View from Louis XIII statue Place des Vosges on Vik Muniz's Pictures of Garbage
Photography-Art,  Seeing Paris

Paris Design Week is Too Short!

While taking a shortcut through Place des Vosges, my eyes saw photographs. My eyes really saw pictures of garbage. Place des Vosges is on the annual exhibition circuit for Paris Design Week. Paris Design Week is too short! Over 350 exhibitors and I only saw three in two days! “Pictures of Garbage”, new types of flooring in a bench display, and artsy designs in the Orangerie. You can’t just pass on by, you have to stay and study and enjoy!

The exhibition of Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, is called “Pictures of Garbage”. Mr. Muniz uses existing materials for his art, other people’s trash. Up close and like a collage, I could see the pieces that formed shapes and shadows. The photographer used computers, components, cables, tiny plastics circles or cast away colorful shoes and plastic sandals to create images that from a distance appear to be photographs of paintings. More “garbage” contributes to the display. The displayed designs sit on wood shipping crates from an art gallery’s exhibition. The copper frames are thrown away copper Muniz found in the trash bin outside the Fifth Arrondissement’s city hall.

The designs at Place des Voges continued. A woman was sitting on a bench with black wood slats. The black contrasted with the red brick and quarried light stone of the Queen’s Pavilion. New types of parquet flooring were the components of these designed benches.

Pierre Gonalons a designer and interior architect specializing in French heritage and art history opened his temporary gallery with French doors wide open to the garden of the Hôtel de Sully. The interior-designed art (furniture, lamps, rugs, dressing screen) on display appeared to belong in the long room with the Louis XIII style chimney. The Orangerie appeared as a warm and cozy living room without the chimney fire being lit. His design pieces are located at his regular gallery in the Véro-Dodat Passage in the first arrondissement. You will see it if you are passing by or stopping in to buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes (art themselves!)

Paris Design Week is an annual event. This year more than 350 exhibitors were scattered In four districts: Opéra/Concorde/Étoile, Palais-Royal/Marais/Bastille, Rive Gauche and the Paris Design Week Factory. Paris Design Week is too short!

Art de la Table and On the Wall at M&O

Christian Louboutin Exhibition(iste)