I thought i would pause here to add a couple of informational things about life at the Cite. First off, if you're going to be staying here it's a good idea to go out to your local pharmacie and pick up a box of these. Earplugs (5EU) are a necessity if you're not a sound sleeper, as the street noise and sometimes the building noise can leave you tossing and turning at 4 am. Gehoorbeschrming.

I should also mention that there's an auditorium here for the musically inclined and a printing shop for those who need to make an impression.

We also have our own subway stop, well we're a subtitle at least, so if you get lost its helpfully listed on the subway signage.

And best off all, right next door to the Cite is one of the best coffee shops in Paris  La Cafeotheque (http://www.lacafeotheque.com/en/) in case you haven't been sleeping very well and need that extra jolt before making an impression.

This is Alak Roy. He is a professor at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. He works primarily in sculpture and installation. He recently exhibited his new work from his residency here at the Cite in an exhibition called "Rats in the Library"

www.alakroy.com


here's aother image....

And this is Leslie Amine who is from Benin and lives in France. She works mostly in drawing and painting. As well as these large figure pieces she had some lovely smaller more abstract work.


www.leslieamine.fr

And this is Ishola Akpo, also from Benin. He works in photography and performance. He had a large assemblage of photographs and text on one wall called 'pas de flash s'il vous plait' which is what all the museum guards tell you when your flash accidentally goes off in the Louvre.

http://www.isholaphotos.org/

This is Nikola Velicki. He's Serbian and works primarily in drawing, printmaking and painting. He knows how to make big things in a small space.

http://www.saatchionline.com/velickinikola

This is Milan Antic, also from Serbia. He works primarily in drawing and painting and had some wonderful small paintings in gouache on old textbook pages

And this is Kathleen Ritter, fellow Canadian and one of my art heroes for her inspirational performance, with the Ladies Afternoon Art Society, 'Totally Free Lint Removal', which was part of an exhibition (SELF HELP) at Mercer Union in Toronto in 2000, curated by Anda Kubis. She is currently working on a series of prints executed in shorthand and a performance for Flux Night in Atlanta

http://kathleenritter.com/
http://fluxprojects.org/

These are some of the people in my neighbourhood here at Cite des Arts
This is Sarah Jane Gorlitz and Wojciech Olejnik, who occupy the other Canadian studio and work collaboratively as softturns (softturns.com) Sarah Jane is also a super excellent tour guide.

This is Felicity Hammond, a British artist who works in photography and collage and has an upcoming show here during the Paris Photo event in November.

www.felicityhammond.com/

This is Vivien Zhang, another UK artist. She is a painter and i believe works mostly with oils.

http://vivienzhang.com/

And this is Sun Mee Kang from South Korea. She has been working on this wonderful version of a letter from the Cite's director, recreated on her studio wall with black tape. She does alot of large site specific installation work.

http://linekang.com/

here's how the Cite International Studio looks upon arrival.(It's the Cartier Room!) it's actually abit larger than i expected though the layout is kinda odd. i'm on the second floor on the river side of the building. there is quite a busy road between the building and the river but there are a large group of plane trees that muffle the sound.  there is also a small kitchen alcove, a small bedroom and a good size bathroom. there is a large sort of utility closet by the entrance door contain the ghosts and debris of past Canadian occupants including a TV, a computer printer, 2 fans, a crutch, a box of tools, a box of maps of Paris and two of the saddest looking pillows i've ever seen. i've already broken a wineglass.