SHARING WITH ME

We have been to the Piscine in Roubaix quite a few times. This time though a couple of years had flown by since my last visit. It’s one of the townships in the north, devastated by unemployment and since that the Piscine was opened in 2000 has supposedly put « Roubaix » on the map. I’m not so sure. The swimming pool was constructed between 1927 and 1932. It closed as a swimming pool in 1985, and was remodeled as a museum by the architect Jean-Paul Philippon. A modern entrance, special exhibition space and garden were constructed within the roof-less shell of an adjoining textile factory. When I get to the museum which is about a 10 minutes walk from the central station, the building always looks very gloomy to me, even if described as modern. One thing is sure that visitors come from all over Europe. As the second part of the Chagall was nearing its end, there were perhaps even more people than usual. To the extent that when I had been in there for over an hour and thought a litt

Since we came back from Strasbourg I have been looking at a rather tantalizing bill board referring to a Ai Wei Wei exhibition in one of our lush department stores, « The Bon Marché » This was the first department store in Paris at the end of the 19th century and very family oriented. Since it has been refurbished it attracts a very elitist public and I feel somewhat out of place when I go there. But I would for Ai Wei Wei. Remember that Pierrette and I saw his big exhibition in London last year ? That was referring to his imprisonment and making very political statements about life in China. In Admiration Before Artist I doubted very much that the exhibition in a department store would be like that. How right I was.  When asked about exhibiting in a store as opposed to a museum or gallery space, Wei Wei said  “People experience the art as they go about their day and something unconsciously happens”. The exhibition is called « Er Xi – Child’s Play » – and begins outside in the

I like Joelle Kem Lika’s work. Remember? I finally found her gallery a few months ago. Confirmation & Contrasts 
The opening for her new exhibition is in February but in actual fact she has her latest pictures on show already. I went along. She chatted on describing her work in detail. I enjoyed that…

I think her description is very appropriate :- « Sun orgasm »  Perhaps I might have said « Sun Explosion….. » Those wonderful moments when he sun is setting and all imaginable colors come to light. I know, as I see such a picture from my windows and the colors are changing every sunset, winter, spring, autumn or summer….it’s a marvelous discovery every time. Her work is the same. The colors explode - does it matter if it’s at the beginning or the end of a sunset? The colors seem to interweave, change, rush outward to another destination…there is so much energy in Joelle’s work….I like it for that….