The metro and the project

Early on while in Paris I discovered a world underground in the metro. Parisians and tourists all move quickly through and around the great city by means of a subway system of underground routes, tunnels and train tracks. There are 14 lines and four levels of traffic, which efficiently transport people everywhere. I cannot claim to totally understand its workings yet but I could see immediately that this complex system was one of the most successful design feats of its time, and of any time. Trains are prompt, often filled to the brim with people, stations are varied and interesting. I started taking pictures.
Then I went to French class where we all talked about what we were doing (in French) and learned about Axel Singer, a composer from Munich who because he was interested in what he called the sous-terrain, the underground, was recording sounds on the metro. We decided to collaborate and will perform his music, accompanied by my photographs in some variation of a slideshow format on October 24 at the Cité in Paris. I will go back.
While I’m there, I will have an exhibition of some of the other work I did during May and June. This will open on October 18 at the Cité Internationale des Arts and be open unil October 28.

Une Anniversaire

Saturday afternoon, from 1-5pm, was a workday for me. This was the time I had scheduled to make prints in the gravure (etching) studio here.
I am not etching but making monotypes using the etching press in that studio. My way of working is to make the plates first, in the few days before my printing time, in my own atelier (also my living space) and then to use the press time only to print the plates. This maximizes my limited time well. To print monotypes has turned out to be a good decision.
I also had had the studio last Wednesday night from 5- 9pm and I get it again on Tuesday night and Wednesday après-midi this week. All negotiating and booking is done in French, so I have learned the terminology vite (quickly)!
> Saturday night, after printing, I went to a birthday party (40) for my friend, Minna Raskinen, from Finland. She gave herself a party at a restaurant near the Cité called Trumilou and it was so interesting that it was worth including here. She is a musician, a performer playing a Finnish harp called the kantele and she played at her party Saturday night with two musicians from Cameroon, one on percussion (Jean Calvin Yugye) and the other on the guitar (Valdo Muntu). After the sparkling wine and hors d’oeuvres there was the concert and then a Dutch treat dinner, which she had arranged in a private room for 22 Euros, including wine, per person. I was the only American there and was certainly honored to have been included. In fact, I was I was in charge of taking the pictures (needed).

There were people at the party from South Africa, Japan, Spain, Israel, Iran, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Egypt, Canada, England, Finland and France and I am sure I missed a few. The music was improvised. Minna had not ever played with the African musicians before they rehearsed and played on Friday and it quite an unusual performance with a unique sound. I am including a picture of Calvin Yugye and his percussion instrument, which was not like anything I had ever seen before.

One of the musicians from the Cité recorded the music so maybe there will be a sound track I could put with my new slide show of the evening. I took over 200 pictures. See me this winter.

Museums (les musees)

 


Since I have been in France, I have visited many of the museums in Paris and the Tate Modern in London. The buildings, as well as the art inside have been wonderful experiences. At the Centre Pompidou, the views from and through the architecture were interesting.




This was also true for the Tate, particularly the view of the Millenium Bridge.





What interested me in the Conciergie's show of photographs of the Seine was the map of the Seine on the floor and the interaction of the visitors to the exhibition, especially the teenagers with the map. The photographs, the dates of which spanned over a hundred years were fabulous too.



The Monet nympheas (waterlillies) have recently been uncovered, after years of work on the Orangerie, to allow them to be lit by natural light. They remained in site during the construction because they could not be removed from the walls. It is easy to see why these paintings have been cited as a significant influence on the abstract expressionists. Their size is certainly a factor. The lines to get into the Orangerie to see the Monets was two hours long, at least. I had a Cité pass.





Also renovated is the Grand Palais, which now has an exhibition of mostly French contemporary art (with a few stray Germans) installed by 16 different curators. It has been mostly panned in the press. I really enjoyed seeing it and learning about some French artists I had not known before. The building is special and for some of the artists truly interacts with and influences the work.