice little buildings in Tokyo, especially in areas like Harajuku and Daikanyama.

That said, I lived in a traditional Geisha house 30 minutes walk from Shinjuku, which would now be 103 years old, which was one of the most pleasant experiences in my life. My wonderful lovable landlord was unfortunately forced to demolish it before it became a historical site. Now, a modern, nice, but not as beautiful bulding stands in its place. Who would know?

[nomorepolitics.livejournal.com]

I forgot to point out, I live in Canada now.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

I would embrace this vision of the future - but couldn't we just leave the old Paris where it is and build the new one just down the road?!

[dubow-org.livejournal.com]

Another city that gave me the museum-like feeling is Venice. The city seems to be cased in a glass box, and time is told through the scars left on the buildings. Admittedly I have never been to the city when the festivals happen....maybe that's when the city comes to life?

Glad to hear that you may be publishing a book... just hope it doesn't mean you have to start 'editing' what you say in your blog.

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

My problem with Prince Charles is not necessarily one of style. He favours the old over the new - whatever the context - however he also champions craft (which I think is worth supporting, though his version of 'craft' and mine might be quite different). The problem with his position on architecture - and much else - is that his intention is to bolster up the entirely spurious idea of unchanging lineage that, surprise surprise, supports the idea of monarchy/tradition etc. It's a bit like his rancid female relatives obsession with the blood lines of equine breeding stock - they see themselves as thoroughbreds (as if)!

I don't find the architecture of Paris opressive except in its most bombastic manifestations - the Haussmann boulevards can have the same kind of sinister uniformity one sometimes sees in the architecture of imperial Rome - so I can see what you mean.

I love the Pompidou Centre. Loved it from the moment it was built. While it doesn't have the welcoming public role that the Pompidou Centre has I always find Rogers' Lloyds Building rather wonderful too. I wish that Britain would give him a major project like the Battersea Power Station and then leave him alone to see what he'd come up with.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Thing is, older style architecture, when done poorly, is merely stuffy; Modernist architecture, when done poorly, is downright hateful and dehumanizing. I know too many people who work in Manhattan that, upon emerging from the subway, look up at those buldings and get an emotionally crushing sensation. I like neighborhoods that have buildings roughly the height of a treeline.

I agree with David, and Jermynsavile. More Calatravas, please.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

To dislike bleak, brutal architecture does not make someone Prince Charles, and it does not mean one is embattled against modernity--just ugliness. I'll take Jane Jacobs over Robert Moses, thanks.

[tassellrealm.livejournal.com]

As Goethe famously said: "Architecture is frozen music," and just like music - old music Vs. modern music, who cares? - that's a good one, that's a bad one, that's a good one, etc.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

The modern vs. old debate is a false one, I think. Modern is wonderful, as long as it is humane and inviting. Besides, I'm not convinced that the massive, glass-and-steel model is neccessarily a progressive way of looking at architecture of the future anymore. It seems too mechanistic and crude for an age in which our technologies will likely be shrinking to the point where they may actually emulate, even mimic, the organic.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

The other problem I have with many spaces done in the "modern" style (which really isn't modern anymore) is that they do not age well. Some architects seem to exist in a vacuum, in which the wear and tear and effects of the elements over time on a structure are not taken into consideration.

The train station I use to go into and out of New York is not even five years old and is completely automated. It was bright and shiny for about a season, until the inevitable natural process started exerting itself on the structure. Now it looks like a cheap, discarded toy.

[tassellrealm.livejournal.com]

Much like Docklands and the DLR here in London.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I like London's Gherkin, though, as it obeys the sublimity of anti-akimboist principles. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lord_whimsy/2005/08/31/)

What is so wrong with a city that holds artifacts from the passing centuries is a mystery to me. Perhaps it is not very early-20's to say, but to devalue this element of a city or a culture seems to betray a callow disregard for history, if not a lack of knowledge. Don't such things enrich a culture? Newer cities lack this resonance, and seem two-dimensional, flat, uninteresting. I'll take Venice over Las Vegas.

Then again, "new" is old hat here--it's not very satisfying. Perhaps Europeans feel somewhat confined by their history, but to jettison one's culture for novelty seems to toss out a perfectly good stew for a bowl of thin gruel that has yet to be tasted. Sometimes I wonder if one can be so hyper-cultured as to swing full circle into a perverse, self-destructive barbarism. Barbarism, I say!

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with Whimsy here. I'd never been to Europe until this year. When we visited Paris, I couldn't believe the way that historical architecture influenced my creative mind. Of course there are exceeptions, but there is very little to no real architectural history in America as compared to Europe. In the rural south, disposable convenience store architecture is the norm - miles and miles of aluminum siding, garish plastic signage, and boxey layouts. To dismiss Paris as stifling is like holding up one's nose to a fine wine in a homeless shelter and saying "peee-yewww." The world would do well to cultivate more cities like Paris and more citizens like Parisians. I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky to have Philadelphia in my back yard, one of the few American cities I find pleasant to be in. It boasts the oldest, continuously inhabited neighborhood in North America: Elfreth's Alley, which is narrow and lined with flowerboxes and ivy. It's just a pleasant, intimate setting. Camac Street is paved with wooden cobblestones. The stonework and architecture from both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries give the city an historical continuity and a human-centered sense of scale. The Georgian architecture found in Old City is an inviting place that the public enjoys (remember the public?) The Athenaeum and other beaux arts and neoclasical interiors are among the most breathtaking in the country. There are some examples of good modern architecture: I like the pulsing, concave front of Morimoto's retaurant and the clear glass and cable structure that holds the Liberty Bell, but when compared with the modestly scaled, ornate Independence Hall across the concourse, the new Constitution Center looks totalitarian--it doesn't look like the product of a government accountable to the people. The office buildings in Philly are middling to fair, and mostly look like "machines for making money," as someone once said. Amazing how something that costs so much can look so cheap. The local real estate thugs are muscling in and destroying the sense of scale in some of the older areas, designing towering condos with banks of garages at the street level instead of shops or homes, killing off the spontaneity of street life of entire city blocks.

