Internationale Biennale Design

The Biennale started in Bâtiment H, one of three buildings. Flight!!

Last Thursday, me and Lauren took the train to Saint-Etienne for the Internationale Biennale Design, a giant exhibition of modern, functional, and sustainable design. I was expecting it to be a small exhibit in the modern art museum, but it was a sprawling, three buildings full, showing of some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Earlier this year, I saw the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit at the MOMA in New York, sort of a futuristic look at the direction of design. This was like that on adrenaline pills.

A pig watering can! So adorable, I wanted to steal it.

The items on display ranged from practical to ridiculous, with plenty of horror and whimsy in between. The designs came from all over the world, with a lot representing Europe. I enjoyed all of the anthropomorphic objects, robot vases, and surreal imagery. The above pig was part of the Flight Number 10 section, which looked at changes in everyday life. I am happy that everyday life seems to be getting more like my imagination.

Who wouldn't want exact copies of their eyes watching them?

One of the odder ideas was a cloning area, where it showed how you could “clone” your posture to build a chair, your stomach to make a pillow, your profile to make a mirror, etc. The most disturbing were the eye lamps that could be made to resemble the exact colors of your eyes. I guess customizing everything for our genetic makeup is getting more popular, but I don’t know how I’d feel about looking at giant versions of my eyes all the time.

Some creative chairs in the first building, Bâtiment H.

Other designs were more functional. I guess it’s hard to mess up a chair, although someone made some lumpy ones out of concrete that were definitely not comfortable. Along with all the designs that are still in development, were objects that existed in the prototype phase. This area was called “Demain, C’est Aujourd’hui” (Tomorrow, It’s Today) and included a hack for your TV to make any channel 3-D, some pretty cool computers, and a few cars that looked like they drove out (flew?) of Bladerunner.

If you've found anything creepier in which to store your ashes for all eternity, don't show it to me.

But it wasn’t all about living. There were also tombstones with water that reflected the viewer onto the grave and a whole cabinet of urns. The above were the most disturbing with their gas mask-like faces which don’t suggest much peace in death. Most of the other urns were just metallic versions of what we already have, but these took it to some alternative universe where there has been a chemical outbreak and we have to live wearing gas masks. Maybe then no one would recognize our faces, so urns like these would be the best way to honor us. I’m rambling…maybe this should be my next novel or at least a short story? Don’t steal my gas mask future idea!

Wall of felt shoes.

Lauren’s favorite part of the Biennale was this rainbow of felt shoes, each of which was different from the others. I especially liked a couple of the gray ones that had felt feathers covering them. Like the shoes, everyone at the Biennale was incredibly unique from everything else, so it’s hard to sum it all up with one theme. Maybe, to use a current buzz word, change was the theme. While everything was obviously borrowing from the past, there seemed to be an effort to change the way we approach our lives, the environment, and the materials we surround ourselves with.

Now you know you can recycle your old IKEA boxes into a fashionable skull for your living room.

There was a small building in the courtyard that was called “Project Creep” and included this skull, as well as some cool interactive features. One was a Nintendo game that called “Recycling” that had six attached controllers which could all contribute to making techno music. Nothing actually showed up on the television screen, but I thought it looked way more fun than playing Guitar Hero or something like that. Make your own music!

That there chair killed the table dead.

Bâtiment 335 was almost entirely devoted to L’Appartement Géant (The Giant Apartment), which was an opportunity to “experience the future lifestyle.” The future seems alternately chill and violent, with the latter expressed above in the massacre of the poor table, possibly by the chair. I would move into L’Appartement Géant today if I could, but I guess it’s a long way from Saint-Etienne and it seemed to be built for having at least 10 roommates.

Roaming robot, an essential tool for future living.

Like all good apartments of the future, from the Jetsons to Epcot, there has to be at least one robot. This apartment’s robot traveled along a pink line that wove around the building and anyone who got in its way was reprimanded by a stern French woman’s voice. I think I’ve heard that same voice when trying to open a bank account or paying for a 1.50€ coffee with a 20€ bill.

We kind of kicked in it the chillout pit... (Sorry, I can't resist a Hold Steady reference. They come along so infrequently.)

The most chill area was definitely the pit of pillows made from sweaters where you could listen to music on giant headphones. It looked like most of the art students who had to come to the Biennale had collapsed, probably from an overdose of the terrifying future.

Vouse Êtes Ici (You are here). For those who are never quite sure.

The third building was devoted to ecological design, featuring the appropriately named City Eco Lab. It seemed to vary between things that existed and worked, to things that could never, ever be a part of our modern society. Or maybe I just have doubts about a future where a bicycle can be used as a firetruck:

If there is ever a fire in my apartment, I hope to see something more substantial show up, pollution and all.

I love the idea of using bicycles for things like delivering mail, like they do in France, or for primary transportation in the center of town. But alas, I don’t think the bicycle will every be able to make a case against the firetruck. However, I would like to start using elephants for fighting fires and I think I should propose that for the next Biennale.

