Or: The French don’t know breakfast

Yesterday I went to Paris rather spontaneously. I attended a party by the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin (link) at the Centre Pompidou, celebrating the work of Tatiana Trouvé (link). And I don’t speak a word of French, to be honest.

Still, I thought it would be an exciting trip and that I could maybe meet some collectors there. And it was an exciting trip, especially because Gerd Schneider (the one with the bright shirt) a friend, colleague and filmmaker joined me even more spontaneously. Did we meet any collectors? Well …

We took the evening TGV from Stuttgart to Paris, to arrive just in time for the party at 11pm. We had a quick Espresso before we escalated up to “Georges” on the sixth floor. While being in the queue just outside the place, we passed through a cloud of stench from of human digestive by-products. A small downer before the fireworks is always helpful, though …

Anyway, we were greeted very friendly, first in a burst of rapid French and then, after I must have looked completely lost, in perfect English. Merci bien! We had a few drinks, listened to the awesome British band and enjoyed the absolutely fantastic Parisian Skyline.

Then we decided to get to know some people, collectors, if possible. Here is what kind of people we met:

People who work for galleries like Anton Weller (link) and obviously Emmanuel Perrotin, architects, gallerists, painters, musicians, friends of friends of someone who works for a gallery … Did they collect art? No way. At least they didn’t admit it.

Maybe I shouldn’t have resisted the tendency to talk to people over 50. I wanted to talk to people my age. Which might have been the mistake. Next time, I’ll talk to who ever, The young lady from Anton Weller, whose name I have forgotten (it was loud, she spoke with a French accent and there was alcohol involved, plus I’m bad with names to begin with) said that it might be difficult to talk to collectors because they are used to talk to galleries and curators, not other collectors …

We also tried to meet Tatiana herself and were pointed in various direction sthroughout the evening but we never actually found her.

Anyway, the evening went on and a small orgy developed in the men’s room – “Excuse us, we’re very much in love.” So hey, it was a glamorous party! Afterwards we tried to kill the remaining four hours until our train went back in the morning and ended up in the “Temple of Gold”. And at the train station, we found a strange object.

In the very morning we went to get breakfast. Don’t get me wrong, but after a party and a trip like this, a Croissant and a Coffee is a pretty bad excuse for a breakfast.

Bacon, eggs, cheese, sausage … that’s my idea of a breakfast. But maybe I spent too much time in the UK.

After another three hours on the train I ended up back at my office in Stuttgart. Not really wiser but my life enriched by another great, if crazy, art experience.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Event Report.