• Murakami at Versailles
  • Posted 35 months ago by staff · Art & Design · 32740 Views

  • Versailles' latest contemporary art installation opened yesterday, and it's a show that's been knee-deep in controversy since its inception. The Takashi Murakami show features 22 works including 11 site-specific pieces which aim to create a story within a story. Curator Laurent Le Bon states, "The unique experience seeks above all to spark a reflection of the contemporary nature of our monuments and indispensable need to create out own era." Murakami ties the past to the future by placing bizarre brightly-coloured creatures in ornately decorated stately rooms. The show will be running until 12 December 2010.

    en.chateauversailles.fr

    • This looks incredible, shame I'm not in France this year.
    • Michael Posted 35 months ago · 4 Reply
    • A triumph of low culture and egalitarianism.
    • BD Posted 35 months ago · -1 Reply
    • Who would have allowed these monstrosities in Versailles? I must not be open minded. Or maybe these things are just too Pokeman to be placed in such a elegant and historical site.
    • Lauren Posted 35 months ago · 5 Reply
    • I've never seen a more appropriate place for Murakami's art. The palace art of an empire in decline. Check out this piece (http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/05/the-dustbin-of-art-history/) from Ben Lewis on the similarities between rococo and contemporary art like Murakami's.
    • Mal Posted 35 months ago · 4 Reply
    • Haruki Murakami > Takashi Murakami
    • Aaron Posted 34 months ago · -1 Reply
    • whoever decided to display here got it verz wrong, or half price.
    • sandra Posted 34 months ago · 5 Reply
    • this is beautiful
    • stephen Posted 34 months ago · 1 Reply
    • Appropriate how the egocentric fascism of the sun-king seems like such a fitting place for these demonic gold beings. Its a fitting triumph of nonsense idolatry for our soulless generation. Murakami is an evil genius.... ... then again, so was Hitler. Pick your poison.
    • Happy Skeptic Posted 27 months ago · 5 Reply
    • I love this. Murakami's pop-love-and-hate pieces fit perfectly with the classic decadence of Versailles. It's a shame more people take one peek at this and just reject it because it looks like anime. First of all, anime is fun. So what? Second of all, if you bother to think about it and look at how the artist feels about his work, then you see that the shallow appearance is deliberate because he's pointing towards something more sinister. Murakami embraces mass pop culture in order to destroy it... or perhaps save it, and us, from a life of knee jerk consumer reactions. Seems he gets a lot of knee jerk artist reactions which are just as shallow.
    • Byron Posted 25 months ago · 3 Reply
    • Blah blah, woof woof
    • Jimi Posted 24 months ago · -1 Reply