Pompidou
The Centre Georges Pompidou is the ne plus ultra of modern art museums. I've been once, with my art history class, but that was the fateful day after my Prague trip. I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation. This time was much better.
My way of experiencing museums is sort of childish-- usually, I just wander around until a work catches my eye. Then, I'll cross the room, get super close, and stare for a while. People behind me get irritated and keep moving, but I'll stay as close as I want until it's time to back up and see the painting in its entirety.
I think it's a really cool museum, especially if you're never studied art. I have, so I understand why this stuff is in a museum, even if I don't always agree that it should be. However, most of the pieces are bright or sort of crazy, so everyone has a good time laughing together in front of witty, doll porn photos (like Man Ray's Mr. and Mrs. Woodson series),
(from Ragoarts.com)huge light installations, or blank canvases.
Palais de Tokyo
I think if I were a museum, I'd be the Palais de Tokyo. It's sort of crazy but awesome.
The first thing I saw inside was the TokyoBar, where I got a 5 euro Coke Lite. They were playing I'll Be Your Mirror by Nico, and the light fixtures are sort of 60s and techno-colored. Tickets for the museum are sold from a little white trailer parked in the middle of a huge factory space, and the exhibitions are in every media. The first one I saw was a Warhol installation with peoples' faces on TV screens.
It's a pretty small museum, so I didn't spend much time there. I'd go back just to chill in the bar and restaurant, drinking 10 euro milkshakes and trying to tell the hipster waiters apart.
Musée de la Mode
This museum has a pretty well-publicized exhibit going on now, called Les Années Folles. It's a collection of fashion from the late 1910s to the early 30s. The coolest part, in my opinion, was the film showing models walking around in their finest. They were so nonchalant about wearing the gorgeous, beaded dresses with full-length gloves and little cloche hats.
I was ready to steal one of the dresses on display, and it was hard to pull myself away from comparing the size of my hand to the teeny leather gloves behind glass.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
I've been here before too, because I had to see some Matisse murals for class. This time, there's an exhibit called Play Back that was produced by MTV, so I was interested in seeing that. The idea behind Play Back is to combine sound, video, and lyrics in a way that changes how you experience music. It didn't really seem that interesting in person, though. There were several rooms with screens, most of them composed of stacks of TVs transmitting the same thing.
I was distracted by all the couples who had shown up just to make out in the dark rooms, but the exhibit wasn't exceptional. I left pretty quickly. The Fée Electrique mural in the room right underneath was much cooler-- it's a huge mural painted on what seems like hundreds of canvases. There is also sound playing, which makes it seem living, somehow.
All of these museums, and how much did I spend all day on entrance fees? 1 euro. I love my Art History major ID.
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