Looking for a cultural break? From the Marais to Romainville through Belleville and La Villette, we’ll be your guide for this month’s selection of art exhibits!
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Beatrice Alemagna – Adieu Blanche-Neige
John Kenn Mortensen – Scary Monsters and Super Creeps
Until December 24th
“An internationally renowned author and illustrator, Beatrice Alemagna signs a unique artist’s book in 34 paintings with this free and passionate adaptation of Snow White. Haunted by the dark universe that emanates from the Grimm brothers’ tale, Beatrice first composed a series of powerful paintings, freed from the codes of illustration, to tell the story of the madness of a blinding jealousy. To build the book, she then relied on the original storyline and reversed the narrative principle to give voice to a vengeful, narcissistic and unhappy queen. She shares with the reader, in the first person, the torment caused by her hatred of her innocent stepdaughter and her obsessive desire to destroy her. The result is a breathless text, in the form of a tragic confession, carried by a singular poetry.”
“For its traditional end-of-year event, the Arts Factory gallery puts away the magic of Christmas and brings out the monsters from the closet with the first exhibition in France of the Danish artist John Kenn Mortensen! Born in 1978, this atypical figure of the Scandinavian art scene lives and works in Copenhagen. A producer and director of children’s television programs by day, he swaps storyboards and cameras for a notebook of post-it notes, his favorite medium, at nightfall. An economy of means that allows him to give life to a whole gallery of creatures, gently scary in all circumstances.”
Monday to Saturday: 12:30pm-7:30pm – Sunday: 2pm-6pm – Free admission
Galerie Arts Factory
27 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris
www.artsfactory.net
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Dominique Bertail, Jean-David Morvan, et Madeleine Riffaud – Madeleine, résistante
Closing date to be confirmed
On August 23rd, 1944, during the Liberation of Paris, the resistance fighter Madeleine Riffaud led a victorious attack on a German train near the Buttes-Chaumont tunnel. This day also arked her twentieth birthday. After the Liberation, she kept on fighting as a journalist for Ce Soir, Vie ouvrière, and then for L’Humanité. Also a poet, Madeleine Riffaud started testifying about her experiences in the Resistance in 1994, in the line of Lucie and Raymond Aubrac. She adressed Parisian classrooms and, more recently, appeared on television and documentaries. Published this year by Aire Libre – Dupuis from a scenario co-written with Jean-David Morvan and drawings by Dominique Bertail, the illustrated story of her life has just been awarded the Goscinny Prize. In this exhibition, drawings from the graphic novel remind us of the attack on the German train in August 1944, on the very spot where this episode of the Liberation took place. – Our article on Madeleine Riffaud and these events (French)
Outdoors – Free admission
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
Rue de Crimée, 75019 Paris
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Maria Barrio – Niña : une peinture de genres
Until January 9th
“Maria Barrio explores childhood with an autobiographical exhibition that serves not only to reconstruct moments of her life in images, to extract from memory spatial, emotional, as well as sonic landscapes, but also to show the viewer, the one who decides to look in detail, the experiences of a girl, a Latin American girl, a universal girl. Resistance of a girl, resistance of the spirit, resistance by and through art. The finger and the brush thus aim not only to recreate and recover, to draw from the past, but also to show, highlight, and denounce.” — Maria Elvira Alvarez Gimenez
Wednesday to Friday: 2pm-7pm – Saturday: 1pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie DerniersJours
5 rue Saint-Blaise, 75020 Paris
derniersjourscom.wordpress.com
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Camille Benarab-Lopez – Peines perdues
Until December 18th
“It is a truism: we live in a world saturated with images. What’s the point, then, of adding more? In this supermarket of images, Camille Benarab-Lopez is a gleaner: using screen captures, photocopies and scans with assumed blurs, she recovers representations of others in the course of her curiosity-fueled wanderings on the Internet and in libraries. Bits of photographs, corners of paintings, she exhumes details and tiny lives in new materials, and the images made plastic become sculptures. Through their textures, they offer themselves as texts to be deciphered, as renewed vanities: flowers join shells, family archives are printed on advertising catalogs from the seventies, or are buried, haunted, under obscure baroque paintings. Composite materials and fertile anachronisms meet with a surrealist malice.” — Ysé Sorel
Wednesday to Saturday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie Chloé Salgado
61 rue de Saintonge, 75003 Paris
galeriechloesalgado.com
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Delphine Diallo – Divine
Until December 23rd
“Delphine Diallo has lived and worked in New York since 2008. Passionate about anthropology, mythology and martial arts, the visual artist and photographer is committed, like a warrior, for women and diversity. According to her, art is like “an access to enlightenment, wisdom, fear, beauty, ugliness, mystery, faith, strength and fearlessness”. Her work is first and foremost an activist commitment as much as an artistic one to defend the eminence of the spirit and soul of black women through portraits both dignified and powerful.”
