jeu de paume

another one of the hundred's of galleries paris has to offer, jeu de paume sits in a somewhat overlooked corner of the jardin des tuileries. the building (although completely renovated on the inside) is the former home of the indoor tennis courts of the royal palace - hence the name 'jeu de paume'.

we went along to check out what is now a contemporary art museum with a focus on photographic expositions. however, typical us - we didn't bother to check up opening times before we got there. on discovering that we still had an hour before we could enter, we had to think of something to kill the time. what a dilemma: being stuck in the centre of paris with nothing to do for an hour. hard life, i know.

we wandered off to rue de rivoli, on the north side of the jardin des tuileries. one of my favourite streets (for good reason! 59 rivoli, one of my fav places in paris, as well as endless shopping opportunities...) and also conveniently home to the unofficial best hot chocolate of paris....angelina's! imagine a little pot of mouthwatering hot chocolate, made by actually melting hunks of delicious dark chocolate. all this in a room that resembles something out of a dining room on the titanic...suffice to say that only at angelina's would i pay 8€ for a hot chocolate. worth every cent and apparently a perfect way to while away the time...

midday rolled over all too quickly, so we made our short way back to jeu de paume to check out two expositions: claude cahun's series of autobiographical photographs that questioned gender & identity; and santu mofokeng's photographic journey through africa, continental europe & the middle east. the first was strange, with alot of experimental photography; the second very eye-opening and the photos tempted to me to go to africa..

a day of hot chocolates & gallery visits is becoming all to familiar to me, here in paris. i still need to pinch myself now & then - after five months of living here, i still can't quite believe all of this is really happening!

à la prochaine,

S.

59 rivoli

i don't know how many times i'd walked past #59 rue de rivoli throughout my five months here in paris - either to shop, to eat, or just to wander. i can't believe it took me so long to discover this building. must've  had my eyes on the ground & my head in the clouds...

59 rivoli is an artist's after squat that began some time in 1999, when three frenchies bought the abandoned 6-story building and decided to put it to good use - transforming the space into somewhere  for artists to create, exhibit, live & enrich paris' art scene.

you first walk in after being directed by "visite obligatoire" (visit mandatory) signs & arrows, walk across a doormat made out of 1c & 2c pieces, before heading on up the spiral staircases of 59 rivoli...
everyone i talked to here was so friendly & so happy to take time out of painting/sketching/sculpting to have a chat. there's around thirty artists at 59 rivoli - some of them share studios, create group artworks or just do their own thing.

they all got together and redecorated the place because naturally, when they first moved in - the place was a total dump. one of the artists who's been there since the beginning described to me how their was rubble everywhere, disused office furniture, dead animals, crumbling & collapsing walls, etc. nowadays, every wall surface is splashed with colour - from photos to sketches, graffiti tags to hanging strips of material, from the hundreds of painted '59's to my favourite - a continuous painting of a dragon that follows you up the spiral staircase, right up to the 6th floor.

next door to 59 rivoli (but still part of the same brainchild) is the official exhibition space, where both french & international artists display their works.
59 rivoli (technically pronounced 'cinquante-neuf rivoli', not fifty-nine) reminded me alot of tacheles, the artist's squat in berlin - except that the parisian version is much younger, has a broader variety of artwork & is alot 'lighter' both in its physical appearance and its demeanour.

so passes another day, another place, another experience...another reason to love paris.

bises,

S.

pedestrians: mandatory change of route

1c, 2c...

"follow the dragon"

"where do we come from? what are we doing? where are we going?"

"become what you seek, and it shall find you..."

"walls & whispers"

view from the top floor out across paris. ceramic chimney pots in the back.

view from above...

...& view from below

"i'm a lucky charm"