“Epiphany is an unveiling of reality. What in Greek was called epiphaneia meant the appearance, the arrival, of a divinity among mortals or its recognition under a familiar shape of man or woman. Epiphany thus interrupts the everyday flow of time and enters as one privileged moment when we intuitively grasp a deeper, more essential reality hidden in things or persons. A poem-epiphany tells about one moment-event and this imposes a certain form.

A polytheistic antiquity saw epiphanies at every step, for streams and woods were inhabited by dryads and nymphs, while the commanding gods looked and behaved like humans, were endowed with speech, could, though with difficulty, be distinguished from mortals, and often walked the earth. Not rarely, they would visit households and were recognized by hosts. The Book of Genesis tells about a visit paid by God to Abraham, in the guise of three travelers. Later on, the epiphany as appearance, the arrival of Christ, occupies an important place in the New Testament.”

—-from A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz

The last three years of Salons have been rich with large and small unveilings. Sometimes it seems the insights come so thick and fast in the moment of the Salon that even as I am gasping and taking in a new idea, a new understanding of the prose before me or the humanity around me, we have galloped on to some new place- another passage, a connected meditation.

The current active Salon group- at this time, over 40 people with some 20 more interested and working towards finding time in their lives and work to participate-is an energetic and diverse community of thinkers, artists, adventurers and people seeped in the world of words. What a blessing it has been for me to work with all of these folks- and see how each inspires others.

So now is the right moment for a brief Salon break. I feel I must sift through the notes and ideas prompted by our many conversations and make some record of our work thus far. This also seems a ripe time to do research towards new works- and see what direction we want to move in….

Here are my requests then as we move forward:

• Let me know your thoughts and ideas and reflections on the Salon- what works for you, doesn’t work for you- even if you have not done a Salon but would like to in the future, what are looking for in a Salon? What would facilitate your participation?
• WORKS to STUDY : Yes, I have a list of requests from many of you (the Bible as Literature, more literature from India, post-modern works, Thackeray, V. Woolf, Beowolf, Dante, Chaucer) but more is always useful….

In the meantime, I will keep you posted as to various Salon projects….I am hoping later in January to host an evening of Art presentations…there are many in the Salon who are developing their own mode of inspiration & communication- I would love to have an evening when we can share some writing and visual or dramatic art for feedback and ideas…let me know if you are interested. One of the Salon members runs a writing workshop and we are thinking about how to perhaps integrate this into the Salon program.

The next series of Salons is scheduled to start the first week of March (week starting March 5^th) so mark your calendars and let me know what you would like to study. That series will be, by necessity, a five week series.

Keep the ideas flowing in these watery days of winter- and I send wishes of light and lightness to all in this New Year-

Toby Brothers

Director, Alesian Literary Salon

Here you will find the notes from Toni Morrison’s opening talk on The Foriegner’s Home- and thanks to Susan Luraschi who gave me the ticket!!

Link to Notes on Toni Morrison’s Presentation, Nov 6, 2006

In honor of Dr. Morrison’s presence herein Paris as the guest curator for the Louvre, I am offering a special petite Salon on Beloved. Although it feels almost disrespectful to try and discuss Beloved in six hours, I think with the right group this can be meaningful. Clearly there is interest!! I encourage those who have read or studied the work before as well asthose coming to the book for the first time.
>From the response I have had, the following dates seem to work for the majority:- and this means starting NEXT MONDAY!!!
I have studied & taught this book extensively & have most of the background work on the computer- to facilitate our starting. The cost of the Salon is sliding scale: 30-45 euro.

3 Mondays in a row: Monday Nov. 20, 27, Dec. 4….

I have studied & taught this book extensively & have most of the background work on the computer- to facilitate our starting. The cost of the Salon is sliding scale: 30-45 euro.
Please email me to reserve your place- this will be an evening Salon meeting in the 14th (or possibly more centrally…) from 8-10 PM. AS of Wednesday AM- 4 spaces available

Since Beloved is the text that impelled the Salon in the first place, I am passing on the news(that many of you have already) that Toni Morrison is the guest curator at the Louvre for the month of November. Below is the list of events that I pulled off the Louvre website- but I believe there are other events not listed there- since a Salon member just gifted me an extra ticket for her first lecture Monday the 6th. If I get any more information there, I will certainly pass it along.

