Palais de Tokyo: nexus of hip-dom

Talking with the skater kids reminded me of my visits to the Palais de Tokyo. I would suggest it as a great place to go in the summer if I could say for sure that it is air-conditioned. I actually think that it isn't. However, the café is so damn hip that you will be not just figuratively but literally cooler when you hang out there. Believe me, the overpriced très design café on the roof of the Centre Pompidou is staid compared to the Palais de Tokyo. I will also say that I have very much enjoyed most of the exhibits I have seen there. I feel that they are the best of contemporary art- stuff you hadn't thought of by people you've never heard of, that change your perspective on the world in ways that stick with you when you leave. I would compare it to P.S. 1 in New York in terms of the role it plays in relation to other art venues in its city.

This summer the Palais de Tokyo hosts a series of ecologically-themed exhibits. They seem to share themes of vegetation, landscape, nature as perceived and shaped by man. Also, an all-comers graffiti wall has been set up outside, and there are night-time fire performances. One could argue that as the City of Paris gentrifies, tourist-ifies, and muséifies, such things as graffitis and street art are also becoming increasingly muséified-- gaining increasing recognition as art forms, but ultimately being excluded from the types of spaces where they emerged and flourished. Ergo the article in Le Monde today about graffiti ....

Palais de Tokyo: http://www.palaisdetokyo.com
Le Monde on graffiti: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-781732,36-802240@51-791458,0.html