VINGT Paris News

Mohamed Bourouissa at Galerie Les Filles Du Calvaire

Tonight is the vernissage of Mohamed Bourouissa at Le Galerie Les Filles Du Calvaires. Bourouissa's photography of life from outside the peripherique are staged scenes. Figures stand in near neo-classical postures, their forms perfectly spaced out to hone in on a focused narrative point.

Here's a comparison between Bourouissa's photograph (top) and the neo-classical "Rescuing of Young Pyrrhus" by Nicolas Poussin (1593-I665).The main body of figures in both works are arranged to create a physical line that directs the eye to an important area in their respective images.

It's exciting to see the culture from outside the gentrification highway creeping back into a city that some fear is slowly succumbing to museumification. 

Kids Clothes for the Fashionistas

Here are some of the best places to check out fringues for little rascals...

Visiting fashion editors head for Du Pareil au Meme (list of shops all over Paris). The colours, designs and quality are all excellent and the prices low.

Tout Compte Fait and Sergent Major are also well priced, designed and excellent quality.  For run of the mill items, try Monoprix or the outdoor markets with clothes stalls.

American mother of three, Amy Lassalle, opened her own boutique, Le Marchand d’Etoiles with a collection featuring modern and refined prints with unexpected color combinations. Number 3 rue Chomel, 75007 right next to the Bon Marché was the first shop, there are now five branches in total.

Breizh Café

Walking down rue Vieille du Temple on a crisp Sunday afternoon, I spotted Breizh Café.

The atmosphere looked so warm and inviting from the outside, I let myself in to indulge in a hot crepe. As I stood at the bar waiting for a seat, I noticed the joint was like no other - in fact that is their motto,"Pas comme les autres."

Crepes were served in conceptual shapes. A line of bite sized buckwheat galettes are to be chased down with a bottle of organic cidre. Granite, raw wood, and slate take part in the presentation.

Look to spend around 15 euros per person.

Breizh Café
109, Rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris
01 42 72 13 77

20 Sites Français

1. Paris.fr
2. Artskills.net
3. Deezer
4. bienbienbien
5. CNAP
6. Chic City Rats
7. du9.org
8. La Couture
9. Allociné
10. RATP
11. ARTE +7
12. Le Monde
13. L'internaute
14. dafont
15. Rue89
16. Expertissim
17. Materialiste
18. rue Montgallet
19. Le Fooding
20. Voyages-SNCF

Slick: the Only Art Fair Worth Going to this Season

Adrian K Sanders writing for I V Y paris

I said it. London to Paris, Frieze, Scope, Red Dot, Show Off, and Fiac have turned out to be great disappointments. From the underwhelmingly overwhelming Frieze to the mess that is Show Off, there hasn't been a single exciting art fair this fall season on either side of the chunnel. 

Last week's openings at Fiac and Show Off made me feel depressed in large part because the intense mediocrity of the Parisian fare somehow elevated Frieze to above par.

Instead of excitement, surprise or any hint of what could be next, these were halls and halls of repetitious, lifeless, commercial art.

The Grand Palais (beautiful), Louvre (classic) and Espace Pierre Cardin (a mistake) art fairs have guaranteed that the art world will have plenty of blurry over-sized poorly photoshopped lambda prints of A) naked women, B) political statements, or C) something surreal and gross going for 3500 euros... so if that's your thing, take heart.

Traumaturgical Trendencies on Parade at ShowOff

J. Christian Guerrero writing for I V Y paris

Beyond their inherent treatment of art as commerce, contemporary art fairs - such as ShowOff,  the first of many opening this week and on display at Espace Pierre Cardin (1 av. Gabriel in the 8th, Mo. Concorde lines 1, 8 & 12) - always open a strange window onto how the zeitgeist is captured by those curious souls who devote themselves to producing miracles of aesthetic insight.

Judging from the basis of ShowOff's offerings, rarely have the borders between the transformative powers of art and the contingencies presented by technological, political and socioeconomic 'powers that be' been in such a tense state of stand-off. The grounding principles of any artist's work should always transcend mundane contexts at the same time that they illuminate them with implicit degrees of  instigated critical dialogue.

A few pieces at ShowOff achieve this delicate balance, which simply given the somewhat cluttered staging and sheer volume of the vast number of works on display is no mean feat - but only after having differentiated clearly what can be called mere participation in current aesthetic "trendencies" from the consistently urgent necessity of true artistic statements.

Baklawa and Middle Eastern Pastries in Paris

No more macaroons please. Sticky, sweet, pistachio filled pastries are the perfect complement to your cup of tea this fall season. Spurred on by a new Bague de Kenza location in the 3eme, we have been onto these lil' delicacies for a few years.

These desserts come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and mainly involve honey, syrup, walnuts, pistachios, dates, or cashews, between layers of delicate cookie dough. You find some of the best recipes at the addresses below:

20 Boissons

1. Noisette
2. Panaché
3. Monaco
4. Demi-Pêche
5. Viennoise
6. Kro[nenbourg]
7. Kir Royale
8. Seize or 1664
9. Menthe à l'eau
10. Diabolo
11. Ricard
12. Crème
13. Déca
14. Badoit
15. Evian
16. Lillet
17. Calvados
18. Cidre
19. Cointreau
20. Champagne

Frieze, the Wealthy Elite's Wal-Mart

Adrian K Sanders writing for I V Y paris

Banality, thy name is Frieze. A massive tent structure played host to the world's elite art galleries in Regent's Park, where people walk dogs that cost more than the average person makes in a month.

Expectations are always high at London's fastest growing and most prestigious art fair and for some, it didn't fail to please.

There were celebrity spottings like Gwyneth Paltrow, teen dramas at the security booth, angry press people without badges and scores of haughty English being out "haughty-ed" by the French.

But as for the work, one can't really say. The fair was little more than strip mall of art, bearing a strong resemblance (at least to this country bumpkin) to antique weapon trade shows and comic book conventions, equipped with tacky images and frivilous, dangerous objects.

The Art of Lee Miller at Jeu de Paume

October 21, 2024 through January 9, 2024

From model, to surrealist muse, to Man Ray's partner and assistant, to photographer, this retrospective organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum presents the multi-faceted and extraodinary works of Lee Miller.

The prints on display represent the most beautiful and arresting of Miller's career - illustrating both the witty surrealist quality she is known for, but also a darker side captured by images taken as a combat photojournalist.

In addition to 130 prints, the exhibition includes magazines, three drawings, a painting and an excerpt from Jean Cocteau's film Blood of a Poet.

Photo: Lee Miller 1932, Autoportrait © Lee Miller Archives, England 2024.