In honor of Toni Morrison’s presence here in Paris- and in honor of the recent citation of Beloved as the best work of American Fiction of the last 25 years(see below), I would like to offer a Salon special. If there is enough interest, I will offer a petite Salon to meet perhaps 3 times at the convenience of the majority of participants- several Sunday nights for example, or Monday evenings or Friday afternoons or some combination- to study & discuss this work. This Salon would be enriching for those reading the book for the first time or an opportunity to revisit the work. I have found that Beloved acts as a starting gate for the glimmer of an understanding about the experience of Slavery- and from here, we can begin to discuss race issues. The book allows every reader- from all backgrounds- to grasp first the agony of the lived experience of slavery, then the struggle to try to lay claim to oneself in the aftermath of being owned. If you are interested, please email me by Nov. 10th with your preferred dates & times for meeting. If I have 8 participants, I will run this Salon.

Early this year, the Book Review’s editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.” Check out A.O. Scott’s thoughts on this idea of ‘best’: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scott-essay.html?ex=1162616400&en=6c4dbea00774db12&ei=5070

Le Louvre invite Toni Morrison

du 6 novembre au 29 novembre 2006 Conférences, Slam session, Rencontres, Lectures, Musique filmée, Rétrospective de films, Concerts

Toni Morrison, prix Nobel de littérature en 1993, présente à l’auditorium un programme développé autour d’un thème qu’on retrouve dans ses romans Jazz ou Beloved : « étranger chez soi » (The Foreigner’s Home). Colloques, conférences, lectures, cinéma, concerts, rencontres avec des écrivains et des artistes venus de tous les horizons (William Forsythe, Peter Welz, Charles Burnett, Toumani Diabaté, Michael Ondaatje, Assia Djebar …) illustreront cette thématique de manière à la fois forte et nuancée. Une exposition «Corps étrangers», trois parcours dans les départements d’Antiquites montrant bien l’intemporalité du thème et une soirée devant la peinture française du XIXe siècle consacrée à de jeunes slamers français accompagnent ce programme dans les salles du musée.Grâce au soutien de The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, d’American Friends of the Louvre, d’Agon Shu et du Festival d’Automne à Paris. Avec la participation de American Airlines, l’Hôtel Le Bristol, Jeffrey’s World of Travel et des Editions Christian Bourgois. En partenariat média avec Le Point, Le magazine littéraire, l’Histoire et RFI.Conférence d’introduction par Toni Morrison, le 6 novembre à 18h30 Rencontre entre Toni Morrison, William Forsythe et Peter Welz, le 8 novembre à 18h Slam session : improvisations poétiques dans les salles du musée, le 10 novembre à partir de 19h Conférences d’histoire culturelle «Etrangers dans les sociétés anciennes : Mésopotamie, Egypte, Grèce les 13, 16 et 20 novembre à 18h30 Journée-débat « Musée-musées » Le musée, lieu d’intégration culturelle ?, le 15 novembre Lecture Texte inédit de Toni Morrison, par Toni Morrison et François Marthouret, le 17 novembre à 18h30 Après-midi et soirée consacrés aux écrivains entre deux cultures, le 18 novembre à partir de 14h30 Projection (public scolaire) Carmen Jones d’Otto Preminger, le 20 novembre à 14h Rétrospective des films de Charles Burnett les 23, 24 et 25 novembre Musique filmée «Voix noires, figures de l’émancipation », le 26 novembre à 15h et 17h Concerts Toumani Diabaté, le 29 novembre à 20h30

Alesian Literary Salon Newsletter

October 12, 2006…..looking towards November’s Salons…

1. November/December Salons announced
2. Details & Explanations
3. Reading Sunday at Red Wheelbarrow
4. Jorge Luis Borges quote from The Inheritance of Loss

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1. Announcing….the next series: (first the details, then the explanation)

Salons start Tuesday November 14^th and finish December 19^th

Tuesday Afternoons 2-4 PM: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy….perhaps to be paired with The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (just announced winner of the Man Booker Prize 2006)

Tuesday Evenings (8-10 PM): The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

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Some thoughts on The God of Small Things:

From The Optical Unconscious in The Post-Colonial Novel by Richard Lane (Polity Press, 2006)

Just under a decade after the publication of Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, another immensely creative and in many ways controversial novel was published: Arundhati Roy’s Booker Prize Winning The God of Small Things(1997). Published in the fiftieth year of India’s independence, The God of Small Things performs a critique of the Indian caste system and of patriarchal values within marriage and society, transgresses conservative codes of caste and ‘good taste’ in its depiction of intimate human relationships, and creates a new poetic prose that deconstructs the dominance of English grammar and opens a new chapter in magical realism. Beginning this chapter with a reference to Rushdie is not an arbitrary gesture: Roy’s adoption of a hybrid form of writing creates links with Rushdie’s work, as many critics have noted.

