Unlock Paris: exhibitions

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Frank Gehry Retrospective - Centre Pompidou

Fondation Louis Vuitton maquette - Frank Gehry

We might as well just rename October "Frank Gehry Month" in Paris: not only is the legendary architect's spectacular, vessel-like building for the Fondation Louis Vuitton opening on the 27th October, but the first major retrospective in Europe dedicated to the his career is also opening this week at the Pompidou Centre.

The exhibition spans the Pritzker prize winner's work the world over, with 67 maquettes on display, from his debut in 1960s California right up to his iconic international projects today - including his most recent project, the afforementioned LVMH project - via the Guggenheim Bilbao, LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York's IAC building and more. From room to room we see how Gehry has revolutionised architecture's aesthetics, its social and cultural role and its relationship to the city, not only via the models on display but also through over 200 sketches - which are a long way away from tightly plotted blueprints - and Sydney Pollack's 2006 film, "Sketches by Frank Gehry." A must-see for fans of Gehry's distinctive work.

Frank Gehry

8th October 2014 - 26th January 2015

Centre Pompidou

www.centrepompidou.fr

Tatoueurs Tatoués - Musée du Quai Branly

Britain's first female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight, at work in 1955. ©Getty Images

Paris' museum of indigenous art, the Musée du Quai Branly, presents Tatoueurs Tatoués, an exhibition devoted to the practice of tattooing, with over 300 historical and contemporary works from all over the globe on display. Curated by Anne & Julien, founders of the art magazine Hey! - and in collaboration with France's most revered tattoo artist, Tin-Tin - Tatoueurs Tatoués traces the history of body art from the ritualizing decorations of traditional societies, to a means of marking criminals, to a form of sideshow spectacle, up to its present day ubiquity. On show are a vast variety of exhibits, from samples of tattooed skin (such as a swatch from 18th century Indonesia), to archival photos of the tattooed and the tattooers (such as Britain's first female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight, born 1897), tools (including Thomas Edison's 1877 stencil gun) and tattooed silicon body parts and canvases of fantasy projects created especially for the exhibition by 30 master tattooers from across the world. The exhibition also covers the art of tattooing by region, documenting the history, role and style of tattooing in Japan, North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Tatoueurs Tatoués at the Musée du Quai Branly

37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris

Open Tues-Sun, 11am-7pm (until 9pm Thurs-Sat)

Until 18th October, 2014

"Volume" tattooed especially for the exhibtion by Filip Leu

Bamboo and ebony tattoo tools from Japan - 20th century

Tattoo artist Freddy Corbin

Letters between Sailor Jerry and Ed Hardy

Old Man Tattooing a Back, Anonymous, France, 18th Century

"Volume" tattooed especially for the exhibtion by Tin-Tin

Plates made for Alexandre Lacassagne, France, early 20th century

France's most revered tattoo artist, Tin-Tin, was the artistic consultant for the exhibition

Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Centre Pompidou

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Crowd waiting outside a bank to purchase

gold during the last days of the Kuomintang,

Shanghai, China, December 1948. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos,

courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson, First paid holidays, banks of the Seine, France

1936. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos,

courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Paris' Centre Pompidou presents an extraordinarily thorough retrospective of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre, with more than 500 works spanning the artist's 70 year career. The chronological exhibition starts with the period in which Cartier-Bresson fraternised with the Surrealists and began his work as a photographer, followed by the era marked by his political engagement and his work for the Communist press, and leads on to his photo-reportage work and the creation of the Magnum Photos cooperative. Bringing together this wealth of work - which includes photographs, films, drawings and documents - the retrospective aims to show the many facets of Cartier-Bresson which, united by his eye for composition and ability to capture a singular moment, made him one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 12th February - 9th June 2014

Centre Pompidou

Every day except Tuesday, 11am - 9pm.