Thursday & Friday: 2pm-6:30pm – Saturday: 11:30am-6:30pm – Free admission
Fisheye Gallery
2 rue de l’Hôpital Saint-Louis, 75010 Paris
www.fisheyegallery.fr
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Samuel Fosso – Retrospective
Until March 13th
“Born in 1962 in Cameroon, Fosso survived the civil war in Nigeria before settling to live with his uncle in Bangui in the Central African Republic, where he began his career as a studio photographer at the age of 13. Outside of his daily work making portraits to order, he started creating a series of alternate identities challenging representational conventions. Ever since Fosso has continued to reinvent himself through his self-portraits which have allowed him to reach beyond the limitations usually imposed by society, geography, and time. Comprising more than 300 prints, the exhibition brings together iconic series, lesser-known works, as well as archival material and previously unpublished, unseen images, displayed principally in large-scale ensembles.”
Wednesday to Friday: 11am-8pm – Saturday & Sunday: 10am-8pm – €11/€7
Maison européenne de la photographie
5/7 Rue de Fourcy, 75004 Paris
www.mep-fr.org
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Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige – Rewind Fast Forward
Until December 18th
“The territory on which we stand trembles, wavers, collapses? Intense temporal and spatial collisions, continuities and discontinuities, everything is upside down. The past on the surface and the present well buried, the future untraceable? Rupture, catastrophe, we wait for regeneration. So we scrutinize the world under our feet. […] Possible stories, secret tales, waiting, for those who still need to believe.”
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am-7pm – Free admission
Galerie In Situ – Fabienne Leclerc
43 Rue de la Commune de Paris, 93230 Romainville
www.insituparis.fr
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Marie Havel, Matthieu Kavyrchine, Corentin Lespagnol, et Richard Müller – Salon de photo / Artifices
Until December 10th
Description à venir.
Tuesday to Friday: 2pm-7pm – Saturday: 1pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie La Ferronnerie
40 rue de la Folie-Méricourt, 75011 Paris
www.galerielaferronnerie.fr
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Constance Labbé & Viviana Morizet – Réanimé
Until January 14th
At the time of the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, the staff of the intensive care unit of the Tenon hospital agreed to welcome photographers Constance Labbé and Viviana Morizet for two weeks. The touching sound exhibition born from this experience, Réanimé (Reanimated), can be discovered until January 14th on the walls of the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin. Through a series of 17 photographs, the two artists bring us into the trying daily life of the teams confronted with the first peak of the crisis, illustrating the efforts and solidarity required to face unprecedented days and nights. Their photographs are accompanied by a soundtrack orchestrated by cellist Mathyas Vj, “who composed an original music, integrating sounds, machine noises, and about thirty testimonies of caregivers” recorded on site. — Our article (French)
Outdoors on the walls of the Pavillon – Free admission
Pavillon Carré de Baudouin
121 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris
mairie20.paris.fr
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Aloïs Marignane – Paris 19e
Until January 31st
Great news for all those who love Eastern Paris: after illustrating the districts of the 20th arrondissement in a series of vibrant posters, local artist Aloïs Marignane crosses Rue de Belleville with another project, this time dedicated to the neighboring 19th district! From Buttes-Chaumont to La Villette, passing by the Place de Stalingrad and the rising bridge of Rue de Crimée, this collection of iconic places from the north-eastern corner of the capital is presented at the café L’Atalante, right by Canal de l’Ourcq. — Our interview with Aloïs Marignane (French)
Monday: 5pm-12am – Tuesday to Thursday: 5pm-1:30am – Friday & Saturday: 12pm-1:30am – Sunday: 12pm-12am
L’Atalante
26 quai de la Marne, 75019 Paris
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Dean Monogenis – Continuous Coast
Until January 15th
“Dean Monogenis is an American artist of Greek heritage who lives and works in Brooklyn. His paintings feature dreamy spaces in which architectural and natural elements interlace. He depicts modernist buildings, colorful scaffoldings, imaginary architect houses in the middle of rocky landscapes taken over by wild vegetation. Balancing between reality and fantasy, his artworks embody a permanent state of transition, an ongoing dialogue between urbanisation and nature, forging an utopian vision with a dystopian touch.”