The group that is just finishing Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and celebrating with a Bollywood film and Indian meal, wanted to continue our study of contemporary Indian literature. I find the voice in literature from India to be bursting forward- with hope and despair, tragedy and comedy. It seems to me that any nation whose creation was an act of imagination might be an ideal place to find a new vision- a remaking of language and form even as we struggle to see if the idea of the nation holds. Literature from India must straddle boundaries- across ideas of nationhood, language, juxtaposed faiths- and so may reveal a new approach to the idea (or myth?) of difference.

As The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai was just announced winner of the Man Booker Prize 2006, I had a wild idea that this Salon may want to read the two works alongside each other. I think there are thematic links and narrative conjunctions that would allow for some great insights…

Here is a blurb for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter :

In an appraisal of her life and work accompanying McCullers’s front-page obituary in the September 30, 1967, New York Times, Eliot Fremont-Smith wrote of the impact of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in what could also be an assessment of McCullers’s lasting influence:

It is not so much that the novel paved the way for what became the American Southern gothic genre, but that it at once encompassed it and went beyond it. . . . The heart of this remarkable, still powerful book is perhaps best conveyed by its title, with its sense of intensity, concision and mystery, with its terrible juxtaposition of love and aloneness, whose relation was Mrs. McCullers’s constant subject. . . . Mrs. McCullers was neither prolific nor varying in her theme. . . . This is no fault or tragedy: to some artists a vision is given only once. And a corollary: only an artist can make others subject to the vision’s force. Mrs. McCullers was an artist. She was also in her person, an inspiration and example for other artists who grew close to her. Her books, and particularly “The Heart,” will live; she will be missed.

After the amazing work of the Tuesday Evening group with Faulkner, this suddenly seemed an obvious choice. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter deals with a similar time, place and themes- but in a very different voice. Those who have studied Faulkner will find the comparisons illuminating; those who have not will find entry into the fragmented world of the South via McCullers’s sharp vision.

Why the Agony in choosing this set? Because the current group of Salon participants- in their passion, energy and ideas- makes me want to read everything all at once together. The choices proposed were so wonderful! I also feel that for the next several series we will continue to explore new territory- as much as I always desire to re-read Beloved, Invisible Man, To the Lighthouse- these other works- and studies of Henry James, Nabokov, Jane Austen, Carson McCullers- will only continue to open up the possibilities in the old favorites. I apologize to those whose choices did not get picked for this round- please keep suggesting- and dare to try a work that perhaps did not appeal immediately! With over 25 responses to my call for input, putting together the final list was hard hard hard….so now I am already looking forward to the next series…Virginia Woolf and Faulkner cozying up together, perhaps?

Even if you were not part of the Sept/Oct series, feel free to jump in now and take advantage of those in the Salon who will have studied the works related to those on offer. As much as I would love to run 3 Salons at this time, to do justice to the demands of the study I can only offer the two sessions- so I encourage you to sign up early as they filled up last time.

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3. 15 October at 16h00—Come and hear E. A. Markham at the Red Wheelbarrow. Poet, novelist and short-story writer, Archie Markham is the author of the forthcoming short story collection, At Home With Miss Vanessa, as well as the 2005 collection, Meet Me in Mozambique, both published by Tindal Street Press. Mr. Markham has had numerous poetry collections published by Anvil Press Petry, Peepal Tree Press, Salt, and others, as well as a collection of essays/travelogue, A Papua New Guinea Sojourn: More Pleasures of Exile, published by Carcanet (UK). Please check www.theredwheelbarrow.com for more information or see www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth147 for a full bio. AT: The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore, 22, rue St Paul, 75004 Paris France, Tel / Fax (+33) 01 48 04 75 08

email: red.wheelbarrow@wanadoo.fr or see their site : www.theredwheelbarrow.com

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4.

