Palais de Toyko 2012 Re-opened!

LIZ SAYS: Going from the Grand Palais with its steelwork and glass dollhouse charm to the newly reopened Palais de Tokyo is schizophrenic. The building has been closed for renovations for an eternity, leaving a mid sized hole in our current culture circuit.
When we first walked into the new space, it somewhat resembled the old space with various shops removed or relocated. The giant bits of steel and reno looking stuff hanging just out of site was a cool tease, as was the giant black and white graffiti'd FEAR EATS THE SOUL. 

And, it started off quite  promisingly, I thought I was discovering the most interesting exhibition space I 'd seen in awhile. The reno seems to have been a deconstruction. It was like the close up shot shows all the nuances but the long pan reveals its really just a faux construction site.
I was so struck by the machine nibbled walls and the enthusiastic cool of just seeing the inside of a huge artfully gutted building that I hardly even noticed the art stuff placed around it.
Then, I started to get that claustrophobic feeling, Dick said he had a funny taste in his mouth and we began to see the big picture, it was that same sort of  alkaline plaster dust  picture, the this is taking too long and costing me too much picture that you see when you are stuck in the middle of a remodel. 

When you start thinking about exposure to underlying materials like asbestos and lead. Then, the building doesn't look so good does it? 

We hastened our way out of this hellish place that was obviously sucking the life out of us.  Even though we left with health concerns, I'm pretty sure I have some great  photos of beaten up architecture slash set design.