Paris Art Exhibit, in Parc de la Villette

Parc de la Villette is situated in northeast Paris. Fréderíque, a colleague from our firm's Paris office, said that the outskirts of the city are recent additions and that they’re not as historic or fine in their architecture:  "There are more modern buildings.”  But for a moment, I thought she was going to characterize that part of Paris as poorer.  One neighborhood I passed through - that late August afternoon in 2004 - resembled an  inner city of Chicago, quite Cabrini-Green but approaching it.

“Musulmanes, Musulmans” is a fine art exhibit in Parc de la Villette, which depicts the trials and tribulations of Muslims in five cities.  It’s entirely in French, so I couldn’t grasp the text. I did pick up bits of meaning, because French is, like English, Latin-derived.  But this moved me to use a different set of media for understanding:  photos, illustrations, sculptures - color, sound, leitmotif.

Le Caire

Six photographs of women, with their names specified: 

• Asma
• Shaima
• Fatma
• Rania et ses enfantes (Rania and her babies)
• Omm Sameh (“Omm” is mother, Sameh is an elderly woman)
• et Les deux amies (and two friends)

A short text in my brochure points out that in Cairo, Islam grew along side “Occidental values”:  personal well-being, consumerism, and hedonism. One photograph is a fine depiction of it: There is a mosque in the background, but in the foreground is a tall billboard in English “Dreamland Sports and Golf Resort.”

Téhéran

A series of paintings about war is both light and dark:  “Vitrine de la guerre” (Victims[?] of war).  Really striking juxtaposition in one: a figure in a black abaya, presumably a woman, covered completely; next to her, another human figure, this one wrapped in a white sheet that’s tied at the top and held together with two strings around the body. 

It is probably too Western, maybe too glib, of an interpretation to equate an abaya with death. I think it would be a wrong interpretation. It probably depicts how women in Iran lose their men to war, and perhaps in that, they experience a sorrowful death themselves. 

In another photo, “Zourkhanek,” men are bent forward in an upside down V, holding sticks or rods on the ground, all of them gathered in a circle. Is this a sport? I ask this, because others are seated around the men in the inner circle.

Istanbul

One photo, “Vielle ville,” is of two women, one lighting the cigarette of the other. I don’t think you’d see this in a less secular, more Islamic state than Turkey.

The other reason I noted this photo is, in Paris, I’ve seen more names that comes close to mine:  Villejuif Léo Lagrange, Villejuif Paul Valliant-Couturier, Villejuif-Louis Aragon (all of which are stops on the Metro line 7).

Paris 

Another photo, a large one:  “Autoportrait ou la Vierge Marie.” It’s a lady in a white abaya:  first turned oh so slightly to her left, with only a sliver of her face visible to us; next to her is one with her back turned completely to us; then, finally one with a bit more of turn to the right, and we can see her eye and part of her nose.

I believe they’re all the same lady.

Dakar

I’m needing to head back to the office at this point.  Isaac, from the IT Helpdesk in Brussels, was helping me retrieve my client folder in Outlook, so I had to keep my laptop fired up, and I needed to get back to the office before any of the staff there left.

So I walk briefly through the Dakar exhibit: color, lots of different colors, little text, no photos. Why, I thought.  Apparently Senegal is a fundamentalist state, and I know that photographing in some (most?) Arabic culture is a big no-no (e.g., it’s a no-no to photograph women in Saudi Arabia). 

Is this the reason why there are no photos?