June 2023 - Toucher Terre, la sculpture céramique, at the Espace Monte Cristo (Fondation Villa Datris)

Posted


Still in June, I was intrigued to find out, I no longer remember how (Instagram probably), that there was a contemporary ceramics exhibition involving Josèfa Ntjam going on in a space I didn't even know existed, not all that far from my flat: the Espace Monte Cristo. 

It turned out to be an interesting show in a lovely place. The Espace Monte Cristo, which opened in 2018 but was presumably soon suspended by the lockdown,  is a beautifully renovated former industrial space; not a single, hangar-type workshop, but an old shop-front with two storeys of rooms in the deep house behind, arranged around two or three small patios, where, it seems, packaging was stored. To how outdoor pieces, including a small fountain, the patios had been turned into gardens for the duration of the exhibition.



'Josèfa's room' also included, at the far end, a work I liked (pictured above) by a US artist, Erin Jane Nelson, I'd never heard of. That isn't surprising as (a) there are so many artists these days it's impossible even for better-informed people than I am to keep up and (b) I know so little about ceramics. But when I looked her up later, it turned out she was working with some very fancy gallerists. No surprise there.

Another artist I took to very much was Alex Zablocki, who actually has some inventory at the Galerie Italienne in Paris. Having seen that some of his smaller pieces, available in London, were reasonably priced, I contacted the Galerie Italienne, but the larger-sized work available in Paris was nearly ten times the price, so I let the matter drop.



The 'anchor' and probably the main draw of this show was a big installation of the Finnish artist Kim Simonsson's 'Moss People'. These are intriguing, slightly creepy, gnome-like, flocked green figures I'd already seen at a couple of fairs. They're too cutesy and Tolkien-ish for me, but I can understand the appeal.


Here are a few more photos from the show:






When I came out of the building at the end I noticed, further up the street, a big, white, art-déco church. This turned out to be the spectacular Église Saint-Jean-Bosco, finished in 1938 as part of a wider project to build a number of new churches for the working-class neighbourhoods built on the outskirts of town, where the old 'fortifs' had been. This one is somewhat hidden away on the rue Alexandre Dumas, which I suppose is why I'd never noticed it, but it has a soaring steeple outside, and is richly decorated - chunky ceramics, glistening mosaics and glowing windows, inside by the Ateliers Mauméjean. It also still has, just as strikingly, its original art-déco seating. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris tips: visiting

Posted
Image
  Note : this post and the April 28 one, about eating out, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** I guess you'll have your own guide book to help you plan your visit. But whichever one (or more) it is, I thought you might find the Michelin Green Guide 's tourist map of Paris (below) helpful, as it makes it easy to locate the main sights. I think you'll find if you click on the map, it will blow up to a more legible size. The inset box at top left explains Michelin's ratings system, similar to its approach to restaurant ratings. With a decent guide book, you won't need much help from me, but I just wanted to add one or two items that visitors might miss, plus an idea for a north-south walk (or south-north, as you wish) that makes a change from the usual main east-west (or west-east!) drag. Also, finally, one neglected but unique mus...
Read more

Paris tips: eating out

Posted
Image
Note : this post and the April 30 one, about things to see, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** THREE STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS These are the three places I'd most strongly recommend during your visit, as I think they offer a nice variety of quality Parisian eating experiences. 1. Dinner at Le Train Bleu When the underlying idea was to recommend places off the tourist track, it might seem odd to start with Le Train Bleu, at the Gare de Lyon. But this is surely one of the most extraordinary restaurant spaces in the world. You can only experience it in Paris, of course, and I usually take any first-time visitor there for dinner. It's Lyon-influenced brasserie food at more-than-brasserie prices, but they have simple set-price menus at 55 and 74 euros, and anyway, as usual, the final bill depends above all on what you drink. It's worth it (and...
Read more

Anna Uddenberg: an interesting new development

Posted
Image
Anna Uddenberg is a Swedish artist whose work has, I think, something quite original, distinctive and perceptive to say about the image of women in certain, specific currents of consumer culture that might otherwise be overlooked. I hadn't seen much of her recently, but she now has an exhibition, at her Berlin Gallery, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (or K-T Z), of totally new works focusing, this time, not on women but on men. The resulting woodcarvings are an interesting and quite surprising development, and add to what seems to be almost a 'fashion' for reliefs in art at the moment. This is the link to the new exhibition, 'Big Baby' , at K-T Z. This is the link to a video about the new work, on Vimeo , but the video is also on the gallery website. This is the direct link to the page about Anna Uddenberg on the gallery site. The following are some photos of Anna Uddenberg's new and previous work, 'borrowed' from K-T Z.
Read more