“Pour la France” is a film produced by Nicolas Mauvernay, about drama and hope in life. About brotherly love and emigration. It could all seem depressing but it is riveting from beginning to end. It is based on a true story, the death of the director’s brother, Aïssa Saidi, when he was a student at the prestigious St Cyr military … Read More
Paul Strand seduces at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson has a new director Clément Chéroux, who worked for nine years at Centre Pompidou, three at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and two at MoMa, always in the photography department. He has curated thirty exhibitions and published even more books on photography and its history. The Paul Strand exhibition from the collections of the … Read More
Le Salon H, a gallery devoted to Croyance
It’s always fun to be taken by a foreign friend to a new place in your own city. This is what happened when Svetlana Cemin, a documentary film director, introduced me to Le Salon H, a pretty little gallery on rue de Savoie. The new exhibition there features two Brazilian artists Livia Melzi and Sandra Lapage, a Belgian, Agnès Guillaume and … Read More
Zanele Muholi hits hard at MEP
Don’t be deterred by the show of Zanele Muholi, the 50 year old South African photographer, just because she only shoots black lesbians and transgenders. At first it sounds provocative and tedious, but her portraits are so strong that you start forgetting her political activism and you enjoy just the beauty of the shots. At the opening at Maison Européenne de … Read More
Another fabulous week in Paris!
Théâtre des Champs Elysées is the most cherished place by Parisians for concerts and operas at the moment. It is easily accessible, the theatre is a beauty opened in 1913, and the productions of extreme quality. This is where we can see Offenbach’s la Périchole at the moment and until November 28, in a production by Laurent Pelly with Marc Minkowski … Read More
A double bill at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson starts Paris photo week
Friday night was a major evening at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson rue des Archives, when privileged guests could discover the new premises after two years of renovation and with two exhibitions. Jan Groover, the long lost American photographer who loved France, on the main floor, and downstairs, in the new vaulted gallery, “Henri Cartier-Bresson /Martin Parr, the Reconciliation”. The reason everyone … Read More
At MAD, the 1980’s reign
Former minister of culture Jack Lang was visiting the exhibition with a following of admirers and I am glad I started the visit in reverse, escaping all the politics of the Mitterrand years which are the prologue to the show. Instead, I immediately ran into the heart of the subject, the craziness in design, fashion and advertising of the 1980’s … Read More
At Maison Européenne de la Photo, Boris Mikhaïlov brings back a Ukrainian past
Born in 1938, in Kharkiv, photographer Boris Mikhaïlov is considered as one of the most influential Eastern European artist today. The fact that he is Ukrainian obviously adds a dramatic note to the exhibition “Ukrainian Journal” curated by Laurie Hurwitz at MEP (Maison europécnne de la photo) until January 15. For the last fifty years he has documented the collapse … Read More