Brocante:Batignolles

On through April 5 around the square of the Park Batignolles. It seems smaller this year then last, but always worth a walk through. Buy some incredible pasta or panini's to go at Da Zavola and have a picnic in the Park as well!

connections

I have not been blogging of late, not for lack of cool things experienced-for example a delicious dinner at L'Office in the 9th and La petite sirene de copenhage. Fresh, delicious, mellow atmospheres. Highly recommend.

What I really wanted to share was this great website I just stumbled upon, www.goodnessgreatness.co.uk. Started as a blog by a couple, Pete and Parusha, in which they interview friends and then friends of friends and so on has now turned into a website with a zine. everything is in interview type format with photos and the people involved all seem to come from a wide range of creative activities. Fabulous concept and fun to read! It is going to be cold this weekend in paris so something to read inside.

Plastic Fantastic

In the latest issue of the French Marie Claire Maison, I came across some really beautiful work by Les Filles de Factuer, hanging curtains and screens made up of twined, colorful plastic. I went to look at their website this morning and discovered that it is in fact a French organization whose mission is to help people in need, particularly in developing countries and notably women and children, to help realize or develop certain skills or use of materials that could help them to earn an income and aid their social environment. Since 2008 this has been specifically to set up a link between France and Africa in a project called 'recyclagesacplastique' (recycled plastic bag), in which they focus on the material of plastic bags, to transform them into interesting objects for sale.

The work is for sale on their website. Check it out.

Of Carrot Cake and an exhibition

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7, rue Debelleyme, has a nice exhibition on the top floor called "Infinite Folds," which is based around the simple notion of artists transforming a paper's surface by folding it. Though I am alrady paricularly partial to works on paper, I found this exhibition poetic and thought provoking. It explores some basic ideas of art, namely form and possibilites of a material, and the question of how can the simple act of a fold can create another layer or dimension to a work of art. This gallery is huge and there are two other exhibitions on view, including a few monochrome, shaped, paintings by Jason Dodge in his characteristic, though lovely, large, strokes of paint and a larger show by an Iranian artist named Ali Banisadar.
Following a little art viewing I unconsiously made my way to Coco Cook, a great new take out food shop on rue Charlot, across from the Marche des Enfants Rouge. The carrot cake and iced lemon cakes are to die for, let alone their delicious selection of salads, sandwhiches and plats du jour. It is a needed and wonderful addition to the upper marais.

Atelier Les Quatres

Atelier les quatres is a studio/shop consisting of four young, talented textile designers creating fun and funky prints, designs and illustrations for pillows, napkins, dishtowels as well as t-shirts, baby clothes, canvas bags and one-off ideas like masks and found ceramics. The studio includes Eve-Marie Bousquet, Rachel Pelquin, elsako, and Hélène Georget, and on Saturdays they open their doors to the public to see what they are making and of course, to shop. They all work independently but a couple of them collaborate on other projects including Duette Design, and A Wolf at My Door. Most of the work is made in a limited edition and all of it by hand. It is ambitious yet fresh and fun- it seems they work hard but don't take things too seriously. Bright colors, birds and other animals, sunglasses are silkscreened onto their respective objects giving them a new life and attitude. 36, rue du fer à moulin, 5eme.

Hello & Goodbye

I am declaring the countdown to spring officially on. Some of you in Paris today might think I am a bit premature, but you have to admit that in between the coolish gusts of winds, the sun feels warm and the days are noticeably longer. Walking home today I noticed little signs: the pods hanging off trees and small bursts of yellow and lavender flowers in the parks. Maybe I am feeling inspired from the Jan Dibbets exhibition I just saw at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (this place needs an acronym). I have been a fan of Dibbets, a Dutch artist born in 1941, for awhile. I love his use of simple landscapes of the ocean and green reedy grass which are turned into geometric constructions suggestive of Frank Stella or Ellsworth Kelly. This exhibition compares his early 1970s work to work made in the late 2000s, using the same techniques and landscapes. It's earth art or land art à la Smithson, with less machismo and more poetic. Maybe I am partial to landscape painting in general, and Dibbets in many ways seems like the proper extension out of 17th century Dutch landscape painting--but of course photography and conceptual. It is a small exhibition and worth a quick visit.

Omnivore

As an American living in Paris one question I seem to be asked relatively often, by French and non-French alike, is "oh, France, don't you love the food?" or "Isn't the food amazing?" To which, perhaps being a bit of a rebel inside but also not able to be dismissive and flattering, reply something like, yeah; it is ok-cheese, butter, magret de canard are great, but what about diversity? And then I go into a tirade about how Asian food has been bastardized here and how shameful that sushi restaurants put cheese on their menus in what must be a way to ease French culinary anxiety. My point being that yes, French appreciation for good, slow food is wonderful but it is too insular and living in this city after New York seems sleepy food-wise.

In the weekend Financial Times Arts & Leisure section was an article titled "Ripe for Revolution," about the Omnivore festival in Deauville this weekend, and it's founder, Luc Dubanchet, who started the monthly magazine of the same name with the goal of trying to shake up the French food world which he found boring, stuffy and complacent. The author of the article, Mike Steinberger, has written a book titled, "Au Revoir to all that:Food, Wine, and the End of France," (yikes!). Apparently I am not alone in my sentiments and it was fun to read about Dubanchet's horror for Michelin stars and Sarkozy's petition to place French cuisine as a UNESCO cultural treasure. As art, music and dance keep up with changing times, shouldn't food? Spain being the most oft cited having led the first decade of the 21st century in food.

Dubanchet says that it is time for his French compatriots to see that food is a global phenomenon and who cares about being number one. No doubt French chefs have talent and it would be fun to be at the festival this weekend to see the incredible offerings and perhaps it will lead to some revolutionary (we know the French love revolution), ideas in the kitchen.