To be informed, geared up and meet: such are the objectives of the Paris Photo Salon organized from the 6th to the 10th of October in the exhibition Paris Expo Porte of Versailles. An ideal date for photographers, hobbyists, professionals, students and journalists to discover the latest news from the big worldwide brands. Will you be one of the 80 000 expected visitors?

Photo enthusiasts have the opportunity to enter this temple of the visual arts for five days at a daily ticket price of eleven euros. Manufacturers, importers, schools, associations and professional groups present their best innovations, techniques and advice both in the field of printing and digital cameras,retouching and analog developing. Everything you need to expand and optimize your knowledge, achieve technological developments and satisfy your curiosity to awaken your passion is at this event

Meetings, conferences, workshops Practical, debates, exhibitions, and bookstore sales area: the Paris Photo Salon program have many surprises and it takes place in the first French exhibition center and one of Europe’s ten largest exhibition campuses: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, located in district 15. Gardens, walkways, plazas and pavilions coexist in a space of more than 200 000 m2. Paris Manga, the Chocolate Show, the Motorcycle Hall and Paris Beyond Beauty are some of the events that take place at Paris Expo.

This year, an original and unique exhibition conceived by Karl Lagerfled will be installed. The fashion guru will present his last thirty photographs along with dozens of iconic clichés selected from the collections of the European House of Photography. In addition, two professionals and emerging talents will be rewarded on the opening day of this space, under the voting public and the press: We are talking about Zoom 2011 and the list of twelve nominees is now online. In 2010, Nicolas et Christophe Dhervilliers Sidamon-Pesson were rewarded.

Beyond the many technical advances made by the hundreds of exhibitors, the fifth edition of The Great Encounters - Les Grandes Rencontres – will allow visitors to hear a dozen big names in the photography world and talk to them exclusively. In 1981 the first digital camera Sony Mavica appeared: in honor of its thirty years of existence , the Japanese House Museum in Paris has organized an exhibition that traces the chronological evolution of digital technology photography . During the last edition, a retrospective of Willi Rizzo was organized, Denis Darzacq invited photographers who won the first prize at the World Press Photo 2007 in the category Arts & Entertainment, and opened discussions with questions like “Profession Photographer: Why young people still dream of pursuing this trade? Myth and reality”

For more information:http://en.lesalondelaphoto.com/

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To be a professional in search of perfection, a simple visitor or a hungry beginner in search of photographic information, the Paris Photo Hall is the ideal event for you. The largest European photography event market in 2011 is right around the corner. These are five days filled with passion at the beginning of fall. Enjoy it while renting apartments in Paris

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Translated by: Marc
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An exhibition and a musical journey inspired by an artistic movement, the “Aesthetic Movement” of the Victorian England, more specifically, “In the England of Oscar Wilde”, because despite sharing the same time, the artistic movement expressed an escape from the materialism and ugliness of the time, in which, the highest exponent of literature was Wilde.

The Aesthetic Movement, which had the slogan “Art for art’s sake”, is set in the nineteenth century in England, with greater intensity in the second half of the century. This movement contrasted art to the so rigid morality of the time based on the doctrinal idea that art exists and develops for the sole purpose of beauty and, whatever its form is, it should be considered above ethics. The same trend was developed in France with the decadence and symbolism, the beautician movement is also known, as decadent English.

The D’Orsay Museum exhibition explores the work of Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, James McNeill Whistler, Aubrey Beardslaey and, of course, Oscar Wilde, addressing different artistic expressions with the most emblematic works of the mentioned artists. The works range from 1860 to the end of the reign of Victoria in 1901 when her death occurred. It is worth adding that the collection will be exhibited from the 13th of September until the 5th of January 2012, so there is plenty of time to plan a trip to the beautiful Paris and use the time visiting the exhibition.

