Paris' Grand Palais hosts exhibition on the history of the video game.
Paris majestic Grand Palais is more used to housing canvas and couture, but from Thursday (November 10)
visitors will be able to find Pacman under the same roof as Picasso.
The glass-domed building regularly plays host to Paris Fashion Week shows as well as displays of art by
masters such as Monet and Cezanne, but its latest exhibition, entitled "Game Story", tackles a different
medium altogether. The homage to home-console, tracing the development of video games from their
1970s origins through to the present day.
The games will be familiar to children and adults alike, from nostalgic fans of Atari to Angry Birds addicts.
And while the exhibition clearly demonstrates the technological advances of the past four decades - with
consoles from the original Pong to the newest Playstation - the focus is on the aesthetic and cultural aspects
of the games, which draw inspiration from the artistic traditions of countries including Japan, the
USA and France."Today a lot of artists who maybe would have been film directors or painters forty years
ago, are today creators of video games, and so what we wanted to highlight and focus on, because
we are welcoming and hosting here exhibitions of art mainly, is the aesthetic history of the video
game and the artistic dimension of the video games,
" said Jerome Neutres, advisor to the president of the Grand Palais.
The organisers say video games have also expanded beyond pure entertainment and impressive graphics, with
games such as Guitar Hero and Wii Sports allowing consoles to be used to develop skills and fitness. Despite
much controversy over possible links between violence in video games and in behaviour, especially among
youths, gaming also has many positive aspects, argues curator Jean-Baptiste Clais.
"The video game experience is founded on a simple principle: if you fail, you try again. And that is
something which makes the video game conducive to learning. People practise, try, and try again until
they succeed. And that is true whatever the game, whether the game be based on skill, thought, tactics
or strategy. Videogames are in themselves mental and physical training," Clais said.
With the advent of smartphones and increasingly sophisticated play-at-home consoles with network gaming
capabilities, video games have certainly come a long way since they were mere blocks of pixels on the screens
of standalone games machines.
