“Gakona” at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris

by | Mar 21, 2009 | Writing | 3 comments

Roman Signer, Parapluies, 2009
Courtesy Galerie Art:Concept, Paris, Photo: André Morin

I recently wrote a review of the Palais de Tokyo’s group show “Gakona,” an exhibition featuring Ceal Floyer, Roman Signer, Laurent Grasso and Micol Assaël inspired by the secretive experiments with electromagnetism supposedly being carried out by the American government in smalltown Alaska. And while I did love the show, especially the audacious sculptural installations by Signer and Grasso, I was even more impressed by the Palais de Tokyo itself as a model for a contemporary art gallery.

An aerial view of the Palais de Tokyo along Paris’ Seine

Built as Tokyo’s exhibition grounds for the Universal Exhibition of 1937, the building that houses the Palais de Tokyo has a fairly standard layout for a contemporary art gallery, but it was the way in which they used the space to facilitate programming that was really impressive. Alongside the main exhibition room which held the group show, there are also two rotating smaller galleries called “modules” that present new projects by local artists each month and a new rooftop space that currently hosts Hotel Everland: a touring one room hotel created by Swiss artists L/B (Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann). There is also a cafe and lounge inside the gallery which are free and open to the public (both were packed while we were there), an amazing artist multiples store and an impressive bookshop. The fact that the gallery is fairly centrally located, and open until midnight (!) every day certainly helps to bring people in.

Hotel Everland on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo.
A one night stay costs 375 Euros.

But I think what most impressed me was the gallery’s public programming initiatives. Alongside weekly events programmed to accompany the main exhibitions that included presentations by the local chapter of Dorkbot and presentations by scientists and researchers, the gallery also features a “Bureau des Médiateurs” or an Animateur Office where the facilitators stay throughout the day, awaiting visitors’ questions or requests for tours. Their office functions as a normal office would, with computers and desks, but also features a library for visitors and an ongoing screening room where art films and commercial movies related to the topic of the current show are screened for free. The gallery’s quarterly magazine, Palais, which you can pick up for 1 Euro at the admissions desk, likewise features articles in English and French and melds contemporary art stories (like interviews with artist Laurent Grasso) with non-art related topics (like a feature on amateur experiments with electrical currents and a short story about Nikola Tesla by Cory Doctorow).

Inside the Palais de Tokyo, from www.ivarhagendoorn.com

Altogether, the Palais de Tokyo manages to create a really accessible, fun and playful environment where serious and compelling contemporary art is presented to the public in a new way. It felt a lot like a science centre for adults, which I’m sure was helped by the topic of the show, but the decided lack of pretense and amount of bubbling noise and laughter in the gallery was so strange and refreshing. It seemed like the physical manifestation of what so many contemporary art galleries in North America aspire to be, but never quite manage to achieve. Though, as Cait pointed out, the fact that we found it so engaging and accessible was because it drew so much from skate culture, which is something that might alienate older audiences that are traditionally museums’ key demographics.

In any case, I highly recommend it for anyone who’s heading to Paris any time soon and would love to hear thoughts from others who have been there.

3 Comments

  1. Ryan Millar
    Ryan Millar on March 26, 2009 at 10:14 am

    I’ve never been, but I will rectify that the next time I’m in Paris. You make it sound awesome, so I believe it to be so.

    Reply
  2. Gabby
    Gabby on March 26, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    I think it’s totally up your alley, so you should definitely try and check it out.

    I still feel guilty we didn’t make it up to visit while we were there. The trip created a Europe travel bug for Cait, though, and now she wants to go everywhere, so hopefully we can rectify the situation soon.

    Reply
  3. Aimee
    Aimee on May 1, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    By and large one of my favorite contemporary art exhibits in a long time. As both an exhibition designer and curator, I found not only the content intriguing and dialogue inducing, but the open and minimalist layout to be refreshing after spending days on end at the Louvre and d’Orsay. Either way, the Palais de Tokyo has never failed to deliver.

    If you have been to the Palais and loved it, hopefully you were able to see Nicolas Bourriaud’s (Palais’ co-founder and exquisite essayist) work as chief curator of the Tate Britain’s Triennial, “Altermodern”.

    Reply

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