I'm not long back from a few days away in Lille. If you've not been before it's one of France's largest cities* and is situated just 14 miles from the Belgium border. The trip had been in the diary for sometime and was planned around Joe Jackson's gig at the Théâtre Sébastopol. I'd seen he was doing a couple of dates in the UK followed by a more extensive tour in Europe. After a bit of sleuthing I soon realised that tickets, transport and digs were all cheaper in Lille than Liverpool (we're a very expensive country, if you hadn't already worked that out**) so it really was a no-brainer. Joe Jackson was superb (il l'est toujours). Likewise the beers (and food for that matter) were similarly off the charts. But tempting as it is to talk about le musique and les bières, I just want to mention a couple of art experiences that really resonated with me. Namely, a street artist calling himself Mimi; a gallery just round the corner from the hotel; and a new (to me) French fine artist.
Mimi aka Miguel Donvez is a satirical street artist. Painting in vibrant reds and blues (often stenciled) Donvez parodied the upcoming elections thru his Mimi the Clown incarnation and turned this guerilla style artwork into an eye-catching self promotion 'election campaign'. I'd vote for him.
I mentioned in the recent Photo Challenge my love of Le Tripostal - a sprawling gallery/art space where everything on the wall and floor could be/probably is an installation (fake fire extinguisher***/mop & bucket spring to mind). The sheer volume of work on display prevents me from writing about it here (even if I had the writing chops to do them justice, which I don't). I will however mention a couple of pieces which I found thought provoking and also made me laugh out loud.
Between 2000 and 2007 Julien Prévieux replied to genuine job advertisements detailing in his letters, point by point, why he would not be applying for them. Turning the humiliating ritual of the application letter into the (exceedingly rare) opportunity for the candidate to say ''You know what? This job's not for me.'' In a style reminiscent of Henry Root, the letters, and the replies, are hilarious.
Here's one (well, three to be fair) to file under futility. In a stunning triptych with the Pyramids as a backdrop we see a hapless worker sweeping sand off the highway. Imagine your job is to sweep the sand off the main highway through the Sahara Desert. And therein lies the rub; how many people's daily grind is this a metaphor for?
In a strange Backrooms kind of way I'd also like to think that by photographing the numbered zones within the gallery I was, in my own small way, creating an exhibition within an exhibition. Too meta? Yeah, you're probably right. Catch yourself on, John.
Moving on, quite literally, to un petit side street dans le old town I came across a most beguiling gallery. In it I saw some pieces by Jérémie Lainel in a style that remined me of Hockney's early California period****. I could, if I'd had a spare €15,000 on me (cheaper than two Hockneys, that's for sure) have quite easily brought this brace back on the Eurostar.
Even if Lille isn't on your list of places to go anytime soon, London may well be. And if it is, I can't recommend highly enough the Aardman Larger Than Life exhibition currently showing at the Lightroom in King's Cross. We went on the Sunday afternoon before our French getaway. And it's a joy - this fully immersive experience will absolutely blow you away. Shown on three wraparound screens some 11m high it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Wallace & Gromit, and Morph sur un putain de grand ecran! What's not to like? Please go! It's on till January '27.
* Population wise it sits anywhere between 4th. & 10th. in the league table depending upon which metrics they use to calculate populus. Football wise they're doing much better, sitting 2nd in Ligue 1 behind Paris St Germain, no less.
** How ironic then that the French are rioting over the cost of living and we're not.
*** Not much use in the event of a fire, I grant you.
**** Could I sound more pretentious?
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