VINGT Paris Magazine

Galerie Babel opens in St Germain

Text Elisabeth Fourmont

If it has been Armageddon for the art market lately, one upshot is that places are opening for newer artists where one wouldn’t expect.  On the rue Guénéguad in the heart of Saint Germain des Prés, you can find African art, design furniture, and fashion-edge photography, but also local painter Denis Gérablie, 40, (pictured) who this spring opened Galerie Babel in a space that formerly exhibited Man Ray.

The name references the Tower of Babel, because buildings appear unfixed in his paintings, but it’s about something more fluid than a tumble of bricks and mortar he says. “My houses are like trees.  They can grow, wilt, sway in the wind.  Walking in these cities I create, there is something vegetable about it, like walking in a forest.”  He was inspired in part by the French word for real estate, immobilier. “Immobile. I think I reacted against this term. And I think my paintings are also a reaction against a world that is wooden and heavy.  I always thought houses were closed off by walls, and very serious," he says.

Roads of Arabia - The Louvre

Text : Brendan Seibel

Antiquities from a forgotten land are finally seeing the light of day. Roads of Arabia, a special exhibition hosted by The Louvre, represents the greatest collection of ancient artifacts ever displayed outside Saudi Arabia. Endeavoring to shed light on ten centuries of history, encompassing civilizations spread throughout the harsh deserts of today's Middle East, this showcase provides some fascinating insights but suffers from its own overwhelming scope.

The history of Arabian development is trade routes and commerce. Instead of pursuing a dogged chronological course the curators cleverly arrange their wares around the oases which allowed growth. What is revealed is that the perceived monoculture of contemporary Saudi Arabia grows from many roots. Situated between the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Indian Ocean the region served as a melting pot of once great powers: Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Indus, Persians.

Outdoor Swimming

Text: Nick Forrester Image: Grenouille O_O

Swimming isn’t really the same in summer unless you can do it outside. But where can one possibly hope to find outdoor swimming in central Paris? 

There are 30 or so public swimming pools located within the Périphérique, all very well priced at around 3 Euros for a one-off entry. However, most of them are serious indoor exercise areas; many boast hostile 70’s facades; and attract such little publicity that most visitors to the capital wouldn’t know a Parisian pool if it was staring them in the face. 

All but the Piscine Josephine Baker.  The only swimming pool to be built in Paris in the last 18 years, which is spectacularly set on the River Seine. It floats on the river, just next to the Quai François Mauriac and the retractable roof allows for prime sunbathing territory. Priced at a relatively modest 5 euros for a 2 hour dip and open until 10-11pm during the week, it is surely the jewel in the crown of Parisian swimming pools.

Maison Rouge: Home is Where the Art Is

Text: Aran Cravey

With over a hundred museums, Paris is the undisputed capital of artistic institutions. And while it can boast more than it's fair share of publicly funded, pillars of art history, it's contemporary art funding lags far behind it's foreign competitors. Which is why entrepreneur and contemporary art enthusiast, Antoine de Galbert has taken it upon himself to build his a foundation dedicated to not only the exhibition and funding of living artists, but to the dialogue between creative minds from various nations, genres and political points of view. As a professional dealer and private collector, de Galbert understood the complexities of the contemporary art world and saw a need for a galvanizing force between its polarizing sectors.

In 2000, Maison Rouge was founded as a forum for creative discussion of all varieties of artistic creation. As a privately funded foundation, Maison Rouge has the freedom to encourage emerging artists and allow for experimentation in it's exhibition program. Dedicated to artistic collaborations and cultural exchange, Maison Rouge presents three distinctly different exhibitions this summer that provide a fresh perspective on the other.

Lining the walls of the inner gallery, Jean de Maximy's ink drawn frieze invites guests into a metaphysical morphic reality. Upon venturing further, viewers will discover other distant realms and one of the lesser explored aspects of founder Antoine de Galbert's collection. The 400 headdresses and ceremonial ornaments in this presentation served a practical purpose in the cultures from which they originated. The presence of these indigenous cultural artifacts in this contemporary artistic venue adds a global and historical juxtaposition to the space's modernity.

L'Epicerie de Bruno - Spices and Rices

Text and images: Omid Tavallai

Walking past the trendy boutiques of Rue Tiquetonne, you're likely to see some storefronts that will grab your attention: Freakish mannequins dressed up in cleverly arranged runway hand-me-downs, hipster vintage wear that walks the fine line between "ironic cool" and "grandma," or perhaps a water scene of octopi floating up in plastic bubbles. The latter, however, is not the window of a fashion boutique. It's a spice shop called l'Épicerie de Bruno.

"Muriel used to work in fashion. She's very creative with the window displays," says Bruno Jarry of his collaborator as he surveys his small kingdom of over 150 spices and other accoutrements for the gourmet. "And I was working in banking, which also has nothing to do with this."

So how did a banker wind up as one of the top purveyors of herbs and spices and exotic foodstuffs in Paris? "I'd always been traveling and I love food. I was interested in all kinds of cooking, all over the world. And I found there was no place in Paris where you can find all the ingredients, the spices," he recalls. "So whenever I traveled, I always brought back some spices as a souvenir.