Boast of Quietness

Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.

The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.

Sure of my life and my death, I observe the ambitious and would like to

Understand them.

Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.

Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.

They speak of humanity.

My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.

They speak of homeland.

My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,

The willow grove’s visible prayer as evening falls.

Time is living me.

More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.

They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.

My name is someone and anyone.

I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to arrive.

—Jorge Luis Borges

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Sound & The Fury is full; there are two spaces left in Midnight’s Children (Tuesday afternoons, near Trocadero). If you are interested in participating in one of these Salons, you should sign up now.

Looking Towards…

Fall 2006 Alesian Literary Salon Newsletter

Contents

A poem

Fall Salons announced

Reflections & new ideas

Other events & website notes

The Three Goals

By David Budbill

The first goal is to see the thing itself

In and for itself, to see it simply and clearly

For what it is.

No symbolism, please.

The second goal is to see each individual thing

As unified, as one, with all the other

Ten thousand things.

In this regard, a little wine helps a lot.

The third goal is to grasp the first and second goals,

To see the universal and the particular,

Simultaneously.

Regarding this one, call me when you get it.

2. Fall Salons Announced

Starting the week of Monday September 12^th….

Monday Evening Salon: Undetermined

Tuesday Afternoon Salon: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (Trocadero)

Tuesday Evening Salon: The Sound & the Fury by William Faulkner (rue d’Alesia)

Details: Each Salon meets for 6 consecutive weeks, the cost remains 75 euro. Each Salon is full at 10, I will not run a Salon with fewer than 6 participants. Both Tuesday Salons already have 6 confirmed participants. The Monday Evening Salon is up for grabs: If there are enough participants who would like to do either of the texts listed above, then I will run that Salon. Other possible works: The Heart is a lonely Hunter, The Odyssey, a work by Ian McEwan….

To Sign up: If this is your first Salon, I require a deposit of 25 euro made out to Toby Brothers and sent to: 3 ter rue d’Alesia 75014 Paris (be sure to indicate which Salon you are signing up for and an email contact). This reserves your place in the Salon. If you have previously done a Salon, your commitment by email is sufficient. I will close the subscription when there are 10 members enrolled.

Looking ahead…After the extraordinary work of Ulysses for the past 6 months, I am contemplating another Ulysses(ian) Spring series. Some of the truly brave souls from this years’ study have expressed interest in diving in again. I think there is much to be gained in re-reading- and a work like Ulysses offers so many areas for study- we only swam in the warm surface the first time round. (Now I am thinking about diving into the deep chill of the Irish Sea the day after Bloomsday…). If there are participants interested in Ulysses starting in January, I strongly recommend a study of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first. Towards that end, I will probably offer a Portrait Salon in November, possibly alongside an Odyssey study or (another recent request) a Lolita Salon. Let me know your preferences….

About the Books & Suggested Readings in preparation:

Midnight’s Children:

Recommended Edition: Penguin ISBN 0-14-013270-8

On the surface, Midnight’s Children recounts, directly and symbolically, the birth of India as a modern nation, shrugging off the last vestiges of colonialism in a mad burst of independence. But India is not one story, one people. The billowing of beliefs, languages, ethnic loyalties that occurred after the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947, is reflected in the experience of Rushdie’s main character, a boy named Saleem Sinai who is born at the same moment as the independent India. Rushdie weaves magic and history in a racing, mad narrative that addresses issues of identity, communalism and the imaginary homeland we all carry within ourselves.

Our study of the text will include background information on the history of India as well as various belief systems and how these are manifested in modern India. The group will do reflective writing on how place and culture define self as well as our journeys away from and into our inheritance.

Suggested Readings: The last Salon group requested some titles to read over the summer in preparation for the Fall Salon. Please note that I have no expectation that you will read these or the main text before the Salon commences, but if you have the desire and the time, here are some works to visit:

Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins & Dominique LaPierre. This highly readable account of the events leading up to the midnight declaration of India’s independence brings the central characters to life. AS the midnight moment is also central to Rushdie’s narrative, this work adds a great deal to the historical setting.

Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie This text includes essays and criticism by Rushdie, including a whole section reflecting on the writing and impact of Midnight’s Children as well as thoughts film, politicians, racial prejudice; “and the preciousness of the imagination and free expression”.