www.centrepompidou.fr

Decorum - Carpets and Tapestries by Artists at MaM

Paris' Museum of Modern Art (MaM) is putting textiles in the spotlight with this new exhibition, Decorum, featuring over 100 rugs and tapestries created by modern and contemporary artists from the world over. The thematic show explores a medium that was long considered a minor art form in the realm of women or craftsmen, with works that combine art and design - and are in some ways at the forefront of abstraction and installation art - from big names in the modern art world such as Louise Bourgeois, Picasso and Francis Bacon, as well as contemporary artists such as Pae White and Mike Kelley, alongside anonymous works from different periods and countries including Turkey, Iran and Morocco. The tapestries and rugs on display range from decorative pieces with geometric or patterned motifs that are both functional and esthetic, right through to sculptural works that occupy space and are essentially 3D, woven sculptures.

Paris’ Centre Pompidou presents the first retrospective of French contemporary artist Pierre Huyghe, with an eclectic show bringing together 50 of his projects spanning over the last 20 years. The works – including paintings, photography, installations, film and performance – are to be viewed in no particular order, with the viewer bouncing around the space like a pinball, guided by their own senses from pieces like Timekeeper, a hole in the wall revealing successive layers of paint left by preceding exhibitions, to L’Expedition Scintillante – Acte 3: Untitled (Black Ice Stage), a live performance of an ice-skater twisting and turning on black ice. The viewer is called upon to be a witness to the exhibition from the outset, with their name being shouted out by an announcer at the entrance of the exhibition, emphasizing the living and breathing dimension of the whole show – which also includes a live pink-legged greyhound (Human) running around between the works, a sculpture with a bee-covered head (Untilled (Ligender Frauenakt)) and an artificial micro-climate including rain, fog and snow (L’Expedition Scintillante – Acte 1: Untitled (Weather Score)). The exhibition creates its own self-perpetuating world that exists regardless of our presence, varying in time and space – but that cries out to be seen.

Hideki Seo - Swimming in the Garment

Paris' Gaîté Lyrique, a cultural centre usually dedicated to digital arts and music, is currently branching out and hosting a fashion-led exhibition called ARRGH! Monstres de Mode. Displaying over 80 eccentric outfits from contemporary designers ranging from Alexander McQueen, to Maison Martin Margiela and Issey Miyake, the exhibition explores the idea of a fashion monster, and how sartorial creations can disguise and transform the naked body into a veritably strange and otherworldly presence. Charlie le Mindu's hair-covered creations - reminiscent of the deformed bodies dreamt up by the Chapman brothers - sit near to playfully bright forms by Walter Van Bierondonck and bondage-inspired rabbit costumes from Kim Traeger to create a maze of freaky mannequins who seem to have escaped from the rarefied confines of Paris Fashion Week. A lively yet sometimes dark look at fashion and well worth a visit.

ARRRGH! Monstres de Mode

until 7th April 2013

Entry €7

La GaÎté Lyrique

3 bis rue Papin

75003 Paris

Charlie le Mindu - Kiss Freak

Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara - Monkey

Kim Traeger - Run-Over Rabbit

Sophie Calle - Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

French contemporary artist Sophie Calle has a new solo exhibition, "Pour la dernière et pour la première fois," at the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris's Marais neighbourhood. Calle, arguably one of the most important female artists of our time, explores intimate subjects and invariably produces emotionally intense and profoundly moving work (the exhibition "Rachel, Monique" about the death of her mother at Palais de Tokyo was particularly powerful).

Here, "La Dernière Image" (The Last Image) is a series of 13 works in which Calle documents how several blind men and women lost their site. Alongside a portrait of each person is the text recounting the story of how they became blind and a photograph of the last memory they have of the visible world. We see the final images of a doctor, a minibus and a sunset and read of poignant first person accounts of the moments leading up to the loss of sight. Also on display are a collection of 14 films, "Voir la Mer" (To see the sea) in which Calle documents the reactions of people from inland Turkey as they see the sea for the first time. The collection of works, examining the power of image, vision, memory and nostalgia create a moving exhibition of the type we have come to expect from the excellent Sophie Calle. Not to be missed.

