From a part-time Christmas tree to the 90-minute portrait of Zinedine Zidane, artist Philippe Parreno tells Stuart Jeffries why he has always got one eye on the clock
'Do you know the average time a visitor spends in front of a work of art in the Louvre?" asks Philippe Parreno over coffee in his Paris studio. "Only three seconds! Crazy when you think about it." Absolutely – that's no way to treat the Mona Lisa or any of the Louvre's 35,000 artworks.
"At the Met in New York it's 10 seconds. I don't know why there's that difference." Maybe it's because the cakes are better in the Louvre cafe. Or perhaps it's because of Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 film Bande à Part, in which three characters try to break the world record for running through the Louvre. It takes them nine minutes 43 seconds, which probably drags down average artwork viewing times.
These are not small matters.
'Do you know the average time a visitor spends in front of a work of art in the Louvre?" asks Philippe Parreno over coffee in his Paris studio. "Only three seconds! Crazy when you think about it." Absolutely – that's no way to treat the Mona Lisa or any of the Louvre's 35,000 artworks.
"At the Met in New York it's 10 seconds. I don't know why there's that difference." Maybe it's because the cakes are better in the Louvre cafe. Or perhaps it's because of Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 film Bande à Part, in which three characters try to break the world record for running through the Louvre. It takes them nine minutes 43 seconds, which probably drags down average artwork viewing times.
These are not small matters.
- 11/15/2010
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
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