Anish Kapoor in Paris.

After months of sunshine, the weather has not been great here lately so we’ve been sending a lot more time indoors. On Saturday, L & I were supposed to go watch Mr. Franglais play in a music festival in Sèvres but the minute we walked out the door, it started pouring buckets of rain – huh. So it was indoor fun for us again. We did manage to go out on Sunday and in fact the highlight of our day was yet another indoor activity: Monumenta. Have you heard of it? Each year the French Ministry of Culture, invites an internationally-renowned artist to create an artwork especially for Paris' Nave of the Grand Palais. This year Anish Kapoor was invited to challenge the 13 500 m2 of the Nave, thirty years after his very first first exhibition in Paris. As you can see from the photos, Leviathan is a giant PVC sculpture and seems like an object straight out of a sci-fi movie. The monumental size of the artwork was captivating. So much so, we actually spent a long time walking around it before deciding the go inside.  Whilst we queued to enter the artwork, I found it fascinating to watch every other visitor be so completely immersed in this contemplative experience. We all stood there in absolute awe in front of this gigantic "baball", as L. called it. Once we were inside, a whole new experience began. It was all red, warm and peaceful. It felt like being inside a human body (some say the womb; I felt like it was a pair of lungs). It was truly incredible. Luckily for us, our little fella also had lots of fun: running around with the other kiddies when we were outside the scuplture and surprisingly when we were inside, he became all calm and cuddly, almost falling asleep (did it remind him of the womb then?!). If I had time, I would go back in a heartbeat and relive the experience again. Should you happen to be reading this and are in Paris this week, go to this exhibition - you will not regret it. We saw another Kapoor exhibit in London back in October 2009 which was also enthralling but with Leviathan, the British artist takes us to a whole new level of grandeur.

ps: and I'd like to smack myself for forgetting my camera. What a silly girl. Here's what it really looked like (all photos are © designboom)

And more photos here if you are interested.

Monumenta
Nef du Grand Palais
Avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris

From 11 May to 23 June 2011, 10:00 - 00:00
Admission price is EUR 5, with concessions EUR 2.50.