All food and drink was from within 80 km of the Biennale.

After 4 hours of having our minds blown by the future, we took a break at La Cantine Moins de 80 KM de City Eco Lab. All of the food and drink was from the area and they only used reusable glasses and plates. I got an apple juice and Lauren got a beer. Both were quite good.

Nabztags!! I want them all.

One of my favorite things already exists and is for sale: the Nabztag! It’s a robotic rabbit that connects to your wifi and can read things out loud to you from the internet. It can also create a surreal synthetic opera with 100 of its friends. So if anyone is looking for a Christmas present for me that could potentially be a robot friend while it slowly takes over my life…Nabztag is around. Apparently there is an exhibit of Nabztags dressed in outfits in Paris right now, so I might need to check that out.

Random tower for a view of the Biennale grounds.

So there you have a sampling of the Biennale. Many more pictures are on my flickr. We didn’t have time to see the modern art museum, so I might have to go to Saint-Etienne again. Even if the city is mostly industrial and not exactly the stereotype of French architectural beauty, it definitely has one of the greatest art scenes outside of Paris.

Coming soon: adventures in Mirmande and Avignon!

La Vie en France

Armistice Day ceremony in Valence on November 11.

I’m a little behind on posting, so I’ll sum up what I’ve been doing with some pictures of Valence. On November 11, I went to the Armistice Day ceremony in the park. It was raining, although that trend would continue for all of Armistice Day (which as you may recall from a previous post, was one long string of board and card games). It was a little unnerving that the soldiers seemed to be carrying automatic weapons for the ceremony. Although I did like their capes.

Armistice Day capes. Probably year-round capes.

I went to the ceremony with Jacinta, an English language assistant from Australia. We were pretty lost about what was going on. The ceremony didn’t end with much fanfare, just the soldiers marching off and the people with umbrellas staring at them leaving. There was a lively recorded version of La Marseillaise that played during their march. But there were guys with bugles there, so I don’t know why they didn’t play it. Maybe the bugles, like the guns, were just for show. Or at least that’s what I hope about the guns. I really doubt a war is going to break out in Valence in the middle of Armistice Day.

Flowers at the feet of the WWI memorial in Valence.

The memorial itself is in the Parc Jouvet and includes a large concrete obelisque, two walls with soldier names from 20th century wars, and this statue of a fallen soldier. I’ve noticed that almost all the WWII memorials in France have a little box on them or a small urn that contains ashes from the concentration camps. I find this to be a little strange. I guess something needed to be done with the ashes, but then again, all they are is stashed at the bottom of a giant block of concrete. I don’t know, something about it is off to me.

Le Suisse(s). A creepy Valence speciality.

On Saturday, November 15, Sarah, an English language assistant from England working in Privas, came over to Valence and we went to the Bouquet de Vins. It was amazing. We paid 5 euros to get in and could taste all the wine and regional food that we wanted. The regional delicacies included Le Suisse, seen above. He is a pastry man who tastes like an orange scone. The story goes that when Pope Pius VI died while in prison in Valence in 1799, the Swiss Army men who guard the pope came to collect his personal effects. To honor this or mock them, no one is sure, a local baker made a pastry wearing the Swiss guard uniform. And for whatever reason, they kept on making them. The above Suisses are in the window of what people consider to be the best bakery in Valence. I did buy one of the tiny ones on the left when Liza, another assistant in Privas from the States, was visiting.

Stairway to the center of Valence.

In addition to le Suisse, there was nougat, chocolate, cheese, truffle oil, caramel liqueur, and so many other things that are far from health foods and therefore amazingly decadent. Of course, there was also the wine. Over 150 wines and things in the wine family were available for the degustation, like the Champagne-like Clairette of Die. All of the wines were good, although I definitely liked the Clairettes. The wines were all from the region, so there were a lot of red and white Côtes du Rhône (as we are along the Rhône river). And the best part is that none of them were terribly expensive. There were a few that were 40 euros, but even that is decent compared to the cost of wine in the States. On average, the wines were around 8 euros. And all of the winemakers were very friendly and chatty so I got to learn about wine in French.

View of the cathedral in Valence.

I think I’ve finally detoxed from work in the States and can relax. It was just such an abrupt change from working full-time 40 hours a week in a job that never had a break from stress, plus all the freelance work I was doing. I think I’m to a point now in France where I can finally just relax and not feel like I’m wasting time. I don’t know if it’s being an American or what, but I always feel guilty about relaxing when I could be working. I’m also used to rushing around to get things done as quickly as possible so that more work can be done. It’s just such a different approach to life here where it’s okay to drink coffee and stare into space for an hour. Not that I’m going that far yet. If you know me, you know that in a way I like to deadlines and work. But I am starting to not be stressed by the stress-free life, if that makes sense.

Kiosque at the Champ de Mars in Valence.

