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May 21, 2013, 8:24pm

Any Port in a Storm :: On the Plaza :: Maritime Museum :: Saatchi Gallery expo in Lille

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kerouac2
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Saatchi Gallery expo in Lille
« Thread Started on Dec 28, 2010, 5:54pm »

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Art collecting billionaires have gone out of fashion in recent years, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since modern billionaires prefer to pour their money into medical research or aid to the developing world. I may be mistaken, but I would tend to say that in the United States, art collectors of the magnitude of J. Paul Getty are a thing of the past. Most of the billionaire art collectors are now Russian or Chinese, but there are two left in this part of Europe -- François Pinault and Charles Saatchi.

I have not seen the Pinault collection, which is based in Venice at the moment (it might come back to France some day if a certain temper tantrum can be forgotten at some time in the future).

However, I was absolutely thrilled to see part of the Saatchi collection yesterday at the magnificent Tri Postal in Lille. It is an ugly former railroad building which was a postal sorting center, but it has become one of the most important art exposition centers in France since the Bombay extravaganza four years ago (I must dig up my photos again some day.). How many Bombay video fans on this and other sites know that the Bombay video tool was created in Lille?

I have returned regularly to the Tri Postal since that time and have never been disappointed.

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The theme this time was The Silk Road, showing the mostly overlooked modern art from the Near East to China, along the various paths that people such as Marco Polo took.

A camel is always useful on such a journey, so a camel was one of the first things exposed as I entered the exhibition.

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As has been the case with all of my trips to the museums and events of the Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing metroplex, I was lucky to have the place almost to myself, at least at the beginning, since I arrived shortly after opening time.

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Much tea must be drunk on the long journey along the Silk Road, so numerous tea kettles were available.

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There was a group of small children having the artworks explained to them by their group leader. He asked the kids, "What does it mean symbolically if you show someone who doesn't have a mouth?" The kids were totally stumped about this, but I heard one of them venture, "You can't breathe?" The man with the group sighed, giving me the impression that he would have found a tub of water useful for drowning a few of the children.

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I continued to revel in having the rooms to myself.

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I went up to the next level and encountered the absolutely stunning work called "Old Person's Home" by two Chinese artists, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. They are among the most controversial artists in China, and this particular work shows old men who appear to be ancient political and religious leaders, reduced to senile figures in wheelchairs.

Please click on the YouTube video to see how conflicts are resolved.

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I think the employee in the red sweatshirt represents a United Nations intervention.

However, I was soon to see some even more amazing works.

(to be continued)