Enjoyment | Freedom | carelessness

Le Palace by Arnaud Baumann

Exhibition of art photographs during the nights at Le Palace (1978 – 1983)

April 1978, Le Palace opens its doors. Like the famous Studio 54 in New York, this must-see Parisian nightclub left its mark well beyond its walls and remains, even today, the symbol of enjoyment, freedom and carelessness. Its evenings, without compromise, bring together, alongside French and international stars from the world of music, fashion or cinema, people who come to party without taboos and without limits. A rhythmic melting pot with the sounds of pleasure, drunkenness and disinhibition makes this place one of the pillars of the emergence of gay culture.

Markers of an era and a carefree vision of life, the extravagance and freedom of the Palace’s parties will never be equaled.

The famous portrait painter Arnaud Baumann made his debut there. For five years, he roams amid explosions of life and pleasure to offer us a unique vision: documentary and visual photography whose long exposures make the colored lasers twirl and transport us to the heart of the party. His images, authentic and uninhibited, arouse in us the desire to reconnect with the lightness of the time, to be able to be free.

For its first exhibition, Studio Idan offers you an exhilarating journey through the history of the Palace to discover works that are as aesthetic as they are rich in meaning and history.

In the heart of Paris, a few meters from the Georges Pompidou center and close to prestigious art galleries, I am proud and happy to invite you to the inauguration of my new studio.

This studio will be a unique place of artistic expression with:

An exhibition space where a dynamic and eclectic program will offer visibility to contemporary artists imbued with strong and committed convictions.

A photo studio, open to all, which will invite to shooting sessions for unusual and original works and portraits.

A workshop for creating and composing images for art, fashion, advertising, etc.

Studio Idan hopes to be a unique, stimulating and avant-garde place. A place intended for reflection on contemporary creation as well as for the discovery, acquisition and collection of works of art.

I hope you count many for this inauguration evening placed under the sign of art and celebration.

Idan Wizen

Telling a story, sublimating the body, becoming a canvas of Masters… The image of the tattoo has evolved considerably in a few decades. Our modern societies have democratized and valued it to make it a very respectable tool for bodily and artistic expression!

Today, 1 person out of 5 is tattooed in France. No more hiding. No more reason to be ashamed.

In Paris, since its opening in 2006, La Bête Humaine has been a benchmark in tattoo parlors. What better place than the contemporary art gallery La Lison, antechamber of the Human Beast, to host the works of Idan Wizen as part of his photographic exhibition, “The Redesigned Skin”.

Since 2009, Idan Wizen has photographed, without casting and without retouching, everyday people, in the simplest device, in an artistic work called “Who’s That Nude In The Living Room?”.

This photographic approach is an ode to the beauty of the most diverse bodies, encouraging us to overcome the shackles and stereotypes of standardized aesthetics. But it is also a reflection on a being removed from any socio-cultural context. The individuals photographed in this way have no clothes that indicate who they are on a daily basis. The decor pulls them out of a place or an era. The absence of a name prevents us from gleaning information. They are what the viewer wants.

However, among the nearly 3000 people who make up the work of Idan Wizen, some, with their tattoos, push you and encourage you to guess who they are or could be. These tattoos, eternal markers on their skin invite us into another narrative, one at the crossroads of this body art and the systemic work of Idan Wizen.

The exhibition “The Redesigned Skin” offers us a modest journey on bare bodies and redesigned skin through around thirty works, as surprising as they are authentic, accessible for acquisition and carefully selected over nearly 15 years of photography.