[backdated coz i came back too late to blog ytd. was too sleepy after the wine too]
[not every single one of my photos are here, the rest are on my Picasa albums, coz it's too much to put here > picasaweb.google.com/jianhui/ ]
le 15 Février
i wonder how many more people are there in Paris on Valentine’s Day, and the surrounding days. I suppose there would be more couples. The romantic getaway to Paris. Although unfortunately it’s blanketed by fog and cold. I suppose the idea of coming here is romantic. Where do the Parisiens go then? Maldives, for some bikini, sun, sand, ocean.
let’s break up this long and exciting post
still is cold today, brr-ingly.
made a trip to the supermarket, there goes 20 euros on perishables. and then it was so brr-ingly cold that i stayed in Lila. i read 2-3 pages of my textbook, finally. not much motivation to study when Paris is out there. I went out for a walk again. I just can’t stand staying in all day. Walked down Rue du Temple, from Place de la Republique, down to some unknown road which looked intersting and I turned. Then I walked the small streets around Georges Pompidou and Forum Les Halles. Amazingly, just one street behind Forum, there’s still whole row of seedy x-rated video shops, with curtains covering their doorways and private cabines inside. i think it’s Rue Saint-Denis or something like that.
Soon thereafter I got lost, I went off on some street, intending to walk towards Louvre, but I was walking sort of parallel to and slightly away from it. When I emerged to a main road, I saw the great Opéra Garnier, and oops wrong direction. Passed by some Passages along the way, some of which looked very expensive and high class.
Louvre was not bad today, I managed to spot new things which I haven’t noticed two years ago. I think I’ve seen 80% of the museum in my 3 visits. Some exhibits were closed, and some were out on loan.
this very freaky child and the broken head. frankly it was freaky to spot the other head after walking up close to the big sculpture. the following is the entirety
jx might like this escargot
attempt at 3-4seconds exposure
There were these people performing in the Louvre today.
It was really really impressive. It spanned many hours and travelled much of the museum. It was very nicely done. It’s just abstract and mystifying. ultimate coolness. voila.
one of the main areas where they were dancing
another place, with the Guy on the Platform and Blue Angel
they were doing blue screen stuff and interposing videos and projecting cool stuff. the pic there is the shape of blue angel’s body
doing weird movements on the platform
the other area where other performers come out every 5-10 minutes. here they are wearing this white collar thing. i dont know what it represents
here 3 girls are entangled up in this red tubing. very weird.
and there are 2 guys with their head meshed up together. doing very gay movements. really.
later on only 1 guy was left in the head mesh and the other had long tubings
at the other place, a girl takes over the guy. that guy was at it for about 2 hours. super impressive. you can also see the projected video on the screen. there was electric ‘music’ accompanying all these performances
another segment. this time with silver costumes and thin transparent plastic tubings like a super long beard. was very nice.
here’s one of the craziest. two guys with i-dunno-what, stockings?, and ah well, just see for yourself. they were doing some mirror-image performance. self-identity/self-discovery or something like that. way cool. you can see all the people gathered around.
something else. there were 2 girls, their arms in this big tube with red stuff
here’s a half-clearer pic of the white thing. something is always blur coz flash doesnt look good and they never stop moving. slow fluid movements non stop.
if you recognise the location, you would know that this is a big open space inside Louvre, with many statues scattered around. So they will just perform there, no major demarcation of performance area, so the crowd just gathers around, and then they move around freely. if they come towards you, you’ll have to move aside, sometimes they roam a distance. the earlier bits they were up at the headless winged victory sculpture, if you know, is at the other wing where Mona Lisa is. very open and fluid installation art.
AND, throughout the thing, there’s NO announcement, NO names, NO explanation. till now i dont know who they are, what organisation, and what they are doing. the entire evening they were there performing, until closing time.
Blue Angel is the title coz we think that he was the longest performing person, and he’s the most ‘dressed’ up.
there are 2 videos of some of the action:
this video is of Blue Angel outside Galerie d’Apollon. first sight of the performers.
this is downstairs. with the tangled red tubes walking around