Scenes from the Traversées du Marais at the Musée Picasso

One day, while glancing through the mail, I found a flyer for Les Traversées du Marais– a cultural and artistic festival that’s been running for 10 years- and decided to explore a few events. One was an exhibit of vintage advertisements at the Bibliothèque Forney; another was a unique art expo at the MAIF featuring a still life that I initially mistook for a real person admiring a piece of art. There was also an event at the Musée Picasso, where it was mentioned that an interpretive dancer would perform.

After visiting the first two venues, I arrived at the Musée Picasso a bit after the event began and began searching for the performance. It turned out that it started at 2 pm in the courtyard and then moved to a different room in the museum every 30 minutes. As I rounded a corner in my search for the artist, I discovered a crowd gathered around an Italian dancer in a striking red outfit, accompanied by a musician, both artistically interpreting the Picasso artwork.

Since I was late, my view wasn’t ideal, but as the performance concluded, I dashed up the stairs to secure a better spot at the next location. I settled in, eager for the dramatic entry and the fantastic dance that unfolded. (There was even dancing along the windows!) Caught up in the excitement, I rushed to the next location, where the dancer arrived on the scene wearing a mask, then posed in front of a wall of Picasso’s artwork.

After that, the audience moved to a larger area where the dancer and musician were joined by a few colleagues. Finally, a group of us tried to guess where the “vestibule” would be and caught the grand finale! Sometimes, those flyers in your mailbox turn out to be more than worth it.