L'illusionniste

Text: Aidan Mac Guill

If you have a spare 80 minutes this week you could do worse than sit down in a dark cinema and enjoy 'L'illusionniste', the latest film from the brilliant French animator and director Sylvain Chomet.

Chomet is best known as the creator of the Oscar-nominated 'Les Triplettes De Belleville' (or 'Belleville Rendez-vous' as it was released in Britain & Ireland), his retro tale of mobsters, mothers and the Tour de France. 'L'illusionniste', based on a Jacques Tati story, is set in the late-fifties. Tatischeff (Tati's original surname) is a French magician struggling to earn a living, and maintain his dignity, in an era that has moved on from vaudeville and the music-hall.

He is invited to travel to a remote Scottish island, to perform at a party celebrating the arrival of electricity to the community. There he is granted a hero's welcome, and encounters Alice, a young girl who believes Tatischeff to be truly magical. In this curious outsider she spots an opportunity to escape her old-fashioned hometown and experience life in the big city.

Sade, Sin and Collective Fun: An Unpardonable Sin at Galerie Castillo/Corrales

Text and Image: Aran Cravey

Open during August - September 11, 2010

Maybe it’s the whips, maybe it’s the chains, but the Marquis de Sade has continued to spark imaginations and curiosities for centuries. The 18^th century French nobleman, who was eventually imprisoned for his alternative lifestyle and philosophies, has maintained his position as muse both for his notorious sexual perversity and his discursive, albeit transgressive, pursuit of pleasure.

Though, don’t expect to find a display of erotic fetishes upon visiting An Unpardonable Sin the new exhibition at Galerie Castillo/Corrales curated by Philippe Pirotte. In this group show eighteen artists contemplate propositions proposed by the Marquis de Sade, utilizing his literary oeuvre as a dialectic conduit. It is a means to an end, one that seeks to explore society’s capacity to connect with an aesthetic of disenchantment, despite its conventional cultural morays. Sade’s poetics of democratic pleasure provides an idiom from which to pose the question: can an aesthetics of perversion exist in a cultural atmosphere dominated by socio-political and economic demands?

On Coupe Le Son - Point Éphémére

Contrary to the carefully constructed mythos of rock stardom your favorite band is probably comprised of geeks. Point Éphémére's delightful exhibition On Coupe Le Son marries music and comics through the rough sketches and full fledged strips of Nine Antico, Luz and Erwann Terrier, linking two worlds of social outcasts.

The show is deceptively simple, appearing to be a hastily arranged collection of fan art. Reproductions are plastered on the walls, layered and chaotic. Taking two steps back reveals the genius at play; the room lies between the pages of an underground comic. Clusters of work become linked, fragments of a single performance, snapshots from the side of a stage. King Khan leaps from the wall courtesy of Luz's frenzied lines, Nine's renditions of Yo La Tengo draw you into an impossibly intimate concert, The Cavaliers are carelessly cool, tempered by Terrier's revealing portraiture.

Happy Nouilles

Text and Image: Nick Forrester

France 2's investigative documentary program, Envoyé Spécial, highlighted, in a 2004 documentary, the poor and downright disgusting hygiene and food storage in some of Paris' Asian restaurants. The program has been re-shown on France 2 and there has been a huge commotion surrounding the whole affair.

Many Parisians have been put off the idea of eating in in Japanese and Chinese restaurants. And what a shame that is, because a well chosen Chinese restaurant can be a delightful experience, leaving your appetite satisfied in a way that no Magret de Canard could replace and still leaving you with change from 10E.

Finding a good Chinese is less of a struggle if you're passing through the 3rd arrondissement though. Torwards Arts and Metiers Metro station, on rue Beaubourg, there is a small Chinese Noodle restaurant serving up freshly made noodles and magical bowls of soup. They make noodles in the traditional Shanghai way, by swinging it around and stretching the dough into thinner and thinner strips. The chef stands in the restaurant window and can be seen by passers by swinging the noodles above his/her head and around the tiny kitchen area.

Festival La Route Du Rock

Text: Aidan Mac Guill  Image: Stephane Lecoq

Held in and around the picturesque walled seaside city of St. Malo in Brittany, about two hours from Paris by train, La Route Du Rock is a laid back music festival that has a reputation for showcasing exciting artists on the verge of the big-time, alongside big-name headliners. Over the years it has played host to the likes of Grizzly Bear, Four Tet, Camera Obscura, Fuck Buttons, The Dodos, Sigur Rós, Animal Collective, The XX and Justice. This year marks the 20th birthday of the festival and the organisers have bagged a line-up of internationally renowned artists, including Massive Attack, The Flaming Lips and The National, to help them celebrate. Thirty bands in all will perform over the weekend on the beach, at the Fort de Saint-Pere, an 18th Century Vauban (Louis XIV's foremost military engineer, obviously) castle, and at Le Palais du Grand Large, all for the bargain basement price of €80.