A Different Museum Experiance

     For most, an art museum is a place with room after room of brightly lit objects to look at but not touch. Although a wonderful way to learn about history, spending a lengthy amount of an afternoon staring at landscapes, crucifixions and portraits can seem a bit mundane. But not all museums are so commonplace, as Eva and I learned tonight. 

     Near the Trocadero is the Palais de Tokyo. This unique contemporary art museum comes alive at night, open each day until midnight. Arriving at 9 o'clock at night, the building was buzzing with young parisans and tourists. From the exterior, the architecture blends seamlessly with its surroundings in 18th century styling, but the interior was a raw expanse of concrete and exposed duct work. At first the space seemed intimidating, especially with instructions to begin our tour three stories down, rather than up. But in the darkened spaces, the creative excitement was tantalizing. 

Throughout the space, contemporary artists installed and built anything they wished. One instillation was a sculpture in which the viewer was able to enter (entrance pictured on left) down a reed covered set of stairs, the 20 foot long tunnel with a floor of planked wood and walls of scattered found objects ended in a ladder up to a tree house-like structure. Depending on where you stepped or moved, different sounds or lights would awake with your movements. In another set of rooms, an artist had covered the walls, ceiling and floor in a series of graffiti artworks (pictured on right). The detail work was magnificent. In a large open space was the painted room pictured below. In this exhibit,reminding me much of a skatepark, Eva and I where able to run, jump, sit and pose, becoming a part of the colorful landscape. All of the artwork in the museum was incredibly engaging, creating individual environments for the viewer to become a part of, experiencing the art in a way not possible with a Matisse or Raphael painting. 

                                  

After exploring several other interesting instillation in the museum, Eva and I finished our evening in the museums restaurant-open nightly until 1:00am. On our way out, we couldn't help but notice across the Siene the grand monument of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, lighting our way back to the Metro.