By Thibault Paquin, Celebrating Life
On a recent trip to Paris, I paid a visit to the popular contemporary art funfair at Le Centquatre in the colourful 19th district. I was curious to see how this city-run cultural hub was turned into a theme park with the tagline “come play with art!”
While the pitch mentioned an experience where visitors can do more than look at art but also explore and be amazed by the work of 40 artists, what I saw was a curation of artwork by contemporary artists on the theme of a funfair, organized in portals around a central courtyard. Think of a small family dark ride or a mirror maze revisited by art collectives. The entrance ticket I paid €15 for got me 20 paper tokens and each “arttraction” costs 1 to 3 tokens.
If the exhibition used some of the funfair codes, it failed to generate that sense of excitement and wonder I expected. So I asked myself why? And the main reason I decided was because of the vision of the curator, which is of adding fun to an art fair by way of selecting works based on their theme (as opposed to their intent). It failed – it is not because a piece borrows from the funfair fantasy that it is entertaining. Not all go-rounds have to be merry!
The display left a bitter taste in my mouth. I felt abused as a funfair and theme park enthusiast.
How to create a successful arttraction
But I didn’t want to leave it at that. And I do like the idea of an arttraction. So I decided to turn to winning displays, such as the ones presented by Meow Wolf.
Here, I offer to share here the four rules I compiled for a successful attempt.
- Like for any attraction, an arttraction needs to put sparkles in the eyes and a smile on the face of the visitors. That mix of beauty and fun is key. That is the magic.
- It needs to be designed by artists, but with the visitors in mind as opposed to a personal artistic gesture.
- It needs to be built around an emotional journey that touches the visitor (possibly operating a transformation).
- It needs to challenge the senses of the visitors and invite them to explore in order to trigger discovery, joy and excitement. That is the wow moment.
With visitors looking for more meaningful experiences, I see great potential for the development of these arttractions.
Digital and hybrid arts provide artists with all the tools needed for successful displays that allow them to express their creativity while entertaining and opening new perspectives for visitors.
