French Vision

The Pompidou Centre in Paris presents an exhibition for the first time focussing on dance and the visual arts from the early 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century.

Danser sa vie (Dancing One’s Life) brings together the most significant works of modern and contemporary art, as well as research by dancers and contemporary artists. Visitors can explore different conceptions of the body in movement through the visual arts (paintings, sculptures, installations, audiovisual works) and the art of choreography.

Three major components are at the heart of the tour: the La danse des sens (dance of the senses) from Auguste Rodin to Matthew Barney, l’abstraction du corps (the abstraction of the body) from Loie Fuller and Alwin Nikolais and le corps comme événement (the body as an event) from Dada to Jérôme Bel. Works by Alexander Calder, Yves Klein, André Derain, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso will also be on show.

From now to April 2, 2012

Access:

• Metro: Hôtel de Ville
• RER : Châtelet Les Halles
• Bus : 21, 29, 38, 47, 58, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, 81, 85, 96

“Exquisite Ephemera” is a temporary exhibit in two parts presented simultaneously at the Musée de la Poupée-Paris and at Choco-Story, the chocolate museum, showing a selection of the best Victorian scraps from the ODIN collection.

These two complementary exhibits show images representing children playing with dolls for the Musée de la Poupée and chocolate trading cards representing children from 1875 to 1915 for the chocolate museum Choco-Story.

The images presented in the exhibit were made through the chromolithography technique, a printing method that preceded four-color printing. The images were printed with a lithography process in which each color had a separate printing phase. There could be up to 20 colors, gilding and silvering. Some of these scraps were embossed and die-cut.

These scraps were used as trading cards, given for advertising purposes or won by the clients after collecting points included in various products or purchased as decorative items. They usually represent cherished, well-fed, happy and nice children. This popular aesthetical cliché has long been looked down by major Art lovers, but regains interest, today, for its happy, warm and accessible aestheticism.

Victorian scraps, that seemed to have disappeared for several decades are coming back strongly, today, with the development of manual activities such as scrap booking or multimedia leisure that integrate these highly decorative images.

From October 05th, 2011 to March 11th, 2012

Access:

• Metro:  Rambuteau
• RER : Châtelet Les Halles
• Bus : 29, 38, 47,