May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A journey among the women of India by E. Bumiller. Better known as a correspondent for the NYT and the Washington Post, Bumiller’s close account of the hidden lives of women in India gives a taste of a culture that is far from the walls of our Parisian lives.

I have not yet read the following though they are resting bedside for the summer; they come recommended by folks who know books (current Salon members).

Snakes & Ladders by Gita Mehta (Essays on Indian Culture and Belief Systems)

City of Djinns: A year in Delhi by W. Dalrymple

The Sound & the Fury:

by William Faulkner

Recommended Edition: Norton Critical Edition ISBN 0-393-96481-7

Yes, this is the most expensive edition but worth every centime. The critical essays included illuminate the text, the historical setting and the impact of Faulkner’s work.

In William Faulkner’s first truly modernist work, he pushes to break through the confines of time and sequence to get at the essence of human nature- as Malcolm Bradbury explains, “ Faulkner’s preoccupation with time has to do with the endless interlocking of personal and public histories and with the relation of the past to the lost, chaotic present.” The Sound and the Fury uses the interior world of its narrators to expose a crumbling world, through inference and allusion rather than through direct social critique. In the Modernist method, Faulkner employs stream of consciousness, symbolism as a connecting fiber and several interior realities (that show how one can see the world as absolutely in one’s way, and directly in contrast to others) that must compete for authority.

This Salon will draw upon individual’s questions and ideas to shed light on this complex text. The reading load should allow for re-reading as we study the work, enabling the first time reader access to Faulkner’s complex vision. Upon a first reading, the narratives appear jumbled and opaque but as the pieces start to fit together, one can see the complex and careful planning that Faulkner has used- and to what end? This is what we must grapple with for the Salon. The writing assignment for this Salon will include the use of subjective first person narrative and a close examination of the limits of perspective.

I am including some introductory comments from Richard Hughes that I think will help orient the reader in the opening chapter of the text:

Mr. Faulkner’s method in this book is successful, but it is none the less curious. The first seventy pages are told by a congenital imbecile, a man of thirty-three whose development has not advanced beyond babyhood. Benjy has no sense of time: his only thought process is associative: the event of the day, then, and what it reminds him of in the past are all one to him: the whole of his thirty-three years are present to him in one interrupted and streamless flood. This enables the author to begin by giving a general and confused picture of his whole subject. He offers a certain amount of help to the understanding, it is true, in that he changes from roman to italic type whenever there is a change in time: but even then I defy a reader to disentangle the people and events concerned at a first reading. But the beauty of it is this: there is no need to disentangle anything. If one ceased to make the effort, one soon finds that this strange rigmarole holds one’s attention on its own merits. Vague forms of people and events, apparently unrelated, loom out of the fog and disappear again. One is seeing the world through the eyes of an idiot: but so clever is Mr. Faulkner that, for the time being at least, one is content to do so.
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3. Reflections & New Ideas

The study of Ulysses has taught me more about the weight of words than any work I have previously studied. There was also some magic in the connection within the groups…our hard work together brought out the humor and struggle in each of us- and in both cases the members of the group worked together to support and challenge each other’s work. Here my words crumble a bit in the face of what I am trying to describe…but not everything can be contained in language, as Joyce has taught me as well (remember Bloom describing for himself the most important aspect of life: “ Love, says Bloom. I mean the opposite of hatred.”

One of the Ulysses participants recently suggested to me that the Salon organize an occasional evening gathering showcasing the métier of the various participants. I propose starting this first with last Spring’s Salon participants (both Ulysses Salon members and Midnight’s Children) so that each person who chooses to could spend part of an evening sharing their writing, visual art, knowledge of art, architecture, music or other area of creative exploration. If those participants were interested, this could include writing about the text we had studied, as some participants have already done. Feedback?

4. Other events & website notes

Website: Since the Continuing Conversations section continues to be blasted by pornographic hackers, I am closing it down for the summer and am hopeful by Fall I will be able to make it work for the Salon purposes of intellectual exchange. In the meantime, I will gladly post any book recommendations, Salon feedback or general comments or reflections on the site- just send me your thoughts via the literary salon email and I will paste up. I will be in and out of town all summer (finding quiet places to read as well as large bodies of water to swim in) so please be patient with my response to your queries and comments. But keep them coming.

