20.2.12

Spidermen and -women




I have the pleasure to be a member of the “Association Artistique Suédoise à Paris”. It’s an association with the task to support Swedish artists working in France - sponsoring, organizing exhibitions and visits to artist workshops, buying art for a lottery among members…. Now and then there are also some events, which are not necessarily linked to Sweden. This was the case last week, when we visited “104 – Centquatre” (the name comes from the address, 104, rue d’Aubervilliers).

The place we visited is since 2008 an artistic centre for the City of Paris. I made a post about it just after the opening. The place is a bit off the road and had some beginner difficulties which now seem to be overcome. A lot of cultural and artistic activities are now taking place in these large premises of which the major part dates from 1873 and then were occupied by undertaker services. From 1905 on, when the separation of Church and State took place in France, the undertaking services were managed by the City of Paris, having the city monopoly until 1993. All funeral services ended here in 1997. During its peak days, some 1400 people worked here.

So, it was fortunately decided not to destroy these remarkable buildings and after a few years of reconstruction, the place was thus opened in 2008 for its new tasks.




Apart from the large halls there are a lot of smaller spaces where artists can perform, exhibit … and work, prepare, rehearse…






Other activities include shops, cafés … and a nursery-garden, where kids - and parents – are “taught” how to play.


With our group we went for a moment down to the basement (which once was a stable for some 300 horses) and where we tried a labyrinth made of corrugated cardboard.


An ongoing exhibition, “In_perception”, offered three points to visit, all with the idea to draw the attention to the difference between perception and reality.

The first one (created by Leandro Erlich) is a false building, laying on the ground and mirrored. This is of course how different fiction heroes are filmed and our group members enjoyed playing Spidermen and Spiderwomen....  (The "real" Spiderman was not present, but I thought I had to add him, giving a helping hand to the president of the association.)






...the second one (created by Lawrence Malstaf) is again some kind of a labyrinth, sometimes with mirrors, sometimes not, which leads to some surprises… sometimes you see yourself, sometimes someone else… or nobody....


… and the third one (created by Veronica Janssens) brought us into a large room, full of dense “fog”. The camera saw better than my eyes, but even so I couldn’t see my feet.  The “fog” changed colours from grey, to blue-green and finally red. This makes you aware of the difficulty to find your way, only making use of other senses than the sight.  


Well, we found the exit.









27 comments:

Thérèse said...

Une belle facon de passer un bon moment en groupe et de s'initier a du sport en salle... j'aime beaucoup la premiere photo.
P.S. The exit I, once upon the time, thought was a sign for a restroom!

Virginia said...

Peter, I"m fairly certain that you know exactly what I'm about to say.............TAKE ME THERE NEXT VISIT!!! What a fabulous place. I am just beside myself looking at all the wonderful photo opportunities there. I think I spotted YOU aussi! :)
Wonderful post.
V

Thirtytwo degrees said...

Wow! Amazing. Great photos.

Olivier said...

totalement delirant et genial, ils ont l'air de bien s'amuser, mais faut etre de veritables sportifs pour faire tout ca. Superbe post, j'adore

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Mind-blowing!

Alain said...

La façade qui se reflète dans le miroir, j'ai mis un certain temps avant de comprendre comment ça fonctionnait. C'est difficile à montrer, en fait, il faut le voir.

SusuPetal said...

Oh, a heaven of surrealism!

Cergie said...

Tu es artiste ou membre bienfaiteur de cette association ? (Pat est son assoce ont eu une assemblée à l'Institut Suédois mardi soir dernier)
Nous passons souvent à toute blinde devant le 104 mais je ne me suis jamais arrêtée encore moins je suis entrée. L'expo actuelle semble très ludique...

hpy said...

Ca a l'air vachement sympa.

arabesque said...

i couldn't agree more Peter, the place seems a bit off for me.
but what an interesting exhibit.
it took me awhile to get the 1st upside down building right,
haha! what an ingenious art!
and the 2nd mirror play is way too cool! ^0^
glad you found the exit though... or else.
the place is indeed a hubbub for new artists and wanna Be's.
and nice touch on a few glimpse of you. ^0^

Studio at the Farm said...

Peter, this is such a fabulous building. I am SO glad they didn't demolish it. Artists have found so very many good uses for it.
It is great to see adults playing like children, and enjoying themselves so much on that film-set building lying on the ground!!
What an absolutely wonderful place!!!

Catherine said...

The spider shots are wonderful and what a fantastic building this is with all it's artistic activity - long may it thrive...

Terry said...

What fun, people in suits and business-wear, frolicking like kids!

Synne said...

Oh boy, how fun! I love optical illusions and physical possibilities for interaction like these!

Parisbreakfasts said...

WOW!
so much fun.
wish there was a place like this in NYC!!

Maria O. Russell said...

Looks like you had fun, Peter!

I wish for that goldfish...
It will swim in its dish
And it will go
Swish swish...

Adorable post!

Mil gracias.

claude said...

Je dirai comme Hélène. J'irai peut-être avec Cergie la prochaine fois que je vais à Paris.

M said...

Fantastique!!! Oh, what delightfully fun photos ... I think I would really like to experience the perception exhibits!

Jeanie said...

What an intriguing exhibit -- I so love what you find on your treks through Paris! Being part of a group like this must be great fun!

Ruth said...

Paris is very fine at welcome "strangers" especially artists of all kinds. These looks at your special space for Swedish artists in Paris show how much you can really play. Rilke said art is childhood. Oui!

Vagabonde said...

What an interesting place and unusual too. Your post was fun to read and fun to look at the pictures.

Paris Rendez-vous and Beyond said...

Love this post Peter....what a fab place....will definitely be on my list of places to visit in April. A bientot.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Fantastic pictures. Very interesting.Cheers, Ruby

JoeinVegas said...

So nice to have a place like that for artists - not much support here anywhere in the US and certainly not in my Las Vegas.

Bagman and Butler said...

What a great place!! A playground for adults! I'm glad I decided to go back and catch up on some of your blogs this morning.

Trotter said...

Great tour!! And great that you found the exit also... ;)

G@ttoGiallo said...

Love this post - love the CENTQUATRE.