Anonymous, Pendant blue right eye painted in miniature Gouache, gold frame, glass on both sides, 4,3 x 2,1 cm (Paris, Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris)
Hearing, smell, touch, taste, sight: of the five senses, it is perhaps the last that has pre-eminence. And through the eye, each look is unique. The one offered by the Victor Hugo museum with the Regards exhibition is so daring and unique that it deserves to stop there.
What is offered to the visitor is not an exhibition like any other but an innovative project developed by a fictional character – a certain Lucienne Forest – who has been entrusted with the curation of this exhibition, in the Marais, in Paris.
Alexandra Sacha Pabst, Self-portrait, shadow, at the Mayflower Hotel, 1983 Photography, gelatin-bromide print, 36 x 24 cm (Paris, Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris)
Behind this name is actually a collective of around fifteen psychiatric patients who, in collaboration with the Victor Hugo museum, chose the theme of the exhibition, discussed the choice of the 80 works presented and wrote all of the texts appearing in the exhibition.
The result is an original and necessarily subjective exhibition, which is nourished by emotion and follows a journey in four parts: The eye, the self-portrait; See or look; Vision, imagination; Myths and realities.
Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn) (1606-1669), Rembrandt with spiky hair, 1631 Etching, 6,4 x 6 cm (Paris, Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris)
The selection seduces with its eclecticism with works from the collections of the museums of the City of Paris, the Fond d'Art Contemporain – Paris and the Historical Library of the City of Paris: here we admire a tortured self-portrait by Rembrandt (1606- 1669); there a painting by Eduardo Arroyo (1937-2018) entitled Between Hope and Despair; further on, a lithograph by Odilon Redon (1848-1916); or the Head of Medusa by Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929).
Lucien Jonas (1880-1947) Oedipus, head and left hand, study for panel II of the village hall of the Maison des Centraux, rue Jean Goujon, 1916 Charcoal enhanced with watercolor wash, laid paper, 81 x 47 cm (Paris, Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris)
There are also portraits and self-portraits of the host of the place: a certain Victor Hugo (1802-1885) who, when it came to looking at things, life and people, knew a lot about it.
Victor Hugo House
6 place des Vosges, 75004 Paris
Monday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 18 p.m.
(except Monday, January 1, May 1, December 25)
Tel: +01 42 72 10 16
Jean-Claude Vénézia (1941-2013) Antique shop, avenue du Président Wilson, 1976 Photograph, 31 x 24 cm (Paris, historical library of the City of Paris)
Text: Katia Barillot
26. 02.22
THERE ARE LOTS OF MUSEUMS HERE
Annie Ernaux, the literature of reality at the MEP
The 2022 Nobel Prize-winning writer has been interested in photography for a long time, notably in the text “the use of photography”, a four-handed story published in 2006. At the European House of Photography, on the banks of the Seine , the exhibition Exteriors - Annie Ernaux & Photography flourishes until May 26, 2024.
The Weegee enigma, extreme photographer
American photojournalist from the 1930s and 50s, famous for his black and white photos of nightlife in New York, Weegee takes this nickname as a nod to the spirit board, the Ouija board. Because he proclaims himself a “psychic photographer” with the 3rd eye.
Joann Sfar featured at MAHJ
Who doesn’t know the comic strip “The Rabbi’s Cat”? Its creator, Joann Sfar, was born in Nice in 1971. In this retrospective at the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in the heart of the Marais, the first of its kind, we will see many original plates presented in images by the famous cat .
NOW ON THE MOOD MARSH
Divine brunch at the foot of Notre-Dame
Of course, officially, it is not the Marais. But at Son de la Terre, a barge recently moored at the Montebello quay (5th), the 4th arrondissement is in sight. Moreover, this one is incredible: on one side, it is Notre-Dame flooded with sunlight; on the other, the quays, the book sellers, the walkers, the joggers.
Saka, a cocktail bar like in Tokyo
Here is an address which gives the measure of the transformation of the Marais. And it's enough to silence the grumpy people whose mantra is: “It was better before…” No, everything was not better “before” in the Marais. Besides, there was no American bar like Saka, which cultivates a form of excellence that can only be found in Japan.
Jazz at 38Riv: The highlights of May
The only jazz club in the Marais, 38Riv is the temple of cool and swing. Rue de Rivoli, between Saint-Paul and Hôtel de Ville, its vaulted cellars are the home base of the new jazz scene. Every evening, the magic happens.