Work continues to get better as I adjust to the teaching routines. I really do the same thing everytime in terms of the ritual of the class: song, redo what we did last week, introduce new material. Soon I’ll be starting the Very Hungry Caterpillar in three of my classes. I’m also getting better at my private lessons. All of the kids I teach privately are incredibly sharp. So I’ve been using the book of Native American short stories I brought. My favorite is the story of the rattlesnake. Basically, a boy is walking along the road after a cold night and sees a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake asks the boy to pick it up, warm it, or it will die. The boy says no, the rattlesnake will bite him. But the rattlesnake promises not to, so the boy picks it up, warms it, and then the snake bites him. The boy asks the snake why it did that when it said it wouldn’t bite him. The rattlesnake says, yes, it said it wouldn’t bit him, but the boy knew it was a rattlesnake.

Parc Jouvet in Valence.

I’ve gotten to a point where I have somewhat of a routine. I can look forward to the bar quiz on Tuesday, although I’m usually not too much help with the questions about France. I usually meet with the international people on Wednesday. There are philosophy lectures on Thursday. And usually music at the pub on Friday. I do like to mix it up, so this week me and Lauren, a language assistant from Canada, went to the Internationale Biennale Design in Saint-Etienne. It was mind blowing. I have many pictures and will post about it soon. This weekend I was hoping to meet some other assistants today in the South, but I don’t think it’s going to work out, so I’ll try to catch them tomorrow. Next week will be epic, with two Thanksgiving celebrations, the Fete de la Lumiere, and Ratatat in Lyon.

I have a lot more pictures of Valence on my flickr that you can check out. I’m trying to work all my photos into blog posts, so maybe some of them will turn up here soon.

Montélimar

Montélimar with nuclear power plant smoke in the background.

For anyone who is interested, the application for the 2009-2010 Assistantship Program in France is now up. Even if you are not keen on France, there are English assistant programs in Spain, Austria, Germany, Japan, China, South Korea, Finland, and just about any country where English is not the first language. All you have to know is how to speak English! This has been one of the best choices of my life and I would recommend it to anyone who is young and looking for an adventure. Some people have told me they’re jealous of my time here, but there’s no reason everyone can’t do the exact same thing. Sure, it’s stressful at times, but overall it’s a rare opportunity to live in a foreign country and get outside your comfort zone.

Last Saturday, I went to Montélimar with the Happy People 26, a group of French and internationals who do fun things together. Montélimar is pretty close to Valence and we took a small fleet of cars. I road with a Brazilian guy who listened to loud Samba music the whole way and almost drove off the road because he was singing and dancing.

Queen Bee in the nougat museum.

The first stop was a nougat museum. Well, less a museum than a short tour advertising the nougat you could soon buy in the gift shop. Montélimar is pretty much associated with and best known for its nougat. Nougat is a candy that comes in white or pastel colors depending on flavor and consists of honey, egg whites, sugar, and almonds or other nuts. The highlight of the museum was an entire room that was one artist’s recreation of a bee hive. All the bees had separate outfits based on their status and profession in the hive (there were even unemployed bees, watching television). Above is the regal queen bee with her toy terrier. There was also some odd bee buzzing music. The artist must have spent hours on end creating the whole thing and I fear for his or her sanity.

Nougat girl wants to devour you.

After the museum we ate pizzas (mine was eggplant) and then walked around the town. Nougat was everywhere. Above, you can see a terrifying nougat mural with a giant girl and flying almonds. I think she looks like something that would come to life in a Ghostbusters movie. To get an idea of how big this is, try to find the cat sitting on the nougat bar on the bottom of the photograph. That is the same size as your average domestic kitty.

Nounours! The most amazing thing in the town, maybe in France.

The best thing in Montélimar (in my opinion) had nothing to do with nougat. There was an automaton bear in the street blowing bubbles. I think it was an advertisement, but this did not diminish how amazing it was. There were even balloons with his image on them. I hear that he’s going to be in Valence for Noel and I am thrilled and I’m sure to be just as annoying as I was when I first saw him.

Castle above the town.

After walking past the bubble bear several times, we went up to the château des Adhémar. It was very pretty and had a great view of Montélimar. It also had a bizarre modern art installation. One was actually good and had large scale photography and a ring of chairs with footsteps playing in headphones. The other was kind of weird and the artist seemed to have an obsession with arsenic. There were a lot of chemical equations on the walls and a table full of the stereotypical chemistry tools.

Miniature shipwreck in Valence.

I’ll end with a photo from Valence. Me and Lauren, an English assistant from Canada, went on a walk along the river and saw this tiny ship marooned by the houseboats. We also later walked across a muddy field thinking it was going to lead somewhere. It lead to a farmer’s backyard. Oh well, mud always comes out. This past weekend I went to a wine tasting festival and tasted so many delicious wines, chocolates, more nougat, cheese, and truffle oil. I will write about that soon.