La Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris presents an installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in the frame of its "intercultural dialog: when different types of madness meet".
Dots Obsessions is a multitude of inflattable pink baloons with black dots, some of which you can enter, see pictures below.
Kusama, who's considered at the avant-garde of Japanese art scene started her work in the 1950s with Andy Warhol. She stages her nightmares and child hallucinations (such as dots). She states that her "life is like a dot, lost among thousands of other dots".
Kusama hovers between minimal virtuosity and destructive madness... In 1973, ill, she goes home to Japan and destroys many of her pieces. She's been living ever since in an instution that treats insanity by artistic expression. She's had a workshop built next to her clinic.
These huge pink bubbles provoke a weird feeling in every visitor, they're first surprised and amused, walking through this light and imposing figures. The dots then almost subjugate and absorb the audience's attention. On a screen, a short movies shows us the artist in a pink wig reciting a daunting poem.
The artist's website: click here.
Through Aug. 17, 2008 only at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris (metro Porte de Pantin). Hurry, no entry fee, closes at 10 pm.