Sophie Calle - Pour la dernière et pour la première fois

Galerie Perrotin

76 rue de Turenne, 75003

www.perrotin.com

8th September - 27th October 2012

Tues-Sat, 11am-7pm

What's on in Paris this Summer

The terrace at Wanderlust

Paris in August is a special place. One by one boutiques, restaurants and offices shut up shop and Parisians begin the mass exodus Southwards to their holiday destinations. The city is transformed into a ghost town, but it's not all bleakness for the rest of summer: if you know where to look, you can still enjoy Paris in August and be part of the after-hours type club that results. Here are our top picks of what to do in the capital over the coming month.

Cinema en Plein Air at La Villette

When the weather is clement, pack up a picnic and head to one of the city's two outdoor cinema festivals - Cinema en Plein Air is at the fabulous Parc de La Villette (until 26th August), and Claire de Lune travels to different venues around the capital (1st -12th August).

Indeed, if the weather is good, head along to Paris Plages (until 19th August) for a spot of sunbathing and a game of pétanque - the stretch along the Canal de l'Ourcq in the 19th arrondissement is our favourite part of the summertime event. The London Olympics are also being broadcast on giant screens at Hôtel de Ville - catch the closing ceremony on 12th August.

More outdoor frolics can be had at Wanderlust with its enormous terrace overlooking the Seine but there are also activities such as the excellent hairstyling workshops which take place indoors, should the weather turn nasty.

Gerhard Richter at the Pompidou Centre

Culture wise, there is, as ever, a plethora of exhibitions to check out in the capital. Our favourites include Intense Proximity at the newly revamped Palais de Tokyo (until 26th August), Gerhard Richter at the Pompidou Centre (until 26th September), and Wim Delvoye at the Louvre, but check out our full selection of what's on now here: On Now in Paris.

The freshly revamped Palais de Tokyo

Rock en Seine is a three day music festival on the outskirts of Paris - and tickets can be bought for one, two or all of the dates (we'll be heading there on the Friday to check out Bloc Party and Grimes). Or for something all together more highfalutin, mosey on down to the Chateau de Versailles for their summertime firework displays and concerts at the Grandes Eaux Noctures.

Call ahead before going to any restaurant or cafe or check out the very handy guide on Paris by Mouth for what is open over the summer:

And we'll be here keeping you up to date with anything fun, new and exciting happening in Paris, so stay tuned to Unlock Paris (also check out our Facebook page and twitter for all the updates)!

Cristóbal Balenciaga - at Les Docks

Paris pays tribute to Cristobal Balenciaga (1895-1972), to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the fashion designer's death, with an exhibition of the clothes the couturier collected throughout his life.

For the fifth edition of Paris' Monumenta art event, French conceptual artist Daniel Buren has taken over the Grand Palais with his exhibition Excentrique(s). Following on from Anish Kapoor's suitably monumental sculptural installation for last year's event, Buren has been faced with the challenge of filling the vast glass-and-steel structure of the Grand Palais with a specially commissioned, site-specific work.

The artist, who is known for his minimalist work, has created a bright and colourful field of transparent circles, all held up by columns in Buren's signature black and white stripes. Colour is also a central part of Buren's work, as an element that he uses to convey pure thought - as he says, "It (colour) cannot be transcribed into music, words, philosophy or anything else. It is raw!”

The viewer walks through this landscape of colour, being alternately bathed in orange, yellow, blue and green light as they pass under each circle through which the outdoor sunlight shines, making the viewer a part of the work and the work a three-dimensional and sensorial experience which fits its setting of the glass-ceilinged Grand Palais and exploits its extraordinary light.

The centre of the Grand Palais is empty of this field of coloured circles, and instead there is an open space with circular mirrors on the ground, on which the viewer can stand and see themselves and the circular and blue-stained glass roof of the Grand Palais reflected in one field of vision, again uniting the venue, the work and the viewer in one singular concept.