Crinolinomanie (“crinoline mania”) is a (free entry) one-wall exhibition tucked away amongst the maze of paintings, models, and trinkets of the Musée Carnavalet, displaying examples from the heyday of French caricature.
The caricatures, including lithographs by Daumier and from Charles Vernier’s series Crinolinomanie, give us a light-hearted insight into the impracticalities of the mid-nineteenth century fashion [...]
Bondages exhibits the recent work of controversial Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. As the title suggests, his photographs are sexually charged.
Nobuyoshi Araki, Bondages
His subjects, submissive and usually semi-naked, are bound and strung up, in the style of Shiari, a intricate Japanese form of bondage. Their open kimono-style garments and the backdrops are reminiscent of erotic Japanese [...]
Fables et Fragments is the end of year exhibition of ENSBA’s young talents in visual arts. The 20 artists in the show (who all received “félicitations du jury” – equivalent to magna cum laude) represent a variety of media. Flickering Lights, an installation by Simon Ripoll-Hurier frames the entrance to the exhibition. Old television [...]
Usages du Document (“use of documents”) brings together contemporary pieces that are inspired by documents, or constituted of documents. From Didier Rittener’s appropriation of old images to Marco Poloni’s screening of old, damaged film footage and Estefania Penafiel-Loaiza’s creative use of erased newspaper photos in untitled (figurants), many of the artists in the exhibition draw [...]
8 juin 1968 – 7 septembre is “one chapter” of a retrospective of Philippe Parreno’s work, the other chapters are taking place at Kunsthalle de Zurich, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and Bard College New York. Perhaps this explains the sparse nature of the Pompidou’s exhibition. That said, the play of light and [...]
White Hole, a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Mariko Mori, explores the mysteries of the universe and the life cycle of stars and galaxies. In opposition to a Black hole, which swallows and dissolves stars, Mori wants White Hole to represent the possibility of rebirth and renewal in a new and evanescent dimension. The concept [...]
Open See is a powerful statement from Jim Goldberg, member of Magnum Photos and winner of the 2007 Henri Cartier Bresson prize for photography. Goldberg’s project started in Greece, where his work documented the plight of migrants, touching on living conditions, mistreatment, human trafficking and the sex trade. Inspired by this experience, Goldberg travelled to [...]
Two new exhibitions, Spy Numbers and Pas vu, pas pris, mix sculpture, installation and photography to create a – sometimes kitsch – marvelously retro aesthetic, conjuring up images of a golden age of patriotism, comic books, movies and pop art. And, although it is not explicit in either exhibition, there is a definite feeling of [...]
Other people’s family photos? What could be less interesting? I hear you cry. But, Photos de Famille, Toute une Histoire… (Family photos, a long story…), is more than just random snaps of unknown faces. Like a modest version of Edward Steichen’s Family of Man, this ensemble of amateur and professional photographs ambles through important family [...]
The new hang of the permanent collection at the Pompidou Centre, elles@centrepompidou, is devoted entirely to women artists. This bold statement is the first of its kind in a national modern art museum (although it follows WACK: Art and the Feminist Revolution at the MOCA in Los Angeles in 2007) and is almost unheard of [...]