Accompanying the exhibition, the Museum has set several dates for concerts and poetry readings. In this way, “Poets and musicians from the England of Oscar Wilde” will have three days for exhibition: the 28th of October 28, the 10th of November and the 15th of December. The artists that will be interpreted by musicians of exception are: Holst, Stanford, Elgard, Dyson and Vaughan Williams, among other leading musicians of the time. The spirit of the artistic movement in music will be appreciated in the selected works, manifested in images of the British Islands and evocation of national traditions. The poets, who inspired these musical creations, are:  Blake, Tennyson and Rossetti, who claimed in their works, the feeling and imaginary insular.

On October 28, the King `s College choir from Cambridge, Steven Cleobury, under the direction of Hubert Parry will interpret the works of Nicholas Maw, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Allain, Benjamin Britten, William Walton and Charles Wood. The concert is from free and it begins at 20:30 hrs. We advise you to arrive much earlier, because it will be held in the museum concert area with limited capacity.

On November 10th, the soloist Dirk Roofthooft will be presented, accompanied by the piano of Guy Vandromme, who will perform some pieces by Richard Strauss, and for the last music and poetry session scheduled for the 15th of December, the Philharmonic Orchestra from Radio France, will perform several pieces by musicians of the era, plus the famous poetry of Edith Sitwell. These two days are not free, but the value is too low considering the wonderful show to be seen.

For more information visit:

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/es/eventos/en-cartelera.html

Luz Obscura

: “Art for art’s sake” simply surrender to the beauty of the creations of artists of the nineteenth century England. Rent apartments in Paris and visit the Musee D’Orsay in autumn the ideal time to indulge in artistic delight.

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Translated by: Hans
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It is perhaps in the movies, despite abysmally delicate books such as the biography of Vita Sackville West, another fascinating and indefinable character, and monumental and evocative songs written by Leonard Cohen, -probably thinking about Nico-, where the figure of Joan of Arc shines with more brilliance, considering that she inspired so memorable and unique films such as breathtakingly bold Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) by Carl Theodor Dreyer and the hypnotically deep, restful and contained The Trial of Joan of Arc, a reaction against the aesthetic treatment of Dreyer, especially regarding the direction of actors, led by the genius Robert Bresson in 1962.

Dreyer’s film, curiously, went through a series of trials and misfortunes, which offer the possibility of considering the fact that today we see it as a kind of miracle, which resonate with the content of other works, particularly the shocking Ordet (The Word), and the history of the Maid of Orleans. Especially if we consider that, perhaps (despite  existing  after the mutilations and alterations made to the film when it premiered in France due to pressure from the Catholic hierarchy and the French nationalist vision of the national hero par excellence was dared to be given to  a Danish Protestant) among  those calamities is the destruction by fire of the negatives of the film in Berlin’s UFA studios in 1928 and another fire, a year later, of the negatives which Dreyer and his assistant Beaugé Marguerite had obtained through a laborious work from alternate takes of each shot which had been preserved by pure luck.

Then it seemed that another miracle occurred  when the legendary production company Gaumont found  in excellent conditions a copy of this second version, but immediately it was adulterated (subtitles instead of brackets, new sound with baroque music, additional decorations …) Dreyer reneged on it and wrote an important letter calling for the restoration of the film, which had to be considered as a work of art, according to the wishes of the author and based on the original film

Although this was the only unadulterated copy to which the public had access for decades, in the early eighties a new copy was found, again in a timely and strangely poetic way, again miraculously in a Norwegian mental institution. Dreyer had been dead for  twenty years but the fact that it was dated and that next to it an application of censorship established that the footage found corresponded to the first version of the film appeared, was painstakingly restored by the Cinematheque Francaise.

Next to the Louvre Museum in the Plaza of the Pyramids, bathed in a dazzling gold, the statue of Joan of Arc by Emmanuel Fremiet could not be more diametrically opposed to the aesthetic of geometric spatial composition and aggressive close-ups, of the vibrant Expressionism interpretation of Dreyer’s masterpiece.

