ART & MUSEUMS ❘ LA CULTURE
RUE DU FOUR
READ THE SIGNS
Something’s cooking in Saint-Germain
DON’T MISS CONTEMPORARY MEET
The Lyon Biennale, now in its 30th year of existence, has earned its place as the most important event in France devoted to contemporary art – and a key rendezvous in the global art agenda. This latest edition, conceived by curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath under the theme of a ‘manifesto of
fragility’, aims to represent ‘varied understandings of our current state of global uncertainty’. Fragility is seen as intrinsically linked to a form of resistance, initiated in the past, in touch with the present and capable of facing the future. This major effort is conceived along two axes. A geographical line carries the contributions of 87 contemporary artists from 39 countries engaging with the topic of fragility in a wide range of artistic practices. A temporal line will deliver more than 100 historical artworks and objects spanning two millennia on loan from several diverse collections in Lyon and abroad. The
intersection between the two axes explores fragility within the context of the dazzling yet tumultuous 1960s Beirut, featuring 230 artworks by 34 artists and more than 300 archival documents from nearly 40 collections worldwide.
September 14 to December 31
www.labiennaledelyon.com
Did you know...? SUNLESS YEARS
In October 1985, thieves held up guards and visitors at the Marmottan Monet Museum in broad daylight. They made off with nine paintings, including Monet’s seminal ‘Impression, Sunrise’. The loot was found in Corsica fi ve years later, just as the wrongdoers were negotiating to offl oad their booty to the Yakuza.
In 1551, says 17th-century scholar Henri Sauval, this street, like several others in the neighbourhood, was not yet paved. The inhabitants often complained to the authorities, who fi nally ordered the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés to have it paved at their own expense. What would these denizens think of the chic boutiques and cafés lining Rue du Four today? Among other notable addresses along this street is the hallowed Sorbonne and the place where in May 1943 the French Resistance held their fi rst clandestine meeting, chaired by Jean Moulin.
Aug/Sep 2022 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 23
Rue du Four in the sixth arrondissement of Paris, runs a relatively short 400m heading west from Boulevard Saint-Germain to the Carrefour de la Croix Rouge, where it turns into Rue de Sèvres. In the Middle Ages you could have found this little street just by following your nose to the lovely baking aromas wafting above the otherwise pongy scene. The street went through several names in the 13th century, until it took its current name from the communal oven (four) of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, built on the corner of the old rue Neuve-Guillemin, which is today a section of rue Bonaparte. According to the Jacques Hillairet’s Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, it was mandatory for residents to bake their bread here, or risk paying a fi ne.
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IMAGES © M. DENANCÉ/MUSÉE DE CLUNY, SYLVIA EDWARDS DAVIS, GUILLAUME BENOÎT
IMAGES © MUSÉE DES MOULAGES – UNIVERSITÉ LUMIÈRE LYON, CLAUDE MOUCHOT, CELETTE/WIKICOMMMONS, MUSÉE MARMOTTAN MONET
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