New York is a city of an entirely different class and magnitude, but it has ripped itself to shreds over and over--which is fine, but who wants to live in a world in which that is the rule? Who wants to live in a world where you are judged by how much you can withstand instead of by what you love? New York is dynamic, exciting and brash, but does not allow for a single moment of peace or introspection. It's like someone screaming in your face constantly.

I think a mix of architectural styles makes a city, with its differing textures, scale and colors adding to the richness of daily life for its inhabitants; it allows for the uniquueness of a city, so tht it can tell its own story to thse who visit. A sense of place is vital if a city's inhabitants are to prize it for other than cold, utilitarian reasons. Big ideas imposed by even bigger egos rarely work--isn't this one of the central lessons that the past century has left us? Better that a city unfold over time through many minds and hands. The new will always happen--we just have to be patient.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Charleston and Savannah have little pockets of beautiful architecture (are they Antebellum? Not sure).

I think William Christenberry does a good job of evoking the vernacular architectural forms found in the rural south.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to live in Berkeley, CA surrounded by great examples of the California Arts and Crafts Movement (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Orchard/8642/flamm.html)

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

Agree wholeheartedly with your two comments here. The lack of forsight in many modern buildings is, on occasion, the defining characteristic of modern architectural practice. It's a bit like much modern furniture. Things don't build up a pleasing patina, they just look scratched and worn. Buildings seem built with obsolescence built in just like other consumer goods.

I've seen pleasing excursions into organic forms in some new buildings though, this is a good thing. Just as much of the classical tradition derives its forms from the natural world modern architecture can't turn its back on life in favour of the graph or the set rule.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I'm a firm beleiver in the notion that brutal surroundings brutalize its inhabitants, and beautiful surroundings that acknowledge one's physical presence--instead of ignoring it in favor of some abstraction--offers dignity to the inhabitant.

To my mind, Byrne's take on the subject does not seem in any way reactionary. In fact, it makes good sense. But then, I gravitate towards, the small, the improvised, and the organic. I don't trust many grand schemes. To admit that we all have an animal nature is healthy, as is embracing the messiness that comes with being an organism. We are our bodies, after all:

"In my opinion there is nothing inherently wrong with tall buildings. A limited number of anything is like genetic diversity; it’s of value to the species as a whole. I can, however, see that these residences are definitely top-down design — there is no room for the evolution and mutation of function, form, use — it’s all planned in advance. The creators all assume the inevitable victory of science, reason and logic over messy instinct, intuition and impulse.

"The legacy of the Enlightenment rears its ugly head. Well, maybe the Enlightenment shouldn’t be blamed for all of it — it simply added scientific confidence to our existing religious moral foundations and presumptions — those of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, that see humans as the masters of the Universe and Godlike caretakers of the planet. The assumptions is that with our technology, knowledge and superior intellect we can overcome any difficulties, solve any problems and apply sense and reason to any part of life, any aspect of life, and make it more productive and “better”.

"This hubris is often our undoing — the belief that our art and science can allow us to make grand designs that will, if done rigorously and “properly”, will allow us to sort out this messy world. Whether it be (sometimes) well-intentioned urban planning, genetic engineering or child rearing, our denial of our animal part creates true monsters. The desire to escape from the base “animal” is in fact a quick shortcut to beastie hell."

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Someone had posted this building some time ago:

[facehead2k.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite buildings in Milwaukee is the art museum Calatrava designed. All things considered, I would like to spend my forty hour work week in the confines of an office building shaped like jellyfish.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I know the one, and I think it is absolutely beautiful. Calatrava takes his cues from natural processes and forms. His work is modern, but has a certain lightness, lyricism and liveliness: http://www.mam.org/thebuilding/

If you want to see a building the behaves like a cuttlefish, look here (courtesy of instant_c: http://www.cycling74.com/community/videointerviews.html

A skin slightly more refined than the brash digital lights now being used might be more beguiling but that may come in time; something like the chromatophores in the skin of a cephalopod.

[facehead2k.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite buildings in Milwaukee is the art museum Calatrava designed. All things considered, I would like to spend my forty hour work week in the confines of an office building shaped like a jellyfish.

Parisian Tokyoite

[(Anonymous)]

helo Nick
great weekend
looking forward to seeing you in Tokyo !
Antonin / digiki

Re: Parisian Tokyoite

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Antonin!

[pirateman.livejournal.com]

You were in Paris all weekend? I'd get tested, if I were you! BA-DUM! Ha ha ha... Ha.... Sniff. Mmm...

Word is out you're writing a novel, Momus.

[nomorepolitics.livejournal.com]

I remember only reading you say you're writing a book, so I'm not sure what to expect. I hope it's a novel; personally, I prefer your artistic work to your other work; that doesn't mean I think any of it is bad.

I'm writing my first novel now; and I'm surprised at its profoundly erotic nature; unfortunately it's quite political. If we're both doing this at the same time, perhaps there's some sort of telepathy involved.

Re: Word is out you're writing a novel, Momus.

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.elizabethyoung.com/images/momus.gif

I really like this pohoto of you, Momus.

Zaha Hadid - Musee du Louvre, Department of Islamic Art (2005)

[urban-ospreys.livejournal.com]

[dorontheos.livejournal.com]

youpi