Échos- Musée Nissim de Camondo

This Museum, situated in North Western Paris is a fine example of an 19th century Parisian townhouse full to the brim with a remarkable collection of French decorative arts of the eighteenth century. The mansion was owned by the Camondo family who originally came from Spain. Moïse de Camondo, the father had only one son who was killed during the First World War. He himself also died in 1935 and wrote his will his wish to bequeath his town house and its collections to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and to be named Nissim de Camondo (the name of his son to whom the house and its collections had been destined). He was particularly passionate that the town house should be seen by the public -

"This reconstitution is intended, in my mind, to preserve in France, gathered in particularly appropriate surroundings, the finest examples I have been able to assemble of this decorative art which was one of the glories of France, during the period that I have loved above all others."

Sadly, Moïse de Camondo's daughter, her husband and her children died tragigally at Auschwitz. Hence all the family disappeared.

With this history in mind it was therefore a bit difficult at first to comprehend why this setting would be an appropriate space to host an exhibition of contemporary art titled Échos. the contemporary exhibits were scattered around the house, mixed within the antiques and sometimes highly visible but occasionally very difficult to spot. To prevent any further waffle I would like to summarize my thoughts and findings in two points.

1. The choice of the mansion as an exhibition space. The town house was a very unusual choice and this was the first exhibition of this kind to be held here. I have seen other exhibitions of contemporary art placed within old surroundings in London (I distinctly remember one at the PM gallery). It seems as though this is becoming quite a trendy, popular choice nowadays. It is certainly not to everyones taste, especially traditionalists. Personally I am not really fond of the clash caused between the antique and the modern. However I believe that this exhibition was curated by students as part of their final diploma so I suppose to use such a controversial and 'a la mode' choice of space can be expected.

2. What on earth is the connection between the choice of space and the exhibits?! At first the choice to place a sound recording by Louise Bourgeois recalling fading childhood memories in close vicinity to vases from Queen Marie-Antoinette's collection seemed nonsensical. Ok well it took me a while to figure this one out and with a little help from Timothy the link became apparent. All the contemporary works in fact dealt with the theme of loss and disappearance. This echoed the history of the Camondo family who were all exterminated and therefore the choice to located the exhibition within their home was deemed appropriate.

A glimpse at the contemporary exhibits....