Queueing for three hours (Tour Paris 13)

Last day in Paris. After a lazy morning, I arrived at Tour Paris 13. Tour Paris 13 is an abandoned apartment block in Paris 13th district by the river Seine. At arrival I saw the big crowd outside the building queueing for entrance. It's a grey and cold Sunday in October and I find my place in the queue.

Tour Paris 13 on the quai d'Austerlitz. Calligraffiti by eL Seed

Tour Paris 13 is an unique exhibition for street art. About hundred international artists have used seven months to paint the building and apartments inside. 4500 square meeters over 9 floors. I would really like to see this.

piece by Tore

The queue moved really slowly and I got to know that they only let 45 people inside at the time. After 1 hour I had just moved some meters.

Dan23 portrait and Elseed Calligraffiti

The organisers believes it is the largest temporary street art and graffiti project of its kind and open for one month, October 2013. The building is planned to be demolished by the end of the year, but there are still people who refuse to move out. After two hours in line, I was starting to loose hope. Two hours to closing time and people around was restless. We began to think that this would not go. Some left, but I decided to stay for a while more. This was my last opportunity to see this during my visit to Paris this time.

After three hours it was beginning to get dark and it began to rain. A security person came by and told that we would not be able to enter before closing time. We were wet, cold and hungry and I realized that I would never see this exhibition inside. I was really disapointed. Can't be lucky every time. I had a good time in the line and learned something important: The project and street art is way more popular than I had anticipated, and I have to plan more carefully around this next time.

Mona Lisa by Inti

Relaxing on fron of a piece by Kazar

Raiden by STeW

After a while the crowd dissolved and many went dissapointed home that evening. I got a feeling of the project at least and took photos of the works outside.

Jef Aerosol: Shhh!

When I'm in Paris, I always find my way to the open space outside the Pompidou Centre. Its so nice to sit and relax by the Stravinsky fountain. I's like a peaceful small island in the middle of the city where the old meets the new. The fountain is between the old church of Saint-Merri and the contemporary centre of modern art, Pompidou. The fountain is inspired by the music of Igor Stravinsky. The sculptures in the fountain is colourful and funny, while others are iron figures painted black that moves like simple mechanical devices, empowered by the water it self. Behind the fountain, you'll see a huge piece of spray painted street art, a face on the wall saying: Shhh! According to the maker Jef Aerosol the message of the mural is “Stop, look and appreciate the city.” And yeah, like me, many stop here to slow down and enjoy the space and the atmosphere.

Jef Aerosol, from Lille in france, is one of the pioneers of urban art, stencil art and street art. He made his first works in the streets in 1982 and the piece on the picture above is made in 2011. It's probably the most photographed street art piece in the world. I had a good rest and was quitely appreciating the city I love so much.

Can't find a better song to accompany this post than "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf (click on the link or the "play" button in the box below to listen).

C215: City Portraits!

I took this photo this summer (2012) in Paris. I was sitting on the tube on my way to a public park, Bois De Vincennes, right outside the centre of Paris. The train had just crossed the river Seine when I spotted this piece of street art. I forgot about the park for a while and jumped off at the next station and walked back to the river and took a closer look. The signature, C215, was familiar to me. I had seen works of this artist in Bergen, Oslo and London before. 

C215 is a nickname where C stands for Christian which is his real name and 215 is the number of the room where he decided to be an artist, full time. His full name is Christian Guemy and have not been as secretive about his real identity as Banksy. C215 started with stencil art in 2006 and uses a self developed and advanced stencil technique in making his street art. He is known for making illegal works in broad day light and work on several pieces simultaneously in the same area. This video gives and impression of how C215 works. His motives are various, but mostly portraits of humans (e.g. beggars, street kids, homeless people), his daughter and cats. Motives that fit quite well in their urban environment and he seems to avoid prosecution or other forms of sanctions for his work.

It was a lovely day in Paris and my walk in Bois De Vincennes was beautiful. My interest for street art have trained my eye to see and find art in the urban environment. I pick Downtown Train by Tom Waits to accompany this post (click on the link or "play" button below to listen).

Travel: Poitou-Charentes

France is divided into 22 regions with all together 96 departments. Poitou-Charentes is a region in the middle western part of france and consists of 4 departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne.

This story is mostly about Charente. In the heart of Charente is the biggest town Angouleme. The department of Charente is named after the river Charente which runs through the district.

The biggest cities is Angouleme and Cognac. For me, both were new places, I’ve of course heard of Cognac and the famous alcohol drink made of grape wine. The area is famous for their cognac houses and destilleries. I was more exited about Angouleme. The city organises the largest comic festival in Europe, and every january about 200 000 visitors travels to the city for Angouleme International Comics festival. It’s the beginning of July, so I am far to early for the festival, but I’ve heard about the murals and wall paintings in the town. And I have a friend who lives there and could show me around.

Angouleme is a beautiful city on the hill. In the middle of the city I found a statue of Herge, the creator of Tintin

The city is full of beautiful murals

The river Charente runs slowly through Cognac and is a popular for boat trips

Except the cities, Charente is a fertile agricultural district with beautiful nature and small villages. I lived in the small village of Massac while staying there. Grape and Sunflower fields as long as the eye can see.

Small villages and easy atmosphere

Beautiful landscapes

In the west (Charente-Maritime), Saintes and Saint-Jean-D’Angely are two beautiful cities west in the region. Old towns with calm atmosphere. Its nice to travel around in the area and quite relaxing. There is much to see and this time I didn’t go to the coast and the main cities there, I was driving out of the region down to Bordeaux.

Saint-Jean-D'Angely

Saintes

Bordeaux