i just have to laugh at the entry before this one and this one also---can we tell which days I was PMS-ing??? HA HA!!! geez---why we gotta be women, huh?
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today i didn't feel like being a tourist. i didn't feel like being a writer--or an artist. i didn't feel like even being a photographer. or an architect. or especially a woman. today i didn't feel like getting on a tramway, or a subway, or a train. i didn't feel like "doing" or "being" much of anything.
but i pushed.
some of those things i couldn't control (like being a woman, unfortunately), but one of them i could control: no subway today. so i took a tramway to the middle of the city and then i started walking.
and i walked. and walked...
and walked...
i walked from the st. michel station up to notre dame and through it, past the seine and into the louvre..past a crepe station at the tuilleries gardens (oh of course i stopped!) and past the place de la concord. past and into the grand and petite palais and up the champs-elysees to end at the arc de triomphe.
six and a half hours later, i was still walking.
the thing about Paris is that it beckons you to "Be". It says to you, "Be-come". "Come-be". BE a writer. BE a painter, a sculptor--Be an artist. Be an architect. It FORCES you to become a photographer. The frenchmen force the realization that you are a woman.
Paris spoke to everything in me. About me. It whispered to me in the gardens and through the parks and said, "Come write me, walk with me....sing to me. Paint me. Photograph me--BE me".
I completely fell in the love with the City today. Walking made me feel like more a part of it. The subway has been a nice experience, but I felt like too much of my time was spent 'under' the city.
While finding my way to the champs-elysees, I stumbled upon a contemporary art installation in the Grand Palace. this was quite a welcome contradiction from the art of the Louvre and the other museums, which trust me I am NOT discounting.
I can appreciate the talent and artistry of every art era, but contemporary art is my passion. Earlier painters/artists were recognized for their talent in the area of capturing the life of an object or subject in a still representation. The intricacy and attention to detail--the fineness of the strokes or blending of colors was where their talents really proved it's value.
Contemporary art is the opposite in so many ways. Some if it is an actual representation but quite rarely is the meaning or intent behind that actuality the same as what you see.
Contemporary art challenges to see things as you normally wouldn't--or from a different perspective. It FORCES the imagination. It breaks the art down into a place of sheer nakedness--unshaven, unbathed, unclothed--and then it zooms in on an area and says, "here i am". Then it asks the question, "what do you see....and are you sure of it?".
It's raw. It's real and goes beyond the aesthetic to take you to a place where you can smell the body odor and it makes you wonder at what part of the it you are--and how you got there--and what it feels like.
This installation spoke to me--especially at a time in my life where I feel like I'm "deconstructing" myself.
the artist would not put a title or explanation on some of the art because the beauty of it was to let the individual interpret it in their own way. in this way, the art comes alive over and over with each new person's gaze--and each person's imaginations recreates the piece. it gets transformed over and over--re-birthed again and again.
contemporary art isn't only about one type of medium at a time either. it's about using whatever media necessary (paint, sculpture, film, writing, photography, construction or a combo of all) to get you to the view of a new perspective.
this installation met me there in the palace. it was melancholy. it understood me. it became me and me it.
everything about today and my walk--and especially that installation brought me out of 'me' and back into the open. it touched me. and i wanted to touch it back.
so i did.
