The Digital Age Fuses with Tradition in Paris

Before it was referred to as “The Sad Mute” by locals, Victor Hugo celebrated his 70th birthday there and it was where some of the world’s most famous dance troupes graced the stages when in Paris. No longer the eyesore of Paris’s 10^th Arrondissement, the newly renovated Gaîté Lyrique is a pulsating centre of digital art, music and electronics. The original building was constructed in 1862 and was a visual declaration of Napoleon Bonaparte’s showy extravagance. Over the next 100 years it fell into a slow decline. In the 70’s it housed a circus school, it was gutted for a poor imitation of Disneyland, “Planète Magique,” in the 1980’s, after which it fell into a general state of disrepair.

In the early 2000’s Manuelle Gautrand was given free reign to salvage what he could and create a theatre and design centre of the future with the rest. What remains of the old theatre, namely the meticulously restored grand marble lobby and the café with towering arched windows, contrasts spectacularly with the futuristic interactive sound and light installations and the arcade where visitors are invited to play, read and work.

The renovation of 7 floors and over 100,000 square feet cost an extraordinary 61 million Euros. The space anticipates holding at least 3 concerts a week and over 120 live multi-media exhibitions and shows per year. With so much space that is completely up to date technologically, it’s not hard to imagine the Gaîté Lyrique becoming one of Paris’s artistic hubs. The space houses galleries, concert halls, sound studios, a library, lecture halls, screening rooms, you name it. This is really the beauty of the space, it was designed not to be a specific type of venue, rather to readily evolve to the need of the function. Perhaps Paris’s deputy mayor in charge of cultural affairs put it best when he said that it is “a place of interactive multi-sensory experiences, a place of experimentation and exchange, a place accessible to all generations. Without a doubt, a joyful effervescence waits for you there.”

Paris and the arts is an age-old combination, which has never gone out of style. If you’re looking for something a bit more intimate than a 100,000 square foot arts centre stay with the charming Hotel des Académies et des Arts, as chosen by White Line Hotels. Might we suggest the 2-night French Cuisine offer they have at the moment? Included is dinner for two at the newly Michelin Guide selected Le Timbre.

Check the programme and the pretty fantastic gift shop: www.gaite-lyrique.net

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Categories: Paris, Design, Theatre

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter

Jonathan Monk: It’s a Circus!

Personally, I kind of like literal interpretations that border on the ridiculous or just plain stupid. It always feels like someone is wrapping up the punch line of a joke, and then punches you in the shoulder at the end of the sentence. It’s so ludicrous, if not outright farcical, that you find yourself taken off guard before you even have time to decide if it’s worth a laugh or not. With this kind of strategy, laughs aren’t the point; the point is the act of being knocked off guard. Once you let your guard down you can see something differently, maybe even see a humor you didn’t know existed, and in It’s a Circus! Jonathan Monk turns that strategy on the Art World.

There are certainly enough jokes about contemporary art that involve monochromatic painting (or any number of other jabs at 20th century modernism) and if you attend gallery openings sometimes you’ve probably thought, or heard someone say out loud, that it’s a circus. If you go a little more often, you might consider the whole art world a circus. Here’s where Jonathan Monk is going to deliver the punch line and then punch you in the shoulder. For his new exhibition at Yvon Lambert Monk is presenting 23 monochromatic paintings that were installed by a circus troop following a precise choreography dictated by the artist, and you’re not going to see the performance or the paintings. Instead, you will see 23 photographs in the first room of the gallery that document what happened in the main room. Also included are some of Monk’s neons spelling out types of circus performers. Now that you’ve been knocked off guard, however, are they types of players in the circus, or types of players in the Art World?

Until April 8th at Yvon Lambert, 108 rue Vieille-du-Temple, 75003 Paris. Opening hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10am – 7pm.

Going to see It’s a Circus! ? Be caught off guard again at White Line Hotels edit Hotel des Academies et des Arts. More than just another hotel in Paris, it’s an artistic experience of its own.

All images courtesy Yvon Lambert Gallery

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Categories: Paris, Art, Exhibitions

Contributing writer: Melissa Frost

TONY OURSLER at JGM. Galerie, Paris

Somewhere between Salvador Dali’s melting distortions and the circus freak show, you’d be forgiven for hearing the sometimes incomprehensible mumbling coming from Tony Oursler’s projected faces as the chanting of the cast of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks in the film’s final scene. Very much like Dali, and also very much like the freak show (if not even more so), Oursler’s work is transfixing because it draws us in with a form we recognize (an eye, a nose, a clock) at the same time that it repulses us with the disfigurement of those familiar forms. The familiar becomes fascinating, but because we recognize the potential for ourselves to become, to slightly re-quote Browning’s film, “one of them”. Read the rest of this entry »

Language and Typography in Four Great Cities

We’re always on the look out for new ways to explore cities we already love. Through his four “Live the Language” videos Barcelona-based Art Director Albin Holmqvist has playfully captured the joy of exploring new cities and languages in a way that feels completely heartfelt and local. Read the rest of this entry »

Seduction in Cranach’s Time

Paris is known the world over for its rich cultural offerings. A new exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg highlights Lucas Cranach, an artist whose seductive and hauntingly beautiful works remain somewhat unknown to the public.

Cranach was a painter of the German Renaissance, with majority of his works being created in the mid-1500’s. The exhibition Cranach and his time, put his paintings alongside those of other artists of the period. He travelled widely and the influence of Flemish and Italian artists shines through.

Prepare to be beguiled by Cranach’s depiction of nudes, these aren’t the kinds of paintings one typically associates with the Renaissance. These women are fierce, sensual, and not the kind you’d want to mess with. They wield knives and swords in the name of justice, they coquettishly regale men with their beauty and charm, they draw you in, but they could just as easily spit you back out. Of course, there are many works from Cranach that have a more traditional feel, but these women are just so much more fun.

The exhibition runs through the 23^rd of May and spring in Paris is a thing of beauty. Just a short walk away is White Line Hotels edit, Hotel des Academies et des Arts. The hotel is on a quiet side street in heart of the city. Be sure to take a peek at young artists at work at the art academy just across the way.

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Categories: Paris, Art

Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter