Cotidiano de uma brasileira em Paris, comentarios sobre cultura, politica e besteiras em geral. Entre le faible et le fort c'est la liberté qui opprime et la loi qui libère." Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Voyeurism

OK. Big topic.

Here I just want to say I never ever in my wildest dreams thought I'd have the sensation of being a voyeur in a museum! And yet this is exactly what happened yesterday.


Zooming through the MOMA of the city of Paris I was looking at a painting (which I completely forgot now!) and I had the feeling someone or something was directly to my right shoulder, a shadow... a person? I don't know. A presence. I didn't look at first, just in case it was actually a person. But the sensation persisted and I could no longer contain my curiosity. I looked over my right shoulder and saw a dark blotch-- all the walls in this museum are v v white, so the contrast was enhanced. I couldn't, however, tell exactly what it was.
So I went on "nonchalant mode"... this involves turning in the opposite direction, taking two steps, and then looking back at where my interest lies.

How surprising, then, when I saw... nothing. Just white wall. Could it be? Could Batman have appearedisappeared in those 10seconds? Hardly likely, alas.

So I went back to where I was and looked to my right.

In an alcove, there it was. A sculpture someone forgot to put away in the storage room. No title, no name. No sculptor, no date. Hidden by accident. "Living". The philosophical "tree in the woods". I was there though, I "heard" it fall. I "heard" it breathe.

I loved looking at it. And no one saw me doing it, not even It.

1 comment:

Tango3 said...

I wonder how many things we miss each day that are like this. Skipped over, passed by, and yet as worthy as those things that we are told we should pay attention to, lauded as being a masterful work, or critically acclaimed as brilliant, secure in their positions in the limelight. These pieces mayhap, like many people, pass each day in obscurity, waiting to be noticed, appreciated, if for nothing else, being what they are.