On Thursday we went to Grand Palais to see the new exhibition monumenta. Every year, one artist is invited to take on the challenge of filling the space. Grand Palais is a massive space, made for large expositions long ago. Anish Kapoor is the artist chosen this year.
His piece is a massive inflated shape that can be viewed from the inside, and out. First you walk inside through a special revolving door that keeps the 30pounds of pressure per 1msq in. You are then flooded in red light coming from the piece. It is lit from the great glass ceiling above and as you can see from my photos, it changes with the weather above. We were lucky enough to come on a day that was sunny and cloudy, so we got to see some of the light changes.
When the sun came out you were able to see the shadows from the ceilings architecture on the piece.
When the clouds came over, the space darkened, and you could no longer see any shadows, and the space was transformed into a more visceral atmosphere.
After you are finished inside, you are invited to walk around the beast. 7km of vinyl was used to create the piece. It is most definitely monumental.
The outside gives the piece a completely different feeling. On the inside you have a small amount of space to walk in, you cannot see the whole shape, and it doesnt seem as large. The light streams in and you can see outside somewhat. From the outside, you are overwhelmed by the sheer size of the piece, and surrounded by the beauty of the building it really has a completely different feeling. The material is opaque from this side, and no light is seen from within. The colour is more a dark purple.
I really enjoyed seeing this show. From what I have seen of the previous years shows, this one is by far the best.
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