TAG gains cred (Grand Palais, Paris)

The underground corridors of Paris's vast metro system are lined with posters announcing upcoming gallery and museum shows throughout the city (and there are many!). Last week, one particular "affiche" caught our eye, the current show "T.A.G.", an acronym for "Tag And Graffiti". The show has great potential, since it's taking place in an unused -- and currently under renovation -- wing of the "Grand Palais", the exhibition venue built originally for the 1900 World's Fair. Check this out.

I had imagined great walls of stone, brick, and mortar, tagged in all it's glory! So, we planned a full morning there.


Metro poster announcing current TAG show


Subtopic #1: ART COMMUNITY VS. TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

The design of the poster is inviting. The graphic designer has used "Clever use of white space", an open invitation.... If you were a TAG artist (or, tagger) wouldn't you love that wide section of white space as your canvas?


But the local transit authorities don't seem to think so. As fast as the Taggers can make use of this canvas, metro workers rush about, covering up the tags with adhesive paper strips... more blank canvas!




Subtopic #2: IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
We arrive at the gallery entrance. Taggers have wasted no time adorning the gallery's entrance banners with their signatures. Art gallery authorities in this case have turned a blind eye and made no attempt to cover up, remove, or replace the signage.






Subtopic #3: DO THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND?

The gallery organizers hired the wrong staff to create the interior signage. A bad effort of stencilling announced the upstairs entrance. Weak effort. Maybe they should have hired a TAGGER?




OK, Enough Already, ON TO THE GALLERY...

Here's the idea. You're an art collector, and you create a studio. You then invite some 150 world-wide (famous?) taggers to come to your studio (over a 2 year period) and SPRAY-AWAY! The organizer provided each artist with two blank canvases. The artist-taggers were requested to follow this suggestion: On the left, illustrate who you are, OR, your TAG. On the right, illustrate your concept of Amour! The results were wide and varied.














The third one down is from Belgium. Obviously he had some early education in calligraphy!


This young girl is the future of tagging!


Subtopic #4: Appealing to YOUTH

This show obviously attracted alot of youth. Galleries here usually offer free or reduced admission charges for 18-25 year olds. Great idea, but often underutilized, but not here. Interestingly, the most popular part of the exhibition was the guest book. TAG AWAY!










Subtopic #5: Nothing left Untagged


Exhibit washroom. Bring your gold or white pen and TAG ON!

A neighbouring exhibit, not scheduled to open until next week, is just setting up. Silly signmaker. He left a huge white panel completely unprotected. i wonder if they'll cover this one up?



For more information on the exhibit, CLICK HERE

DM

RECENT UPDATE a return on April 12th

If you followed the last entry on the TAG exhibit, we were back in the area today. Seems like the organizers of the exhibit indeed did not like their signs tagged. All exhibit signage has been recently replaced..


Two days later, all signage replaced.

But wait, perhaps I'm being a bit hasty! The signage has recently been changed: the exhibit is SO popular, it is now open (a rare occurance) late on Wednesdays and Saturday nights until 11pm!