Paris Moderne, 1914-1945

Exhibition at the Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 22 July - 20 October 2023

In peace or war, the Paris of the first half of the XXᵉ century vibrates with feverish energy. The most unbridled imaginations were expressed in new forms whose creators came from all over Europe. The challenges of industry and the expectations of the market fed into architecture and all the artistic disciplines that gave a deliberately modern city its everyday face.

This profusion of influences is traced in the manner of a dictionary, from the letter "A", like the photographer Laure Albin-Guillot, to the letter "Z", like the art critic Christian Zervos, via Josephine Baker, Marcel Carné, Coco Chanel, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Adolf Loos, Charlotte Perriand, Helena Rubinstein and Tristan Tzara. Nearly a hundred entries make up a portrait in the form of a richly illustrated kaleidoscope, and a photographic report by Antonio Martinelli reveals what today's architectural and urban landscape reveals about the Paris of a hundred years ago.