Philipp Leissing
...Oh la la, oui oui oui. It all started with a lot of traffic, flooding and snow. Parisians are not really well-prepared for such things… nor for many other things either. However, they do not mind to stand in line anywhere – be it in front of a museum, at a supermarket or in a bakery. A hectic pace is not welcome here. It is good to take up a bit of this nonchalance.
The sculpture studio certainly is among the most beautiful ones in the Cité: two levels with a spiral staircase and the bedroom and bathroom upstairs.
First of all, walk, walk, walk: Notre Dame, Louvre, Jardin de Luxembourg, Eiffel Tower, Palais de Tokio. Many tours to other classics and then the same routes again and again until it becomes a habit. Later on, the modern and postmodern buildings in the suburbs. Particularly impressed by Ricardo Bofill’s crazy social housing complexes. Monuments to labour, which unfortunately do not work so well today.
Almost every day, there are exhibition openings, concerts or performances at the Cité.
Accommodating 300 artists from all over the world in a building complex somehow is a utopia come true. Above me, somebody practices playing the piano: Ligeti, Chopin and Wagner all day long. Take a break up there! It is nice how everything becomes more familial. So many good people at different stages of their lives, with different professions and views of the arts. I start liking these crazy people more and more. Everything gets more spontaneous and, in exchange, my work gets ever more monotonous and more tedious. 11,000 frames need to be edited one by one and joined to create a video. On the side, I draw lines until the pencils break. Communication is not based on mobile phones. Rather, you simply knock on doors. The sculpture studio is right next to the entrance of the annexe. There is always somebody dropping in for a coffee so that, in fact, I wanted to set up a pavement café. Unfortunately, I had to postpone this plan and will open the “Café du Philippe” during my next stay in Paris.
| 1. | My stay in one word: |
| Intensive | |
| 2. | Things I miss since I am no longer there: |
| Somehow everything. | |
| 3. | Dos & Don'ts at this place?: |
| Pfft... | |
| 4. | Where you can buy great supplies: |
| Le Geant des Beaux Art, Boesner, Leroy Merlin... | |
| 5. | What you should definitely bring with you from home: |
| A moka pot, cigarettes | |
| 6. | On art at my residency place: |
| 300 artists from all over the world => almost every day an open studio, a concert, a performance… Paris itself: plenty of inherited and new stock. Paris is a huge museum. As a colleague put it: "They could clear out the Louvre and throw away half the objects." | |
| 7. | Around the studio – this is where I go shopping, drink a coffee and get the best lunch specials within walking distance: |
| Shopping: G20, Monoprix, Marché Bastille (Thurdays/Sundays), Marché d´Aligre Beauvau, Au Petit Versailles du Marais, Boulangerie des Deux Ponts. Coffee: Le Peloton Café. Restaurant: Le Troumilou. | |
| 8. | Where I like to spend the evening (dinner, drinks and best sound): |
| There are many options, but none of them merits special mention. | |
| 9. | What I would have liked to know about the studio already at the start of my residency: |
| A bit cold in winter, but otherwise one of the most beautiful studios of the Cité. |
Website resident: philippleissing.net