Paris’s newest contemporary art quarter reinforces its relevance with this new biennale programmed for this autumn. Centered around the Pavillon Carré de Baudoin in the 20th, local galleries Marcelle Alix, Balice-Hertling, Bugada & Cargnel, Crèvecoeur, Gaudel de Stampa, Jocelyn Wolff, Sémiose, Suzanne Tarasiève, and Le Plateau will also participate with solo shows, collective performances, and inspiring interventions. Plus there’ll be round tables and lectures on themes such as capitalism, the urban condition, and of course contemporary art. (Emily Hodges)
10 Sep-23 Oct. www.labiennaledebelleville.fr/
Every Thursday throughout summer, ARTE spotlights the 1960s with a great program of iconic films, concerts, and documentaries. French rock expert Philippe Manoeuvre is your guide through this celebration of popular culture, from The Beatles, Chuck Berry to Swinging London, James Dean to Brigitte Bardot, Françoise Hardy to Janis Joplin plus Jean-Luc Godard, James Dean, and Woody Allen …. Tonight ‘Birth of Cool’ (10.10pm) tracks down Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Charlie Parker, followed by ‘Birth of Groove’ looking at soul music. On Sunday there’s a whole day devoted to Elvis, then the Nouvelle Vague’s under the spotlight next Thu 19 Aug with Godard’s ‘Pierrot le Fou’, followed up with a documentary on the director… (Emily Hodges) www.arte.tv/
Any respectable fashionista (and Montmartre inhabitant) is a regular at pioneering concept store Spree, amongst the first to sell Helmut Lang in France, alongside up-and-coming designers, vintage furniture and more. Its hyperactive founder Bruno Hadjadj is also a man of the arts: an artist himself, he launched a new contemporary art fair Cutlog last year, and has just inaugurated a new gallery space across the road from Spree. Previously a wallpaper shop, hence the name, the modernist space has a façade designed by Le Corbusier and exhibits primarily photography from artists including Leo Casali, Damien Peyret, Harvey Benge, Geoffroy de Boismenue, as well as furniture and anything else that takes Hadjadj’s fancy.
11 rue la Vieuville, 18th. http://spree.fr/
The Times have dubbed Gontran Cherrier ‘France’s hottest baker’. The sexy 31 year old provides alluring breads to the capital’s top restaurants, and talks about carbs with a rare passion. And the good news is that Cherrier is about to open his own bakery in Abbesses this autumn; ‘Les Pains de Gontran’ will sell a unique menu of French classics with a twist: Naan-inspired brioche, miso loafs, foccaccias and gluten-free delights. But there’s more: after releasing half a dozen cookbooks in French, he is to publish an English-language DIY bread recipe book with Phaïdon before the end of 2010. www.gontran-cherrier.com
‘Why can’t books be works of art too?’ is the motto behind Le Pied de Biche (literally ‘The crowbar’.) This new space on rue Charonne holds a triple license of gallery, publishing house, and bookshop. Its young director Tiffany Khalil – known as Tyranny in the Parisian street art world – simultaneously publishes, exhibits, and sells limited editions of books made by graffiti, tattoo and comic-strip inspired artists. Le Pied de Biche also hosts various events such as graffiti battles, portrait sessions of ‘yourself as a teenager’, and merry piss-ups by Paris’ top-notch indie population.
86 rue de Charonne, 11th. www.lepieddebiche.com/
Woody Allen’s next film ‘Midnight in Paris’ has begun shooting in Paris, starring Marion Cotillard, Gad Elmaleh, Owen Wilson and France’s first lady in a small role as a museum director. It’s been reported in the press that a simple scene with no dialogue in which Carla Bruni needed to leave an épicerie on the rue Mouffetard with a baguette under her arm had to be shot 35 times on Tuesday because Bruni couldn’t help looking at the camera…
The Musée d’art moderne is preparing two big US shows for the rentrée, and to coincide with the city’s major contemporary art fair the FIAC in Oct (21-24). A vast retrospective of Basquiat, for the 50 year anniversary of the too-soon-departed artist is programmed for 15 Oct-30 Jan, as well as a first French restrospective of bad-boy photographer and filmmaker Larry Clark (8 Oct-2 Jan).
11 av du Président Wilson, 16th. www.mam.paris.fr/
Remember Pong on Atari, Pac Man or Missile Command on the Atari 2600? Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo NES? Alex Kidd on Master System, Sonic on Megadrive, Metal Slug on the Neo Geo, Tekken on Playstation? What about Space Invaders, Street Fighter II, Time Traveller, Outrun…? This fun, interactive exhibition traces the history of video games via a chronological presentation of 40 or so years of technological genius!
Until 7 Nov.
Musée des arts et métiers, 60 rue Réaumur, 3rd. Tue-Sun, 10am-6pm (Thu 9.30pm).
http://museogames.com/
Andrea Crews’ Pigalle space (10 rue Frochot) will be closing next Sat 31 July, before reopening in September in a secret new address… www.andreacrews.com/
A page turns for influential fashion maven Maria Luisa Poumaillou. Her multi-brand store set up in 1988 is closing its doors for good on Sat 7 Aug, less than a year after inaugurating a new space on the corner of rue Rouget de Lisle and rue du Mont Thabor, (and just around the corner from the original space rue Cambon). Maria Luisa has said she’ll now be concentrating on ‘contemporary sales platforms’: department stores and online. Fashion director of the Printemps, and with a magnificent ’shop in shop’ there on the second floor, she’ll also continue selling her astute selection of designers (Alaia, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Margiela, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab…) via the website the.corner. www.marialuisaparis.com/
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