Stories du Moment
A singer on the rise, art talk, bread & more
Let’s call this edition what it is: a pre U.S. election distraction. I think we all could use it!
ZAHO DE SAGAZAN— THE NEXT BIG THING
Starting things off with one of my own pieces. As a hypersensitive person myself, the singer-songwriter Zaho de Sagazan’s intractable sensitivity spoke to me immediately. As a teen, I remember feeling like I would either get walked on by others for being so emotional or I’d be crushed by the weight of my feelings but didn’t see the third option until much later in life: that it could be a strength to be harnessed. Eventually, I channeled it through writing and singing— though that one only comes out in the privacy of my own home!
For de Sagazan, whom you probably first discovered, like me, during the closing ceremony of the Olympics, her big emotions are foundational to her young career. I saw down with her two weeks ago for a wide-reaching conversation after T Magazine asked me to write a short introductory profile. The bummer is, most of it didn’t make it into the piece but I’m going to be sharing more in a special Q&A for paid subscribers later this week— subscribe now for that and much more on the horizon. And in the meantime, get to know Zaho de Sagazan here — she’s one to watch.
PS. Her reissued album is a delight! Current favorite tracks: Est-ce que tu vas bien? Suffisamment. Ô Travers. Old Friend (performed below).
SPEAKING OF OLYMPICS…
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director who dreamed up the Olympics and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies, has been experiencing so many threats to his life, on top of cyber harassment, that he has required security. We are entitled to our opinions about artistic performances but to go so far as to want to harm the artist because of a perceive offense (in this case, out of misinterpretation) is another level of unhinged. Is this purely a product of internet culture or something fundamentally diseased within humanity?
has a fantastic overview of the opening ceremony and Thomas Jolly’s work:
FRANCE: BREAD CAPITAL, REALLY?
Provocative headline aside, there are fair points made in this Guardian piece. Even when writing The New Paris, I spoke about the industrialization of baked goods and bread and how the proliferation of specialty shops and true artisanal bakeries were a response to this unfortunate corner-cutting. When times are tough, which they have been since the pandemic, ease and cost become more important considerations than upholding tradition. (All the more reason to seek out the best in bread and pastry and not leave your bakery experiences to random spots.) But the author’s kicker had me nodding most:
“But France still has so much to teach us – namely caring about the right to access something that gives you daily joy. Who can’t say that a warm baguette torn and eaten with butter isn’t one of life’s greatest pleasures?”
CAN A VIBRATOR BE ART?
Another cheeky headline that doesn’t fully reflect the story (as you may know by now, journalists are not responsible for headlines and are often disregarded when they try to suggest them!). For Vogue, my friend Amy covered “Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media”, a new show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs about the history of privacy and intimate spaces through 470 works, all of which explore “how we carve out and protect our own space and how the objects we surround ourselves with also invariably shape our sense of self.”
Show on through March 30, 2025.
MORE ART NEWS
In the long line of impressive Americans in Paris, Barbara Chase Riboud ranks high. Her work is being celebrated right now across eight museums including the Louvre (inside the pyramid), the Centre Pompidou, and the Musée d’Orsay and I can’t wait to see it. The artist, novelist, and poet has lived in Paris since 1961 but has rarely gotten the attention she deserves in her adopted home.
“The multi-museum homage is part of a push by French museums to correct centuries of underrepresentation of women and nonwhite artists. Leading the effort is the Louvre and its first female president, Laurence des Cars, who, in her last job running the Musée d’Orsay, staged a major exhibition focusing on people of color in 19th-century art.” (New York Times)
In other art news, The New York Times’ Jason Farago asks a very important question: does liking Impressionism make me basic? I’ve wondered this myself as a lifelong fan of Impressionism (lol!). It’s a fascinating and clever piece that I encourage you to read in its entirety (plus, there are beautiful works to look at!) but if you’re short on time, this graph jumped out as a salient summary:
“Yet as the art historian Harmon Siegel wrote when this show opened in Paris last spring, “I cannot have the Renoir I admire without the one that embarrasses me.” Once capitalist society got going, the critique and the commercial were going to be stuck together for life.
Impressionism is all about how we live in that permanent contradiction. That’s what it can teach 21st-century audiences whose hunger for authenticity and antagonism keeps coming up short. And if you find Monet, Renoir, Degas too pretty and popular — if you think Impressionism is the artistic equivalent of a pumpkin spice latte — I want you to taste the espresso beneath the foam.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SNAP ELECTIONS?
Remember the snap elections from the summer? LOL hard to believe but yes, that was 2024. We ended up with a right wing prime minister in September who has sounded the alarm bells about France’s debt, prompting some major cost cutting measures for the national budget in 2025. (Among them? Sports! What a way to come off the Olympics …). For more on this, have a listen to my podcast episode with Alexander Hurst, a culture and political writer- columnist for The Guardian. I’ve got a new episode launching tomorrow, Monday Oct 28, so subscribe if you haven’t already!
BONUS: This is a good take on the Macron interview in Variety Magazine.
BONUS 2: For those who couldn’t make my Oct 1 event at The American Library with author Cody Delistraty, nor tune in via Zoom, there is video coverage from the discussion! Watch/listen on YouTube here or below:
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