LETTER FROM PARIS
by Nina Zivancevic
It would be too odd to believe that the old city of Paris has embraced the rules of the extreme right and has shown art that is color attentive. As a rebuke to Le Pen fans came in the festival of art called PEACE: M�tiss’age, "metiss’age" being an age of Metiss and Mix, brown, yellow and color blind artists which took place at a relaxed and cool venue "Canal St.Martin." Among the photographers who graced the show there were photos of Israeli children and Jerusalem by a Japanese artist Yasha Teruko that really moved my heart, photos of the Senegalese by Daniele Taulin, Hommel and Jerome Demuth’s photos of urban peace actions; there were paintings by Emilie Bazus, Cairo, Olivier Casse and Olivier Lannaud, then sculptures by Cyrille Chanteraux, Joelle Courtois, Tio and Andre Lamourere. Agnes B. has designed special T-shirts for the festival-not the Agnes B. we know from fashion shows but her alter-ego that acts often as an aware peace activist, all swamped with good music, lots of unusual ethnic snacks, etc. The festival has been happening every year since 1994, but the urgency of its presence came into relief just after the big unpleasant voting events that happened earlier this year in France. Another important show which reminds us of the importance of being aware is Max Beckmann’s great retrospective at Center Georges Pompidou entitled "Painter in History." The show is staged with a good dose of intelligence and sensitivity–the video installation of documentary shots from the European world wars by Piero Steinle and Julian Rosefeldt, at the very entrance of the show, is there to remind us that the magnificent art of Beckmann should be viewed in the context of the time that he lived. The show as such is also a concession made to Expressionism by the French who have either never liked or never understood the movement that shook the era of modernism and was its major pillar. Within this September/October’s lesson of tolerance we also find different individual shows which could be seen as homage to internationalism and global understanding: Keith Haring’s erotica is shown at Jerome de Noirmont through November, Mike Kelley and Jean-Michelle Alberola are at Daniel Templon’s through October, at the new but already quite established LE PLATEAU has opened the group show "Maquis" which includes the video art of Gary Hill, Paola Yacoub, and Michel Lasserre’s Lebanese work which traces history of spaces between borders of fragile territories, Julije Knifer’s and Yvan Solomone’s paintings of military zones devoid of human presence. Vive the spirit of critique in France! The show also includes performances, talks and conferences which deal with relevant social and political issues seen through the eyes of artists who think and react to things quicker than the rest of the world’s crowd, as usual. At Palais du Tokyo we will see the magnificent, new Louise Bourgeois show, and we are looking forward to it: it is more than the old movie title "Lassie comes home." Just across from the Palace there is Matthew Barney’s eternal retrospective, and oh, why not, we are looking forward to it, too! How does a penis gets transformed into a pig? It’s up to you to answer the question; it’s up to me to see the shows!