Paul Oilzum

But somehow there’s also something mesmerizing and enigmatic in it that does not leave us indifferent. Come and check it out when you rent apartments in Paris

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Translated by: Marc
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To mention the Orient Express is to bring here and now without a doubt the most desired trip. To remember a glamorous, elegant and cultured era where traveling by road was so slow that the trip becomes an incredible experience. Such an experience it is  that the Orient Express has been chosen by Chanel for its latest TV commercial to promote their legendary Parfum No. 5. along with the star Audrey Tautau and different corners of this legendary train. And this is just a sample button of what this centenary railway means, it has been able to seduce writers, poets, painters and filmmakers since it began touring Europe, linking Paris (you could also board it transferring  from London to Calais) with former Constantinople (now Istanbul) back in 1883.

In its exclusive wagons decorated with marquetry, Lalique crystal, Limoges dinnerware, linen sheets, modern furniture or velvet  upholstery and fitted with one of the greatest technological advances of those days: hot water in private compartments, Overseas millionairs rubbed shoulder to shoulder with the cream of European aristocracy. the passage was completed  with the intellectual elite of that time, famous artists and cunning spies. Mata Hari, Isadora Duncan and the King of Bulgaria left their particular travel stories behind , which passed peacefully alternating-worldly conversation between glasses of champagne and  private rest until they  arrived  in Budapest, at the Peles Castle in the middle of Romania, and then to Bucharest and Constantinople, the final destination of the journey.

The Orient Express was one of the first long-haul railroads. Everything about it was luxury, distinction and comfort, therefore, not surprisingly, it was the favorite scene at its beginning, to set the mood for novels and, later, movies and commercials. A special place in this literary cast, is occupied by the works of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (1934), starring her favorite detective, Hercule Poirot and brilliantly directed by Sidney Lumet in an massive production of the same name. Filmed in 1974, the film features a stunning Lauren Bacall,accompanied by Ingrid Bergman (whose remarkable performance was rewarded with an Oscar).Sean Connery and Anthony Perkins rounded up an amazing movie cast.  This is one of the best works of suspense of Christie, who is capable of spinning an intricate plot about an elaborate and well-deserved revenge.

The hallways, restaurants and compartments of the Orient Express has divinely given space to illicit love affairs,conspiracy, robbery and murder. If not, how can you explain that so many authors were inspired by it to set their works in it, from the novel by Agatha Christie to the book that catapulted to fame English author Graham Greene, entitled, precisely, The train to Istanbul ( 1932), to Ian Fleming and 007 on a special mission against Dr. No in From Russia with Love (1957).

Candela Vizcaíno

Today just as yesterday, an exclusive passage travels aboard this legendary train to recall literary adventures or, better, to live their own. It still has the glamor that is known for. Remember that the Orient Express runs on certain dates, from the Gare d’Est next to some suggestive apartments in Paris

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Translated by: Marc
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From September, right through to the 15th of January, there will be on show a wonderful exhibition at the Orsay Museum in Paris. It is called “Beauty, Moral and Voluptuousness in the England of Oscar Wilde” and seeks to illustrate the aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century.

During that time, the concept of beauty and attractiveness was a particular value which took presidence, with a great number of artists from both the literary world and those of painting and sculpture. It was England which served as the base, where this idea took center stage, as a form of defining and validating all things aesthetic – particularly objects, which is what the modern museum in Paris hopes to exhibit.

But beauty didn’t just reflect a new kind of materialistic perception of life – but it was considered an art form in itself, and thus something which was exclusive and highly coveted.

Some of the artists to fully embrace this new movement of the late 19th century were Oscar Wilde, Edward Burne-Jones, James McNeill Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley, amongst others. Which explains why the name of the exhibition was inspired by the English writer, whose name just about encapsulates it.

