VINGT Paris Magazine

HEEZA Flipbook Store

Text and image: Scott Blake

HEEZA is a small store in Paris dedicated to flipbooks. Don't be fooled by tight space, this is the biggest collection of artist books and optical toys I have ever seen. Pierre-François Maquaire runs the mail order firm and has very impressive catalog of folioscopes (French for flipbooks).

His amazing collection includes videos, graphic novels, and super cool zoetropes. You can order online in French and English, but it is a real treat to flip through hundreds of examples in the store. To avoid disappointment I suggest calling ahead 06 98 06 90 92 or email Pierre heeza[at]heeza.fr.

HEEZA

9, Avenue de la République

75011 Paris.

E. Dehillerin

Text and image: Carly DeFilippo

If E. Dehillerin is not the most practical place to shop for kitchen equipment in Paris, it’s certainly the most nostalgic.  The vintage, forest-green storefront spans the corner of rue Coquillière and rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, windows brimming with gleaming copper and stainless steel (as they have for nearly two centuries).  Opened in 1820, in the heart of the renowned Les Halles food district, this family-run business was a favorite spot of the Cordon Bleu-trained Julia Child; today, its old-school charm and friendly service continue to attract top French chefs, from Bocuse to Rebuchon. 

Fortunately, one doesn’t have to be a professional chef to appreciate the offerings at Dehillerin.  The first time I visited, the wall of whisks caught my eye: various volumes and weights of froth-forming curved wire, just waiting to aid in my amateur experiments.  If whisks aren’t your thing, perhaps French copper pots will do.  E. Dehillerin has every shape and size possible, and as a recent purchaser of these gleaming stovetop wonders, I can confirm they’ve made my cooking more fun.  Maybe you’re in the market for a deli-meat slicer?  Spatula lover? Knife connoisseur?  You name it; they’ve got it.  Even the most confirmed food aficionado will have a hard time identifying all the gadgets one finds hiding in the wooden shelves of Dehillerin.  And that’s only a description of the first floor.

Les Lalannes - Musée de Arts Decoratifs

Text: Anna Bromwich

The Lalannes: artists, designers, creators with a wild imagination.  Rhinoceroses that fold out into sofas, bronze casted cabbages with distinctly birdlike feet: the world as depicted by Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne is a surreal one. The husband and wife team, to whom the Musée de Arts Decoratifs have  dedicated a retrospective exhibition, have always encouraged the display of their work together although they create separately in their own styles. 

François-Xavier has a penchant for furniture in the shape of animals which could swing dangerously near tacky if they weren’t so beautifully constructed and minimally designed. An entire room in the exhibition is dedicated to furniture constructed in the form of a rhinoceros, an animal he repeatedly returned to. His brass rhinos with their Cheshire cat grins fold out into storage space and barbeques and a white leather version into armchairs and footstools. A brass cat-shaped mini-bar and a single four-poster bed capped with a bird’s head, both exectuted with understated elegance, look as though they would not be out of place in an ancient Egyptian queen’s parlour.

The Lazy Dog: Urban Culture Reference in the Capital

Text: Rooksana Hossenally

In the back streets of Bastille is a small hideaway that will shake your senses as soon as you cross the threshold.  Contrary to its name, The Lazy Dog is a multifaceted hang out for dynamic creative types, a bookshop, boutique, and "concept store" all rolled into one.

English-speakers will soon become addicted to this little cave of books, magazines, posters, postcards, stickers, t-shirts, gadgets and designer toys. Most of the stock is in English so for you arty types out there, no more having to brave the Centre Pompidou bookshop and its mounds of books (although The Lazy Dog does not pretend to rival Beaubourg). Tor the most part the inventory is dedicated to contemporary art, illustration, graffiti, music, photography, fashion and design.

Musée des Arts Décoratifs

Text: Tiffany Tang
Photo: Bathroom designed by Armand Albert Rateau

Situated in Louvre’s nineteenth-century Rohan and Marsan wings is the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, a museum of decorative art and design that houses over 150,000 objects, showcasing collections of antiquities and modern designs from the Middle Ages to the present day. The collections encompass a vast diversity of decorative objects including furniture, tableware, carpets, stained glass, wallpaper and porcelain.   This diversity is a testament to the quintessence of the French art of living from the ancient times, as well as sophistication in craftsmanship and creativity.

