It's the P.V. of Fixation tonight, I hope it goes well.
Today we visited the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and the Pompidou centre. This was what I'd been waiting for, having been before whilst in the third year of my degree with other art students I was so excited to be going back. It cost 26 euros for us to get in and I had to persuade the family to go in with me because all they wanted to do was ride the escalators to the roof to see the view over Paris. So that was what we had to do first. Even with the best view over Paris I really didn’t want to do this as the escalators are on the outside of the building and I find it terrifying and can’t enjoy the view knowing that I have to get back down at some stage, but with that done we went exploring…
There was a lot of closed off areas and a huge amount of space given to ‘manga’ which doesn’t interest any of us. So this time the Pompidou was disappointing for me.
There where a few really interesting pieces that we all stopped to take in but for most of our time there I was rushed along because the others weren’t interested.
I had seen ‘Sasa’ by El Anatsui on my previous visit but it’s so beautiful and breath taking that I was pleased to get the chance to see it again and show it to the family. What appears to be a huge draping cloth of rich fabrics resembling Gustav Klimts work or something once belonging to an Egyptian pharaoh was in fact made from recycled bottle tops sewn together with copper wire.
The most exciting piece of work for me was one of the ‘Abakan’ pieces by Magdalena Abakanowicz. I studied her for my dissertation. It was fantastic being able to see it in the flesh, get up close to see the detail. But I would really love to see it amongst the others, somehow it didn’t seem complete.
I think I was spoilt seeing ‘Embryology’ at the Tate Liverpool which was shown as part of the Liverpool Biennial a couple of years ago. An organic looking installation made up of hundreds of hand-sewn objects scattered all over the floor. You could walk amongst them and I can remember who tempting it was to touch them as they are such tactile objects. I think for me no other work would compare! Appealing but repelling too, right up my street.
Oedipus by Jan Mancuska is a text based piece which spans from two corners of the room to the corners crossing in the middle. Two versions of the same story are being told and its these different contexts paths crossing that make up the work. But the simplicity of the installation is stunning too.
Zilvinas Kempinas ‘Flux’ had the kids mesmerised and us all flummoxed to how the artist had been able to get the tape moving in the air without suspending it and we couldn’t figure out how the fan was keeping the tape from wandering from above the plinth.
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