What is interesting about “Beauty, Moral and Voluptuousness in the England of Oscar Wilde” is that the visitor to the museum is able to explore the movement in its entirety. The most attractive of the “aesthetic movement” pieces sit side by side, along with other creations such as furniture, and exclusive objects of design, such a literary pieces, poems and photographs – all combined and contrasted perfectly for any visitor to Paris wishing to discover a little more about European cultures.

Many art collectors have dedicated their lives to the contemplation and admiration of the beautiful. Many of these very works can be found in this show, giving a concise and comprehensive picture of English society from 1850 onwards.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Paris and are exploring the city, visit the Orsay Museum and don’t miss out the chance to experience this show on beauty. You’ll never forget it.

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Translated by: Poppy
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From September, right through to the 15th of January, there will be on show a wonderful exhibition at the Orsay Museum in Paris. It is called “Beauty, Moral and Voluptuousness in the England of Oscar Wilde” and seeks to illustrate the aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century.

During that time, the concept of beauty and attractiveness was a particular value which took presidence, with a great number of artists from both the literary world and those of painting and sculpture. It was England which served as the base, where this idea took center stage, as a form of defining and validating all things aesthetic – particularly objects, which is what the modern museum in Paris hopes to exhibit.

But beauty didn’t just reflect a new kind of materialistic perception of life – but it was considered an art form in itself, and thus something which was exclusive and highly coveted.

Some of the artists to fully embrace this new movement of the late 19th century were Oscar Wilde, Edward Burne-Jones, James McNeill Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley, amongst others. Which explains why the name of the exhibition was inspired by the English writer, whose name just about encapsulates it.

What is interesting about “Beauty, Moral and Voluptuousness in the England of Oscar Wilde” is that the visitor to the museum is able to explore the movement in its entirety. The most attractive of the “aesthetic movement” pieces sit side by side, along with other creations such as furniture, and exclusive objects of design, such a literary pieces, poems and photographs – all combined and contrasted perfectly for any visitor to Paris wishing to discover a little more about European cultures.

Many art collectors have dedicated their lives to the contemplation and admiration of the beautiful. Many of these very works can be found in this show, giving a concise and comprehensive picture of English society from 1850 onwards.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Paris and are exploring the city, visit the Orsay Museum and don’t miss out the chance to experience this show on beauty. You’ll never forget it.

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Translated by: Poppy
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The story is beautiful further than words, and it talks to us from so many meaning levels that it’s not strange that it carries on fascinating us and that we can find different elements from it in various folkloric traditions from various parts of the world. Of all its versions, the story inserted by the framework in The Golden Ass by Apuleius (2nd century) where it takes the centrefold of the story, projecting as a myth, the lack of, the suffering and the final redemption of the protagonist, Lucius, is probably not the least famous. Before him, although, at least since the Hellenistic era, the story of the relationship between these two lovers, charged with platonic resonances that refer directly to the dialogues of Phaedrus and the Symposium, was already widely and joyfully celebrated in art and literature, both in the poems of the Palatine Anthology as in the statuary of the time.

Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche because her beauty was so big that the people adored her as much as the goddess. Such beauty also won her the rejection of the men that, intimidated by something so perfect and delicate, they felt panic when they got close to the girl. The vengeance of Aphrodite was to assign a mission to Eros to make Psyche fall in love with the most atrocious monster. Inevitably it was Eros himself who fell in love with her by just seeing her and, after persuading his father to abandon her at the top of a hill, he ordered Zephyrus to take her to a palace where he went into every night as her husband in her room, which he abandoned at dawn. Psyche was happy but she didn’t know the face of her lover, because he had told her that if she once tried to see it, he would disappear. However, one night, incited by her sisters to which disobeying the advice of her husband she had gone to visit in the morning, fearing that it was a monster she lit up the beautiful face of Eros with a lamp while he was asleep. A drop of oil woke the god up, and he disappeared immediately, just as he’d said. Psyche then began a trip without destination around the land submitted to cruel and tiring works to the limit of the impossible imposed by Aphrodite. One of them consisted in going down to the subterranean world and coming back from it with a flask given by Persephone. Despite the strict prohibition to open it, once more curiosity triumphed with the consequence that Psyche was plunged into an eternal sleep from which Eros, who still loved her, woke her from, touching her delicately with the tip of one of his arrows. The immediate moment after where Eros gets close to Psyche to kiss her on the lips while she lies in his arms holding the head of the young god in her hands, is picked up by the unforgettable sensual marble statue by Antonio Canova that we can see in the Michelangelo Gallery in the Louvre Museum

