TRAVELER’S DIARY-Paris VII:Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
In the upper hall of Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Pablo Picasso’s black-and-white drawings, which he donated to the Museum in 1980 and occupy a whole room, are really impressive. Trying to find a specific work by Marchel Duchamp I make a circle and fall on Marc Chagall’s “Le Rêve” (1927), in the room just behind the Picasso’s drawings Irevealed the Marhel Duchamp’s work that I was looking for “La Boîte-en-Valise” (1936-68) and I standing out another one: “Rotore Liefs” (1965), to close the cycle with Marx Ernst’s “Fleurs” (1928-29).
By Efi Michalarou
I feel that my mission is over and I’m ready to leave, as I’m on near the exit and see the “Igloo Fibonacci” (1970) by Mario Mertz. And yet my tour this last Sunday of January at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris extends and move from space to space. At the next room the works of Jan Dibbets absorb me, “Duo X” (1976-2014), opposite painting flirts with photography at “Shortest Day at my House in Amsterdam” (1970) and a horizon gives me the breaths I need just like the photograph’s title “Horizon” (2007). Brion Gysin’s “Dreamachine” (1961), a light and a cylinder with slits cut in the sides that is placed on a record turntable and rotated at 78 rpm, inside a white semi-circular room emits light creating a dipole of light and shadow, in an atmosphere that for others is dreamy and for others is stressful. For me it is like an emergency alarm to dream, the artwork sounds the alarm that if we stop dreaming we will be lost!!! My only objection is that the Museum’s officers do not guide the visitor to the way he will experience the work, it is “viewed” with the eyes closed. Ian Hamilton’s sculpture is succeeded by the work “Des blocs de pierre en diminution lente placés au fil de l’eau” (1984) of Lawrence Weiner, followed by “Cunt” (1977), an old and very good work by Gilbert & George, next to it the B&W photograph by Hamish Fulton “Bird Rock” (1984), from opposite Ι heard one voice repeating one sentence from On Kawara’s “One Million Years – Past, One Million Years – Future” (1999) next to it is Barbara Kruger’s sweeter and touching work entitled “We are Not Sugar and Spice and Everything nice” a B&W photo with red frame, above on a small screen is projected Jenny Holzer’s “Series Terissons, living and survival” (1983-84) delimiting the epilogue. An inscription by Jenny Holtzer, small like a gravestone with the same title but created in 1981, introduces us to the last room of the Museum, Hans Haacke “Cube de Condensation” (1963-65), on the lit podium, an empty thick plexiglass cube, semantically refers to sayings objections and quotations dissent about the work of art during previous years. For me the real epilogue of my visit is the work “Tirage illimité “ (1968-69) by Marcel Broodthaers, we haven’t seen many of his works in our visual paths. Although Seine is flooded, the sky is crystal clear and the cold bite on this side of the city where three museums encompass the Eiffel Tower (Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris-Palais de Tokyo- Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac).
