Christo and Jeanne Claude

This couple do quite a lot of world around the world but are actually french. I really like the photos of their work, but to think back to what Amanda said, it’s very location specific. Their most famous work is the wrapping of the reichstag in berlin and pont neuf in hot club de paris.  I think by wrapping up things they are aiming to highlight areas of natural beauty by concealing them….

It looks like a disney castle!

They look like candifloss!

Shiney

Let it snow!

Ooooh the colours

 

I like the juxtaposition…again.  The works are only there for a certain time, so afterwards only the photos and sketches remain…like ghosts.

 

For the website, click HERE

Could it BE anymore 90′s??

Jourda & Perraudin

Not knowing how to kick-off research into environmental French architecture I thought that I’d start with this notorious pair, Françoise-Hélène Jourda and Gilles Perraudin. There’s an brief article by Jourda on his website speaking on the problems facing environmental architecture.

They designed the station de métro parilly which I like. What’s hard to get from the pictures is to see the structural intricacies. What really impressed me is the patterns created from the ‘branches’ of the four ‘trees’ which form a repeating pattern.

is it a tree, is it a column, no it's brilliant architecture

Mick Finch

This is a British artist working in France, but there are loads of links to other French artists on his page, like Guillaume Paris who looks quite interesting, and an article called Le Tournant Pastoral de L’art Contemporain.

Alexandre Périgot

http://www.galerie-maisonneuve.com/perigot/perigot_graceland/ape_graceland.html

I came across Périgot’s work at random and he seems pretty interesting. Perhaps not really an artist in line with our idea of representations of urban life, but this Sample House/Elvis House hints on the idea a little.

pipe-tastic

“Are star homes all we have left to make us dream?”

“It’s the pinnacle of the contemporary American dream: the house becomes the ultimate means of fulfilling happiness through the cult of entertainment.”

Extracts from the catalogue Maison Témoin, Alexandre Perigot, November 2000

Could possibly use this piece to show how a particular grandiose house could be something we aspire to, as a statement of wealth, achievement and fame. A good piece to go alongside this would be something challenging materialism perhaps? Although I’m yet to find a fitting example.

http://www.madeinphoto.fr/

Hello! I was just researching Jean-Loup Sieff and I came across this beautiful site. There is a glossy collection of artists on this one (inc Guy Bourdin!) so it might be worth taking a look at…

(I will now try to put a photo up.)

Gaëlle Hippolyte

Alright, here’s an artist that I saw two exhibitions of when in Paris. She’s been artiste en résidence at Point Ephémère (an hyper cool hangout) by Canal St. Martin.

I’ve been a bit hesitant in showing this because, put this way, I’m not the biggest fan of the work itself. However, what has impressed me about the exhibitions is how they have been curated. The space is a long rectangle with the use of two walls and floor for the works. There’s a staircase at towards one end of the room, rendering one corner quasi-useless.

I would be very happy if our effort was even in the same ballpark (excuse the Americanism) as these.

To give a small insight into the works, they are funny of a dry, slightly disturbing, kind. They mock human achievement and question the intelligence of our aspirations. They stand before us and tell us we’re thick. What I don’t like about the works, is that frequently the pleasure is short lived.

Here’s a photo from her latest instalment at Point Ephémère, I didn’t get to this one, but it looks so well done I could cry.

What's behind the door, send answers with cash please?

Valerie Jouve

Valerie Jouve is another artist who works on la banlieue (obsessed I know).  She photographs people and buildings in order to show the humanity that exists in la banlieue, which is often an aspect that is ignored by the media.  Her photos of people show them carrying out daily and mundane tasks so the viewer is forced to reconsider any prejudices they may have regarding the common assumption that all banlieusards are delinquents.  She also discusses spatial aspects such as belonging.  This can be seen in images such as “Les Fumeurs” and “sorties de bureau” where people from outside the banlieues are demonstrated as being out of place.  This is a different take on the traditional presumption that it’s the banlieusards that don’t belong.  They, in contrast seem perfectly at ease in their environment.  I just think she’s really interesting as she uses stereotypes (poverty, exclusion) to question other stereotypes (crime, delinquency).  I also think the issues she raises about belonging are really interesting.  We don’t normally think of white collar workers from Paris as being “excluded” and I think the way she demonstrates it here is very thought provoking. 

I would...

Julie Goger

Thought we needed a break from photography, so here’s a relatively new artist, born in Strasbourg circa 1970. I like a couple of things in her work. Primarily, I’ve had a long term love affair with ‘naive’ (where minimal meets surreal) brush strokes ever since i encountered Joan Miro; another rubbishy referential scribbling would be to say that the colour textures remind me of Basquiat, although in this case the lines are much more feminine.

I find the works self-deprecating in a tender, melancholic way.

Children, cover your eyes, this is the Devil's doing

Mohammed Bourouissa

As we all know I do like a big, juicy social issue and it is thus natural that I’m a big fan of Mohammed Bourouissa (also he’s sexy – this is obviously of the utmost importance you’ll understand).  He photographs staged scenes in la banlieue, within a documentary setting, often conforming to stereotypes in order to question whether we can accept what we see in the media as fact.  His most famous image is called “La Republique”,

Just your average Friday night

it’s the one where a group of people are burning the French flag.  In this he questions the legitimacy of a republique that excludes members from its society.  I really like his work because there are so many levels to it (and did I mention that he’s sexy)?!

Musee Precaire (Thomas Hirschorrn)

I wasn’t sure whether we could class this as a work of art or an exhibition.  In 2006, artist Thomas Hirschorrn created a makeshift museum in a rough area of la banlieue Parisienne.  He enlisted the help of inhabitants of the area in order to construct his temporary museum – which ended up looking like little more than a big shed – provided them with jobs for the duration of the project and held regular seminars to discuss literature and art.  Artists and authors attended these seminars to give lectures to anyone who wished to attend.  Artists that were chosen to exhibit included Dali, Mondrian, Leger, Duchamp and several others.  Very surprisingly the Pompidou Centre agreed to loan these oeuvres to le Musee Precaire.  The event succeeded in bringing highbrow art and culture to an area, which was often denied access to these things (expense, distance and social exclusion).  Many of the people who had attended events organised through the project or had helped with it’s progress felt encouraged to look for jobs within the cultural industries or just simply developped an interest in these areas.  Hirschorrn stated that he chose the artists that were exhibited because they had wanted to change lives through their work.  However he denied that the project was of a sociological nature saying;

 “I am an artist, not a social worker. Le Musée Précaire Albinet is a work of art, it is not a sociocultural project. This affirmation is that art only as art can obtain true importance and have political meaning.”

Thomas Hirschhorn, 15 May 2004

I think that a project involving the community is a really interesting concept.  Perhaps one we could consider?