(http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en)

Paul Oilzum

Afterwards, Eros got from Zeus the permission to marry Psyche, the pardon of Aphrodite and the immortality of the young girl. You can also feel immortal in front of this great sculpture, which will make you lose notion of time, when you rent apartments in Paris

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The LGBT scene promotes activities, parties and parades around the world to generate more community, to attract attention on the presence of its importance in society and, in the same way, bring closer the people who don’t know about it or don’t agree with the rights of the non-heterosexual people, and therefore generate more tolerance and education for the general public. To consider an LGBT celebration or parade as frivolous would be completely wrong. The reason of all of these activities has great political and performative meaning: it’s all about putting your body on the street, in community, and celebrate the LGBT difference. What some consider exaggerated or, possibly, shameless and vertiginous, isn’t but the voice of a whole new way of understanding sexuality, which has always been present but which down the years has had more relevance in our society. That gay marriage has begun to be accepted in many countries for a few years is a healthy symptom that both the political organizations and the media already generate openness to these unions, to this new way of understanding couple and community life, which breaks with the stubborn patrons of the Western family, rooted in the bourgeoisie and even the rules of religion.

L’Existrans is one of the most important LGBT events in Paris, followed of course by the Gay Pride parades which are celebrated every year in this city and in cities around Europe. And so, they try to unite the transexual and transgender community of Paris in the streets, as well as the whole LGBT community, to celebrate with music and art, with people from around the world who come to share this moment of solidarity and exchange of ideas. If you’re in Paris during this important march, you’ll be able to support the LGBT community who, once again, has taken to the streets to call for equal health rights for the transexual and transgender community. The main problem comes from wanting to ‘psychiatrisise’ the transexual option and carry on demonising this gender choice. But the marches, as some like the 15M ones in Spain and other places have shown recently, show that taking over the public space generates presence and helps to acknowledge freedom of expression in all of its dimensions. Despite Paris having become a tad reserved on this subject, events like this show that there’s still some cutting edge in the Parisian streets and that everything is still possible. For more information on the march visit the webpage of this collective: http://www.existrans.org/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Paris and be part of this important march for the rights of the LGBT community. However isolated a political action may be, its effects can be huge if they broaden the focus of the image. The whole world is present so come to Paris or, if not, get more information now on the LGBT rights in your community.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Until the 10^th of October, you will be able to visit the Louvre Museum – temple of art located on the banks of the Seine – which is exhibiting an interesting collection of drawings, graphic art and early printed books (published before 1500) entitled “From Finiguerra to Botticelli: The first Italian workshops from the Renaissance”. The curators, Catherine Loisel and Pascal Torres, have selected part of the legacy of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. A donation consisting of 40,000 (forty thousand) engravings, about 3,000 (three thousand) pictures and 500 (five hundred) early printed books by the Italian Quattrocento to which a hundred drawings and prints by Rembrandt (1606-1669) were added. The consignment was so big that the Louvre had to enable a special department to take care of this splendid delivery.