It is summer so not so much is happening or too much is happening and who has time for culture??? But here is at least one possibility- and I will try to let you know of others as I get them:

Dashka Slater- journalist, novelist and now children’s book writer will present her new book- Baby Shoes at the Red Wheelbarrow & Fontainebleau:

BABY SHOES READINGS AND SIGNINGS — SUMMER 2006

Children’s Book Author Dashka Slater invites toddlers and
preschoolers and their adult companions to come join her
for a celebration of shoes and a reading of her acclaimed
new book, BABY SHOES. Come hear a story about a baby’s
very special — and very dirty — pair of shoes,
participate in a shoe parade, learn how to do ‘’shoe-la-
la’s,” and much more.

”With a buoyant tone in both verse and illustrations, this
book will be a fine addition to story hours and, given
young children’s affinity for shoes, a great conversation
starter.” -Booklist (starred review)

July 6, 4:00 p.m.

Reel Books

9 Rue de Ferrare

Fontainebleau, France

Tel: 01 64 22 85 85

July 8, 3:00-4:30 p.m.

The Red Wheelbarrow

22, rue St Paul

75004 Paris France

Tel / Fax (+33) 01 48 04 75 08

red.wheelbarrow@wanadoo.fr

www.theredwheelbarrow.com

See you there….

Sign-ups are happening now for the Midnight’s Children Salon starting the week of May 8th. We will meet for the following 5 weeks Monday evenings, but since the first Monday is a holiday, we will be meeting that Thursday night May 11th. Midnight’s Children is a wild ride through the creation of Modern India as represented in the body of a young boy- many think this is Salman Rushdie’s strongest work and an accessible and stunning example of the post-modern voice. For more information about the book, please see below or look under the ‘What we might read’ section.
Email literarysalon@wanadoo.fr or use the ‘Contact Me’ form on the site.

Here are two events that will certainly revitalize and stimulate the weary imagination- thanks both Susan/Suzanne for your contributions here!!!
One celebrates local/international artists, the other at the Cartier Foundation celebrates African American culture through film….amazing opportunities!

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1.

IVY ARTISTS: Springtime in Paris
Ex-Pat Artist Group Takes Over Historic Church

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT FOR WORDS AND IMAGES: SUZANNE HOLLANDS, IVY PARIS

SUZANNE@IVYPARIS.COM + 33 6 17 40 82 04

PARIS – They met through “Meet-Up,” the global hook up network and an underground Paris ex-pat artist gallery, IVY paris A few months later, a group of 25 International Artists will pull together a large exhibition that shows off the diversity of the ex-pat and artist community in Paris and promises to raise the roof on one of Paris’s most historic churches.

“It is really the 12th exhibition in the brief history of IVY Paris,” said Suzanne Hollands, IVY co-founder and director and conceptual artist. “There was an exhibition in September 2005 Los Angeles of the original IVY artists – also ex-pats – but this one, at La Chapelle Saint Louis de la Salpêtrière in the 13th Arrondisement is a different kettle of fish.”

Artists from Turkey, Chili, Japan, The United States, France, Benin, Scotland, Finland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and England – 25 in all – will take over La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Pitié-Salpêtrière for a single day spectacular on May 4th. La Chapelle of la Salpetrière is one of the most interesting artist launching pads in Paris having hosted exhibitions by Nan Goldin, Anselm Kiefer and Anish Kapoor.

“The hospital was notorious for incarcerating ‘crazy French women’ who had children out of wedlock, well I think that’s the story,” said Hollands. Attached to the church the hospital is where Princess Diana was taken after her tragic death in 1998. “If something happened to Jacques Chirac,” noted Hollands, “he’d be taken to Salpêtrière, too.”

IVY PARIS/2

The church has, oddly enough, provided a new chapter in the networking of these ex-pat artists. “It’s great to come to Paris, meet a group of like-minded artists and put up an exhibition in a beautiful space,” said Finnish photographer Vilma Pimenoff. Others are excited over the acoustics. “I’m going to use the 52-meter high building for my work–it’s a gorgeous chapel,” said Chilean sound-installation artist, César Estay-Herrera. African photographer and video artist, Dimitri Olivier Fagbohoun will show a series called “Historia,” said, “It’s a chance to show my work in an atypical art space, an historic building, something I could never do on my own.”

