Paris: An Impromptu Art Crawl

After a day of walking the city with my camera, I decided it might be fun try something a little more local, adventurous and cultural, so I signed up for an art crawl.

My companions consisted of an eclectic group: an Italian girl who had just moved to Paris, a Koran girl who was spending a month in Paris "to see art," a couple of middle aged Parisian guys, a couple from Paris, three or four hipster-looking 20-something locals, one of which, as it turns out works in the film business as well, a French indie director, and our guide.

First, a disclaimer: I don't pretend to understand any of what I saw, this is just one evening's experience. Also, I could get any of the artist's information, not having written it down, thinking there would be a summary of it available later, although there was not.

The first place we visited was a temporary display from a postmodern curator in a very grand building, a very nice experience, completes with free champagne and hors d'oeuvres.

Having just visited the Picasso museum the day prior, I was struck with the artist's cubist influences, with a street-art or graffiti-style esthetic.

The next stop, a brisk walk and subway ride away, was an erotic art "showcase" that can only be described as "surreal," and not in a good way. Just as we arrived, a woman was finishing up a speech in French, treating the packed room to an introduction for what we were about to witness. Exactly WHAT we witnesssed, I'm not sure I can say.

An older man in a leather jacket was leading an older woman around... well he wasn't really leading, he was following... and she was dressed up in some kind of horse-outfit, or horse-themed outfit, with a bit in her moth and enormously high heels. He sort of followed as she pranced around... for about 5 minutes. This is all that happened, after which the room politely clapped.

Meanwhile, brilliantly dressed Parisians looked on, somewhere disinterested, somewhat bored, as they sipped glasses box wine (BAD box wine).

One of my companions tried to explain to me: it has something to do with S&M. Basically, we all failed to "get" it.

I didn't take any photos of this... in fact I kind of wanted to remove the memory of it permanently from my mind.

The next spot was in an absolutely amazing old building, filled with several excellent photography exhibits.

These prints appear to be done with the old "dye-transfer" method of printing, in which each of the primary colors are soaked in to a gelatin and then laid out over the dye-absorbant paper to create a color print. It was an obscure form of printing that Hakeem's back to my high school days, when I hung out with nature photographers in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. I was surprised to see it here in Paris!

After this gallery (by FAR the best one), our guide suggested an after party,

Somehow we ended up at an African-themed Tiki bar, whose signature drink was a 10 euro Mojito, although they did have a couple of specialty cocktails on the menu that were upwards of 40!!! Euros!

It was too dark for photography, but inside this old building was a giant ship, atop which sat tables, underneath which was a second bar.

Finally, we ended the night at a boutique, neighborhood dive bar, featuring two euro shots of pastis, a licorice-flavored liquor usually served as an aperitif, but apparently drunk on its own here.

By 2am, most of the original art patrons had give their separate ways, and my new Parisian hipster friends wanted to head elsewhere to get some late night food. I told them I needed to get up for the sunrise to do some filming and used that as my chance to leave.

I concluded this was decidedly NOT a tourist-like experience of Paris.

Am I glad I did it?

Absolutely.