Of course, a collection of such magnitude can only be understood if it comes from a clan like the Rothschilds, specially from a person like (the tagged “cunning”) Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild, born under the Leo zodiac sign in 1845, who during his 89 years of life, strongly supported the Zionist cause (buying land in Palestine) at the same time acquiring, with an enviable critical eye, every single work of art that fell into his hands. According to the family legend, he started his collection when he was fourteen. His education and economic comfort helped him with the rest. His family must be thanked for getting rid of such a magnificent legacy (most probably, as part of payment for inheritance taxes), donating to the Louvre and, indirectly, to all people who visit these sacred rooms.

From a finance myth, we turn to an art one: Florentine Maso Finiguerra Tommasoii (1426-1464), whose history attributes the invention of metal engraving. Prior to the creation of this entrepreneurial goldsmith and jeweler, to make reproductions on paper, you had to rely on a rough woodcut technique (using a wooden block) or, if you wanted a sophisticated one you could use expensive hand lighting. Innovation supposed, under the development of printing, the ability to generate, in reasonable quantities, beautiful illustrated books. With Finiguerra, the modern engraving techniques started, offering several advantages to cutting edge artists such as Matisse, Picasso and Warhol.

The exhibition ends with Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), who closes the Quattrocento movement, the Golden Age of Italian arts. Although he is known for his large oil paintings such as The Spring (1482) or The Birth of Venus (1484), he made a notable contribution to book illustration with pictures of great mastery, like the one he painted for the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1265 -1321), which recreated his famous portrait with a laurel wreath.

Candela Vizcaíno

Rent apartments in Paris and enjoy this wonderful city, which never fails delighting old art lovers.

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Translated by: Hans
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James Lovelock is a prestigious British scientist known above all for being one of the fathers of the Gala theory, which basically postulates that the earth and its atmosphere form a unitary live body that regulates itself looking for balance. In the last few years he’s elaborated the idea of sustainable withdrawal, arguing that it’s impossible to carry on developing without gravely damaging the planet, a living creature of over four thousand million years old (they estimate that it has only another thousand million years before it dies) that has begun to show signs of deterioration and decadence to which we’re far from treating with due respect – the destruction of tropical forests and the burning of combustible fossils, for example, affect the climate and the wellbeing of the entire world.

Naturally, if we don’t do it, we’ll seriously pay with the consequences, like the devastation caused by global warming phenomenons that, according to Lovelock’s predictions, if we don’t act swiftly (and he calculates that we only have ten years for it) will probably convert the majority of the world’s surface into a huge desert wasteland by the end of this century, where there’ll be a lack of food and it will only carry on raining in a reduced number of areas.

His colleague, the Harvard University Professor Edward O. Wilson, has said that the action of the human species for the last ten or twenty thousand years is the equivalent of the collisions of giant meteorites that caused great destruction on Earth during the Permian Period hundreds of millions of years ago, and the end of the dinosaur era around about sixty-five millions years ago. In fact, with today’s technology, if the rest of the world consumed at the same pace as the United States, and we’re on course for that, we’d need at least four planets like Earth to guarantee energetic supplies.

Maybe the case is that the situation is so horribly paralyzing that we’re too scared to face it, but if there’s still some hope for us – despite the aggressions that it’s suffered, Earth will continue its circle of life without the necessity of our species, perfectly contingent and dispensable like the rest – this should happen because of the current crisis that we’re going through opened our eyes that the only possible solution is to radically change our lifestyle, and that should include a deep criticism on such an abusive, unfair and predatory production way that is capitalism.

Substituting cars for bicycles can be a deeply pleasant way to begin to do so, apart from, as the artist, writer and singer David Byrne, author of ‘Bicycle Diaries’, a way of feeling connected to life in the streets and quickly making a mental and personal image of the city, which immediately becomes more agile and amicable.

From that is where we get such healthy initiatives like the Vélib system in Paris http://www.velib.paris.fr/ that allows us to travel around the city renting public bicycles at a reasonable price.

Paul Oilzum

Although it would be desireable that the service carried on growing and getting cheaper, it’s an excellent way to move around a city that, on the other hand, has always had a cycling heart. Enjoy it when you rent apartments in Paris

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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