“The idea was to get a group show on the road,” said Hollands. “We had our first meeting at the end of January, and the majority who came to that meeting are still involved. We jointly sourced the venue and divided the work up so that those with certain skills such as graphic design did flyers, and above all, we split costs.”

IVY PARIS will include works ranging from video installations, painting, photography, acoustic pieces, embroidered sculptures, collage and a “shelter” made out of plastic bags. All of these works will be nestled in the sacristies in the church, creating a “cosmic mélange” between contemporary art and contemporary Catholicism in one of the most historic churches in Paris. (Built by Le Vau in 1660, who also designed Versailles).

The evening of the opening will include special cocktails and music by DJ Wise and Cosmoson. “The church doesn’t want us to turn the exhibition into a rave dance party,” said Hollands, “so we’ve planned a secret after-party near the Seine where we can party all night long.”

Admission to the exhibition is free and there’s room for a few thousand people. “No problem,” said Hollands. The show opens at 9 am, along with morning mass. The full bodied opening begins at 6 pm on 4 May until 10 pm.

Address: 47 Bd de l’Hôpital 75013 Paris. Metro: Saint Marcel/Gare d’Austerlitz.

For more information, bios, links and a map: www.ivyparis.com

Photos of La Chapelle: http://art.meetup.com/188/photos/

The exhibition is generously sponsored by San Franciso-based HIFX, a unique currency service that permits individuals and companies to send currency abroad at fixed and protected rates. Info:www.hifx.com

CONTACT FOR WORDS AND IMAGES: SUZANNE HOLLANDS, IVY PARIS

SUZANNE@IVYPARIS.COM + 33 617 40 82 04

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Célébration de la culture afro-américaine, le cycle Nuits Noiresprésente une série de concerts, de performances, de rencontres, de lectures et de films.
Fondatrices ou underground, grand public ou savantes, les Å“uvres proposées permettent de porter un regard différent sur une culture riche, engagée et dont l’apport à l’esthétique de la culture occidentale reste déterminant.

A celebration of African American culture, the Black Nights cycle is a programme of concerts, performances, encounters, readings and films.
Seminal or underground, “high” or “low,” the works presented here offer a fresh look at a rich, engaged culture whose contribution to the aesthetics of Western culture remains as vital as ever.

En partenariat avec le cinéma L’entrepôt, Nuits Noires propose un programme de films de réalisateurs noirs américains, de Oscar Micheaux à Spike Lee en passant par Julie Dash et Charles Burnett. Tout à la fois panorama historique et sélection de films rares, ce programme permet de découvrir la diversité et la spécificité des Å“uvres du cinéma afro-américain mais aussi leur importance dans l’histoire générale du 7ème art.
Retrouvez la programmation cinéma sur fondation.cartier.com

In partnership with the l’Entrepôt cinema, Black Nights features a program of films by African American directors, from Oscar Micheaux to Spike Lee via Julie Dash and Charles Burnett. At once a historical panorama and a selection of rare films, this program gives an idea of the diversity and singularity of African American cinema, and its importance in the history of movie-making.
Complete program on fondation.cartier.com

Here are two events that will certainly revitalize and stimulate the weary imagination- thanks both Susan/Suzanne for your contributions here!!!
One celebrates local/international artists, the other at the Cartier Foundation celebrates African American culture through film….amazing opportunities!

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1.

IVY ARTISTS: Springtime in Paris
Ex-Pat Artist Group Takes Over Historic Church

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT FOR WORDS AND IMAGES: SUZANNE HOLLANDS, IVY PARIS

SUZANNE@IVYPARIS.COM + 33 6 17 40 82 04

PARIS – They met through “Meet-Up,” the global hook up network and an underground Paris ex-pat artist gallery, IVY paris A few months later, a group of 25 International Artists will pull together a large exhibition that shows off the diversity of the ex-pat and artist community in Paris and promises to raise the roof on one of Paris’s most historic churches.

“It is really the 12th exhibition in the brief history of IVY Paris,” said Suzanne Hollands, IVY co-founder and director and conceptual artist. “There was an exhibition in September 2005 Los Angeles of the original IVY artists – also ex-pats – but this one, at La Chapelle Saint Louis de la Salpêtrière in the 13th Arrondisement is a different kettle of fish.”