Tuesday to Friday: 10am-1pm & 2pm-7pm – Saturday: 10am-7pm – Free admission
Xippas
108 rue Vieille-du-Temple, 75003 Paris
www.xippas.com
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Jiratchaya Pripwai & Imhathai Suwatthanasilp – Entrelacs
December 4th-19th
“Galerie Arnaud Lebecq continues its exploration of Thailand’s art scene with its new exhibition, Entrelacs, which brings together two women around the medium of drawing: Jiratchaya Pripwai and Imhathai Suwatthanasilp. Jiratchaya Pripwai’s remarkable artistic skills are expressed through series of monochrome drawings made of intertwined lines. Since her first solo exhibition, Between the Lines, at Numthong Gallery in Bangkok in 2011, she has developed a drawing practice that reflects her personal notebooks. Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s signature style is to transform human hair into sculptural art, but her work with drawing is equally compelling. The series of drawings on view draw their inspiration from the natural environment surrounding her studio in Lampoon province, northern Thailand.”
Tuesday to Sunday: 12pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie arnaud Lebecq
20 rue des Gravilliers, 75003 Paris
galeriearnaudlebecq.com
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Terra Rossa Lab – Fractures
Until December 18th
“The fracture, they said, is a wound, a tangible sign that affects the human being and becomes a scar, it insinuates itself into the memory of peoples and individuals and generates a trauma. The interest of Terra Rossa Lab aims, first of all, to document the traces of the fracture-wound, to welcome its voice, its fragility, to caress its cracks. There follows an almost therapeutic operation by which giving form to the wound, without hiding it, but transfiguring it so that it heals, can become a testimony, a cathartic act and, why not, a teaching.”
Thursday to Sunday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie des Ateliers d’artistes de Belleville
1 rue Francis Picabia, 75020 Paris
ateliers-artistes-belleville.fr
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Éloi Valat – Dessiner la Commune
Until December 18th
“Éloi Valat is an artist and author of several books dedicated to the 1871 Paris Commune: Le Journal de la Commune, L’Enterrement de Jules Vallès, La Semaine sanglante de la Commune de Paris, Louises, les femmes de la Commune, and the essay Dessiner la Commune. The exhibition, whose title echoes this last publication, features 30 original framed drawings. The principle of creating the drawings in a single throw leads to a reflection on images and representations, in particular through the lens of history. Dessiner the Commune is accompanied by a 18-minute film including drawings and commentary.”
Monday to Saturday: 8:30am-5pm (7:30pm on Thursdays) – Free admission
Mairie du 20e arrondissement
Place Gambetta, 75020 Paris
faisonsvivrelacommune.org
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Seula Yi – Blue in City
Until January 22nd
“Seula is a lover of cities. A world traveler, she goes from East to West, from North to South, stopping in megalopolises, with long sidewalks, immense towers, bridges spanning waters that are not always clear. New York, London, Berlin, Seoul… In these sprawling cities that capture us like giant octopuses, Seula draws the day, the night, the seasons that follow each other and the people who inhabit them. In her gouache and watercolor paintings, she tenderly transposes the poetry and beauty of the urban world.”
Monday to Saturday: 11am-7pm – Free admission
Slow Galerie
5 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris
www.slowgalerie.com
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La Petite Collection
December 9th-18th
“La Petite Collection is a project initiated by the artist Florence Lucas. She discovered the craze for the postcard, an object of curiosity loved by collectors and artists alike. Apart from a few initiatives, postcards are rarely exhibited, as evidenced by the scarcity of catalogs and exhibitions on this theme. The uses of the postcard are numerous, but the issues it raises in the field of art and beyond are no less so: a reflection on the scale of the work of art in an age of gigantism, on the notion of reproducibility, on the price and circulation of works, etc. This project allows us to rethink our relationship to the work of art, from the single to the multiple, as well as to consider another scale of creation. This year, more than one hundred artists are participating in La Petite Collection.”
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am-7pm – Free admission
Galerie Bertrand Grimont
43 rue de Montmorecy, 75003 Paris
www.lapetitecollection.art
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L’Enfer
Until January 15th (Closed from December 24th to January 2nd)
“At the initiative of Galerie Sabine Bayasli, the painter Olivier Masmonteil is curating his first exhibition by bringing together fifty artists invited to imagine their ‘Hell’, in reference to the old library sections dedicated to prohibited or immoral books. Focusing mainly on small formats, the exhibition recreates the atmosphere of an intimate boudoir, in which the eye slips as close as possible to the artworks. Erotic drawings, obscene paintings, blasphemous sculptures, apocalyptic photographs: the ensemble follows this precept of the no less anti-conventional Georges Bataille: ‘the necessity to dazzle and to blind’.”
