Following on the heels of celebrated exhibitions by Jeff Koons and Xavier Veilhan, Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami is taking the Château of Versailles by storm with a show of manga-inspired sculptures opening today. Grandiose in scope and scale and seductive in the masterful use of materials, Murakami’s comical cast of characters is perfectly matched with the rooms and gardens of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette’s ornate palace.
Although not everyone is happy to see the controversial artist’s work displayed in the French national treasure, particularly the country’s conservatives, Murakami seems thrilled with the historical mash-up. “I am The Cheshire Cat who greets Alice in Wonderland with his devilish grin, and chatters on as she wanders around the Château,” says the artist, in reference to one of his works on view. And then, sounding a bit like Walt Disney hyping his amusement park in a 1960s commercial, he adds, “With my playful smile, I invite you all to the Wonderland of Versailles.”
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1. Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo remains in a hospital in Amsterdam, NY following a tour bus accident yesterday. Remaining dates from the December Raditude Tour have been officially cancelled. [via TwentyFourBit]
2. The Zhu Zhu robotic hampster, the impossible to find toy that all the kids are asking for this season, may contain “toxic levels of tin and antimony.” [via The Daily Beast]
3. The staffs of the Louvre, Versailles, the Pompidou Centre, and several other major French museums are all on strike. What will this mean for their economy? [via Guardian]
4. A short clip from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has leaked online. [via Pop Candy]
5. eBookNewser, Mediabistro.com‘s thirteenth blog, has officially launched. The site will cover “eBooks, digital reading devices, publishing technology, smartphone reading applications, digital self-publishing, and the rapidly evolving future of digital publishing.”
Bonus link: Beatles 3000
The Château de Versailles, with its wedding cake buildings, Rococo fountains, toy-like hedges, and figurative gilded lilies, is a fairytale come to life, with little sense remaining of its storied and sometimes turbulent history. Bringing the grounds and buildings of the palace into the present is French artist Xavier Veilhan, whose large-scale installations form a contemporary counterpoint to the Louis (XIV, XV, and XVI) decor of the Ancient Regime. Hip domicile photographer Todd Selby turned his lens on Veilhan’s exhibition, up through December 13, and the results are, unsurprisingly, enchanting. Click through for more shots of an edgier Versailles than Marie Antoinette could ever have imagined.
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