Artists from Turkey, Chili, Japan, The United States, France, Benin, Scotland, Finland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and England – 25 in all – will take over La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Pitié-Salpêtrière for a single day spectacular on May 4th. La Chapelle of la Salpetrière is one of the most interesting artist launching pads in Paris having hosted exhibitions by Nan Goldin, Anselm Kiefer and Anish Kapoor.

“The hospital was notorious for incarcerating ‘crazy French women’ who had children out of wedlock, well I think that’s the story,” said Hollands. Attached to the church the hospital is where Princess Diana was taken after her tragic death in 1998. “If something happened to Jacques Chirac,” noted Hollands, “he’d be taken to Salpêtrière, too.”

IVY PARIS/2

The church has, oddly enough, provided a new chapter in the networking of these ex-pat artists. “It’s great to come to Paris, meet a group of like-minded artists and put up an exhibition in a beautiful space,” said Finnish photographer Vilma Pimenoff. Others are excited over the acoustics. “I’m going to use the 52-meter high building for my work–it’s a gorgeous chapel,” said Chilean sound-installation artist, César Estay-Herrera. African photographer and video artist, Dimitri Olivier Fagbohoun will show a series called “Historia,” said, “It’s a chance to show my work in an atypical art space, an historic building, something I could never do on my own.”

“The idea was to get a group show on the road,” said Hollands. “We had our first meeting at the end of January, and the majority who came to that meeting are still involved. We jointly sourced the venue and divided the work up so that those with certain skills such as graphic design did flyers, and above all, we split costs.”

IVY PARIS will include works ranging from video installations, painting, photography, acoustic pieces, embroidered sculptures, collage and a “shelter” made out of plastic bags. All of these works will be nestled in the sacristies in the church, creating a “cosmic mélange” between contemporary art and contemporary Catholicism in one of the most historic churches in Paris. (Built by Le Vau in 1660, who also designed Versailles).

The evening of the opening will include special cocktails and music by DJ Wise and Cosmoson. “The church doesn’t want us to turn the exhibition into a rave dance party,” said Hollands, “so we’ve planned a secret after-party near the Seine where we can party all night long.”

Admission to the exhibition is free and there’s room for a few thousand people. “No problem,” said Hollands. The show opens at 9 am, along with morning mass. The full bodied opening begins at 6 pm on 4 May until 10 pm.

Address: 47 Bd de l’Hôpital 75013 Paris. Metro: Saint Marcel/Gare d’Austerlitz.

For more information, bios, links and a map: www.ivyparis.com

Photos of La Chapelle: http://art.meetup.com/188/photos/

The exhibition is generously sponsored by San Franciso-based HIFX, a unique currency service that permits individuals and companies to send currency abroad at fixed and protected rates. Info:www.hifx.com

CONTACT FOR WORDS AND IMAGES: SUZANNE HOLLANDS, IVY PARIS

SUZANNE@IVYPARIS.COM + 33 617 40 82 04

**************************************************************************************************************

Célébration de la culture afro-américaine, le cycle Nuits Noiresprésente une série de concerts, de performances, de rencontres, de lectures et de films.
Fondatrices ou underground, grand public ou savantes, les Å“uvres proposées permettent de porter un regard différent sur une culture riche, engagée et dont l’apport à l’esthétique de la culture occidentale reste déterminant.

A celebration of African American culture, the Black Nights cycle is a programme of concerts, performances, encounters, readings and films.
Seminal or underground, “high” or “low,” the works presented here offer a fresh look at a rich, engaged culture whose contribution to the aesthetics of Western culture remains as vital as ever.

En partenariat avec le cinéma L’entrepôt, Nuits Noires propose un programme de films de réalisateurs noirs américains, de Oscar Micheaux à Spike Lee en passant par Julie Dash et Charles Burnett. Tout à la fois panorama historique et sélection de films rares, ce programme permet de découvrir la diversité et la spécificité des Å“uvres du cinéma afro-américain mais aussi leur importance dans l’histoire générale du 7ème art.
Retrouvez la programmation cinéma sur fondation.cartier.com

In partnership with the l’Entrepôt cinema, Black Nights features a program of films by African American directors, from Oscar Micheaux to Spike Lee via Julie Dash and Charles Burnett. At once a historical panorama and a selection of rare films, this program gives an idea of the diversity and singularity of African American cinema, and its importance in the history of movie-making.
Complete program on fondation.cartier.com