SHARING WITH ME

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