View of Paris from the Centre PompidouWhen one thinks of Paris there are immediate associations which have become an international symbol of this Cosmoplitan Ville - The Eiffel Tower, The Champs au Lycee , the Louvre. I have been to Paris before and so I did not feel drawn to its touristic features and felt hungry to demistify what the real Paris might be. My method for doing this was simple - shack up with the locals as I found myself lucky enough to spend a week with my Parisian girlfriends.
My stay in Paris would be intiated with the intentionally surreal David Lynch Art exhibition. It included short animations, photography, paintings and music that he has composed. It felt, quite simply like descending into his subconcious mind and unravelling the intentions behind his art; which I must admit is something I have struggled to do when watching his films. I read an article on him in a local magazine and found it surprising and inspiring that he feels that his work has spiritual rewards. He feels that the world is becoming progressively more and more concious which unveiled an unexpected optimism that we have in common.
My stay in Paris would be intiated with the intentionally surreal David Lynch Art exhibition. It included short animations, photography, paintings and music that he has composed. It felt, quite simply like descending into his subconcious mind and unravelling the intentions behind his art; which I must admit is something I have struggled to do when watching his films. I read an article on him in a local magazine and found it surprising and inspiring that he feels that his work has spiritual rewards. He feels that the world is becoming progressively more and more concious which unveiled an unexpected optimism that we have in common.
The Thinker in the 'flesh' at the Rodin Museum
The next few days would be spent discovering as much as Paris had to offer, albeit often off the beaten track - from the Musee du Louvre to musems of Fashion and advertising. My favourite museums continue to be the modern art museum - Centre Pompidou and the Musee d'Orsay and the recently opened Musee de L'orangerie which houses Monet's WaterLillies. But as I walked them halls, often shadowing my former sixteen year old self, I found that my scope of fascination surprised me as it expanded with new intrigue. While my artistic loyalties have always remained with the impressionists and surrealists, this time I found myself curiously overwhlemed by the works of the Realists, Post Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists. I had one of those intense moments of disbelief when staring at a canvass only to realise that it resembled... no.. it was a Jackson Pollock painting. And so it was that I entered the world of Marc Rofka, Vasilly Kandinsky and the late Picasso and began to probe that which I previously struggled to understand.
The contemporary artist through various excercises which release psycho-automatic creative impulse, aims to understand his subconcious and hence himself. His canvass is not an observation of the external world or a tribute to moral or aesthetic codes, but rather it is a reflection of his own state of mind. We have become our own subject and source of greatest interest, and we search for truth and understanding within ourselves. And in much of the same manner as the great men who inspired my thoughts I reflected that I too have changed and evolved and these recents insights implied growth.
but apart from the intellectual we certainly did alot of socialising in Paris, and while the French appear to be cold and self centered, I discovered that they simply need time to let their guard done to strangers and that once they did, I discovered some of the most charming and faschinating people I had ever come to meet. But from Paris there was an entirely different adventure looming in the background, the Festival de Cannes. Deep breaths ladies and gentleman. Deep breaths.