Galerie Sabine Bayasli
99 rue du Temple, 75003 Paris
galeriesabinebayasli.com
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Cabinet de curiosités
December 9th-21st
“We have imagined our exhibition of small formats in the form of a Cabinet of Curiosities, with an unusual scenography for an alternative look at things… Let’s have fun! For the holidays, offer living art: greeting cards, drawings, paintings, photos, prints, sculptures, art for all budgets and for all tastes. The exhibition will feature over forty artists.”
Monday to Friday: 4pm-8pm – Saturday & Sunday: 2pm-8pm – Free admission
Artistes de Ménilmontant – Galerie Ménil’8
12 rue Boyer, 75020 Paris
ateliersdemenilmontant.org
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CollectOR
From December 16th to January 9th
A group exhibition featuring Agrume, Ardif, Codex Urbanus, Nadège Dauvergne, Dawal, Ender, Etus, Philippe Hérard, Mahn Kloix, Levalet, Marquise, Mika, Mani, Ned, Nosbé, Petitepoissone, Jérôme Rasto, Sax, Thomas, and Vermibus – More information to come.
Tuesday to Sunday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission
Le Cabinet d’amateur
12 rue de la Forge Royale, 75011 Paris
www.lecabinetdamateur.com
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Festival au Carré
Until December 11th
“The program Festival au Carré features music, theater, dance, exhibitions, urban art, projections, and workshops for children. Open to everyone, this event will also be an opportunity to discover local artists through diverse and previously unseen performances. On the first floor, the exhibition Territoires d’artistes brings together the Ateliers du Père Lachaise Associés, the Ateliers des Artistes de Belleville, and the Artistes de Ménilmontant to present nearly one hundred artworks. The second floor features several installations and performances: Le Salon volant by Alexis Paul, Ecologie culturelle by the street artist Rouge, and screenings of short films by the association Plus Loin. The program also includes workshops, lectures, and dance and theater performances.”
Tuesday to Saturday: 2pm-6pm (until 7pm on Thursdays) – Free admission
Pavillon Carré de Baudouin
121 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris
www.pavilloncarredebaudouin.fr
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Lumières !
Until January 2nd
“To close this special year, La Villette will be draped in lights, matching its vegetation and singular architecture. Several installations will enchant the park for an immersive experience. The first installation, From the light Flow, by the group F, declines the marvelous, connected to the delicate electronic landscapes of Scott Gibbons. The stroll continues along the canal with the Constellations of the tandem 1024 architecture. At the water’s edge, moonbeams align themselves with elegance in a great galactic ballet, a monumental ode to the beauty of life. The reverie continues with Intimacy, an artwork by Lélia Demoisy, who uses the glow of luminescent circles to change our perception of space. The installation helps us discover the well-kept secrets of the vegetal world.”
Thursday & Sunday: 5pm-10pm – Friday & Saturday: 5pm-11pm – Free admission
La Villette
Parc de la Villette, 75019 Paris
lavillette.com
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Rencontres inattendues
Until December 15th
“The contemporary art fund – Paris Collections invites itself into the public space until December 15th. More than 80 works will be exhibited in everyday places. Whether the discovery is unexpected or not, the desire behind this exhibition is to provoke an unprecedented encounter between artworks from the fund’s collection and the public, Parisians who are not yet familiar with this shared heritage. Throughout the city, in forty or so places frequented daily by their users, Rencontres inattendues will feature contemporary works from various fields – painting, sculpture, photography, graphic arts, video, installations.”
Opening hours depending on the venues – Several outoors artworks – Free admission
Paris
Different locations
quefaire.paris.fr
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Visages du monde ouvrier (1880-1940)
Until January 29th
“At the dawn of the twentieth century, photography was essentially the result of a staging that tended to show an idealized image of workers, defined solely by their task and their tools. However, by the quality of the workers’ presence, the dignity of their posture, the intensity of their gaze, the photograph managed to escape the intention of the commissioner. Beyond the details that inform us about the working-class condition, what holds our attention, fascinates us, are the faces, this place of the body where the personality is lodged, this most unique and irreplaceable part of the individual. Just like photography, the face is a sensitive surface on which lasting traces are imprinted. The workers wear the marks of their labor on their faces, but at the same time, by their singularities and mysteries, these faces constantly escapes those who want to reduce it to an object.” — Marion & Philippe Jacquier
Wednesday to Saturday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission
Galerie Lumière des roses
12-14 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 93100 Montreuil
lumieredesroses.com
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Illustration (cropped):
How Does Agency Feel, 2021 – Acrylic on wood panel
© Dean Monogenis – Courtesy of the artist and Xippas
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