Then a visit to La Niche BHV, where we usually buy a treat for the puddy tats (Fi, have you got one of these shopping carriers to take Pearl to Mecca Bros?) Followed by a visit to Tabio, my favourite tights and sock shop.
Next stop...exposition Take Me (I'm Yours) at the Monnaie de Paris. Over the past year I've been reading about the Monnaie de Paris, which has recently opened its doors to the public and has a rotating schedule of diverse exhibitions. The Monnaie de Paris is a mint founded in 864 with the Edict of Pistes. In the Edict, Charles II - known as Charles the Bald - decreed creation of a coin workshop and this Parisien institution has been in operation ever since.
The current exhibition Take Me (I'm Yours) is an interactive exhibition where the artists give something to, or exchange something with the visitor, and you, the visitor, can choose to give something back. The exhibition is curated by Christian Boltanski, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Chiara Parisi, and is a re-imagining of an exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery 20 years ago. We had a fabulous time! Halfway through the exhibition Brent worked out the interactivity from the guide booklet, and we returned to the starting point and re-navigated our way through the installations.
There were many different ways to interact - from just collecting something, to perusing newspapers for articles on specific subjects and pinning them to a notice board, to fishing for a sardine tin with a magnet in a tub of black liquid. Some of our favourites: a bottle of water and cups beside a pile of pills, one pill dropping from the ceiling every 3 seconds - do you take a pill and swallow it with the water provided? the walls of a room covered with postcards of the Eiffel Tower and a table covered with tiny metal Eiffel Tower souvenirs - take a postcard and souvenir with you. a young girl sitting at a desk with an item in front of her that she will exchange for something you wish to give. a machine in which you insert a 2 euro coin and you are returned a special exhibition coin. a marzipan skeleton, whose bones are gradually broken into pieces and left on a plate for the visitor to taste. Crazy, crazy and we loved it!
Our final step was to go back to the ticket office and ask for a video (which we had noticed lined up on the walls when we first entered). The video, titled Precognition, contains two films and is set to erase as it is played. This is so much fun!
Following the exhibition...which would still be exciting if we went back a second time!!...we stopped for lunch (wandering past a park with an insect hotel, similar but different to last year's) and then picked up some treats from Au Petit Versailles for dinner - I could eat their broccoli and zucchini quiche every day and never tire of it!
Tonight I metro'd over the 9th to the meet a friend, Dominique. Dominique is a friend of Rita and Gérard's who helped us with the logistics of our apartment renovation, and we have kept in contact since. It was wonderful to catch up with her - I know she has had a tough year. We both love a vino (maybe two!) and it was good to hear her news about life in Paris...about their holidays in Corsica and Normandy...and just listening to her switch from English to French during our conversation and knowing that I can be part of the conversation.
Do we really have to go home on Tuesday...
2 comments:
Hi Sally & Brent, What an amazing exhibition, and the building looks beautiful. Love the 'photos of the different installations, what fun, no wonder you loved it.....L&G
Nooo it can't be over already! Glad you have had such a wonderful time xx
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