Paris—June 2

Paris today (June 2): did much, but two highlights—a long intense visit to the powerful & in some ways heartening “Young Artists of Europe” show at the amazing Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain; and a briefer but pleasurable visit to the Picasso Museum, which featured a Picasso/Calder show.

Nika Kutateladze is one of the artists in the “Young Artists of Europe” show at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. He’s Georgian. He wanted to present an abandoned house in his tiny native village in the region of Guria. He dismantled it, with friends loaded it onto a truck, drove it with some difficulty through six countries to get to the museum & reassembled it (half inside the first floor of museum, half outside in the garden). He wants to stress the consequences of the rural exodus that hit George in the ’90s, and of course he implicated himself. The effect of this installation is stunning–perfect and also shockingly incommensurate with the gleaming space.