May 30, 2014
Recently, at the Grand Palais
We are terrible at keeping up with exhibitions. Never mind that we have annual passes that allow us to visit on multiple occasions throughout the period of the exhibitions. Instead, we typically wait till a good portion of the periods is over, then either rushed through them or risked missing them altogether. Currently, in the Grand Palais, two exhibitions are taking place: both started in early May, with one ending in about a week and another in 3 weeks. Armed with our Carte Sésame, we headed over one evening this week.
The installation of Monumenta this year is by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Russian-born artists, who brought us “The Strange City”. Indeed it is a peculiar one, for even by the main entryway, a large probe-like installation beamed changing colours amidst strange music, if you can call it that. And scattered in a few other “rooms”, there are wood carvings of flying angels and weird city layouts. Neither F nor I know what to make of these.
On the other hand, “Guerre et Paix” (i.e. War and Peace) by Portinari – actually a free exhibition for all to enter – is far more interesting. The diptych by this famous Brazilian painter normally grace the Delegates Hall of the General Assembly but are travelling, for once, to the Grand Palais before a definitive re-installation at the UN. It is a pair of powerful paintings, reflecting what war and peace bring to man. I was most intrigued and moved by the depictions of War, and found Peace as something we’re all still searching for today.