Patrick Jouin at Centre Pompidou

Text: Chris Holt

As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris understandably takes design very seriously. This attitude manifests itself in the boldness of its many architectural landmarks, as well as day-to-day things, such as the Métro or the ubiquitous newstands on the sidewalk. It’s easy to take for granted that someone, at some time, put a lot of thought into what we see before buying a newspaper or getting on the subway. In recent years one of those people has been Patrick Jouin, the man responsible for the look of Velib stations and the hi-tech public toilets throughout the city. These are just two of the 20 design projects from Jouin’s design firm being highlighted at the George Pompidou Centre until 24 May, 2010.

The exhibition is really more of a presentation: a projector and a mock stage create the impressive (albeit obvious) illusion that Patrick Jouin is right there, talking about his work. The presentation is complemented by a display on the surrounding walls, featuring preliminary sketches, photographs, diagrams and material samples from each of the 20 designs discussed in the presentation.

Maison et Objet: Italy 1- Belgium 1

Text: Christiana Konstantinou
Image: Aerodynamic Library, Morph in Design

This season's Maison et Objet - the largest home furnishing fair in France - closed its doors this Tuesday, January 26th. While the general mood was in theory "crisis", the show was in reality rather successful. True, less smaller designers could afford the trip, but those who were there gave a good lesson to the French design industry. Hall # 7, titled "NOW!" was a beautiful display of fresh, new ideas, with the Italians dominating once again. Contemporary furniture from the neighboring country literally stole the show, proving once again their superiority in European design. On the opposite side, the "real Parisian" contemporary style - a mix of real/fake antiques and white-washed/grey tones is no longer the unique privilege of Blanc d'Ivoire.  Numerous Belgian brands like Flamant and Chehoma seem to have taken over the market, competing both in price and quality with the "Parisians". Beware!

Michel Quarez Poster Art

Text and image: Joel Ma

There are two reasons to visit the Michel Quarez Poster Art retrospective other than the impressive works on display. 1) The gallery is inside the magnificent Bibliotheque Forney, a medevial castle which houses an extensive art library, garden and dramatic courtyard. 2) The location close to the Seine in the perpetually interesting Marais district.

When viewing the work of Michel Quarez, one is struck by his prescient connection to today’s modern electro fashion - black jackets and jeans offset by fluo high-top sneakers of Paris teens or the techno affection for colour, see artists such as M.I.A or Lady Gaga. His style is reminiscent of Basquiat or Herring as well as early New York grafitti but still maintaining a distinctly French identity.

Art Nouveau at Musée d'Orsay

Text: Tiffany Tang

By tracing the origin of Art Nouveau in Paris and explaining how the movement developed and spread across the continent, the “Art Nouveau Revival” exhibition in Musée d’Orsay displays a collection of works that best epitomize the different phases of the movement.

The Art Nouveau movement started at the turn of the nineteenth century, but it was met with decades of rejection until the 1960s. The original movement was a reaction against historicism and traditional art in favor of a new style and form that adapted itself to modern life, blurring of boundaries between fine arts and applied arts, and combining the new aesthetics with functionalism. The new aesthetics were characterized by the use of organic floral styles and curved lines as ornamentation in furniture, jewelry and tableware. Originally termed in Paris as “new art,” Art Nouveau took on different names as its influence spread across Europe and to the United States: Jugendstil in Germany, Stile Liberty or Stile Floreale in Italy, Modernismo in Spain, and Nieuwe Kunst in Holland. 

Artazart Design Bookstore

Text and image: Joel Ma

In the 21st century everyone knows at least one graphic designer. They usually have a keen eye for visual metaphor, impeccable personal hygiene and may or may not wear slim rectangular, black plastic glasses. If the bookshop Artazart were a person, it would be your Graphic designer friend. Artazart stocks a staggering selection of books on photography, architecture, art, web design, graffiti, journals, magazines, children books, bags, cameras, art resources and anything of a stylish visual nature. It announces its presence on the banks of the  Canal St Martin with a bright orange shop front, elegant font and warm lighting. It has been operating for the last ten years and has seen various incarnations including converted gallery to bookshop/gallery to bookshop with a comprehensive online store.