MJ On The Wall: Paris offering fails to live up to the standard set in London

At the end of October, Michael Jackson: On The Wall packed up its artistic bags and headed to Paris where on Friday 23rd November, it opened in the Grand Palais on the Champs Elysees, where it’ll stay until the end of February 2019.

Having enjoyed it in London for the summer, I decided that I wanted to see it in Paris too. I love Michael and I love Paris, so the two combined would make for a nice pre-christmas trip.

Returning home, I’ve decided to share the experience from a logistical and visual perspective and I must make this absolutely clear – This is not a review of the original artworks. This was already written back when the exhibition debuted in London. I will reference the ‘new’ pieces that featured at Grand Palais that were not in London, but this review is not an artistic one, more one of experience of the exhibition, handling of the logistics and the Grand Palais presentation of Michael Jackson On The Wall.

With the exhibition opening at 10am, we decided to arrive at 10:30am. Paris is cold this time of year and I wasn’t about to be queuing in the freezing weather – If it was a world exclusive yes, but as I’d seen the contents, I was feeling less urgency to get inside – which was a good thing as it was impossible to work out how to actually get into the exhibit.

There were plenty of Michael Jackson signs, all pointing in different directions, leading to different ends, but none of which indicating which was the one we needed to get in. We weaved through the one we thoughts was ours and asked one of the security team where the entrance was and he pointed to the small door in front of him. In, bag scan, up the first set of stairs. At the top was a very small crowded box that housed the ticket office, a circle of people receiving what seemed like a talk and another crowd of people in coats and scarfs and lanyards pointing to us to go up the stairs behind us. “This way?” we queried? “Yes!” they pointed. There was no signage and we felt convinced we were going the wrong way. Alas we were not and as the stairs looped round, we reached the queue spiraling through…wait…is this the gift shop?!

We waited around 10 minutes to enter, owing largely to the fact that the first piece of art by Kehinde Wiley was so close to the entrance that people were stopping to take photographs, causing a backlog of people attempting to enter. Even once tickets were scanned, we still couldn’t get in and stood waiting to leave the line and begin our exploration.

Unlike the exhibition in London, the Paris version is set in a U shape with artworks on walls either side, it’s almost a round and out set-up, although as we did, you can keep looping round. The spaces are particularly narrow, offering little space to stop and study the artworks, take photographs or discuss with friends.

Early on in the set up is Rashid Johnson’s piece entitled ‘The Wiz’ owing largely to a copy of ‘The Wiz’ LP which sits on the shelf on the bottom left, however in Paris, the LP was ‘missing’ unlike in the catalogue or in London. We pointed this out to a member of gallery staff who simply shrugged and said something to the effect of ‘It is what it is.’

For those looking for the Dangerous album cover, you can find it around a corner without any sort of prominence as it had in London. This is disappointing seeing as it’s the only piece in the entire exhibit which holds monumental and actual significance to the man the entire exhibit is about.

On the second straight of the U you’ll find (and almost miss) the Mr Brainwash piece which featured in Xscape in 2014 – However the text remains unfinished and only the name ‘John Branca’ features from the quote he provided for the London showing.

In the final room the last piece is a video by Francois Chaignaud and Nino Laisne titled ‘Mourn, O Nature!’ – created especially for the Paris exhibition which explores the somewhat tenuous link between Michael and Opera as he practiced French operatic melodies on a few occasions. I’ll let attendees be the judge of this piece themselves.

As I exited the exhibition back in to the gift shop (we’re getting there!) I felt extremely underwhelmed by what the Grand Palais have done with exhibition. Comparing it to London’s set up in the National Portrait Gallery, it lacked any concise flow, felt extremely sterile aside from one of two glittered walls and felt void of that energetic vibe that the name Michael Jackson brings to any presentation that his name fronts, as it had done in London.

The gift shop – Oh the gift shop. What a poor display of fused together misfits with a thinly veiled connection. As standard there were all of Michael’s Epic albums on CD, excluding HIStory (which was number one in France and has sold just shy of 1.7million copies in the country), the picture vinyls released for the Diamond Celebration and Off The Wall to Dangerous on standard LP. However, these CDs were packed in with albums from Bruno Mars, Lenny Kravitz and Christine and the Queens! Also piled high next to Michael’s DVDs were DVDs of Disney’s Peter Pan, Diana Ross, a token horror film and the famous Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie ‘Top Hat’ – All holding ‘links to Michael’ but all spaces that could have been filled with Moonwalker, Vision, Greatest Hits Volume One & Two or The Wiz…or maybe even the HIStory album!

The second wall featured all the leftover merchandise from the London exhibition, looking disheveled from its trip across the channel as well as a selection of postcards of the artworks printed for this installment of the event, and these were good quality and make a nice keep safe of the pieces that you may have enjoyed the most. The other side of the shop was littered with Mickey Mouse paraphernalia…oh so ‘now’ we’re celebrating Michael’s love of ‘elementary things’ because of the checkout right next to the display…got it! (please note the sarcasm). Folks, if you want Mickey Mouse, there’s a Disney Store 15 minutes down the road on the Champs Elysees.

The centre was piled high with french books based on either Michael Jackson, Soul and Funk music or discussions of race. If it was French and Michael’s name was on it, it was there except for the actual books he released (both of which were found in the gift shop at On The Wall in London). In the far corner was a table set-up with piles of children’s books. Bearing in mind all will have been selected and ‘brought in’ for the event (just as Christine and the Queens’ album had been!) two children’s books entitled ‘White on Black’ and ‘Black on White’ stood out to me. Both books feature images of different objects in one colour on the background of the other. These books certainly were not there because Michael broke down racial barriers that entrenched the music industry in the 80s as their contents was nothing to do with that, nor because he released a song about global harmony based on race in 1991 as their content was nothing to do with that either. It’s not hard to draw a conclusion as to why they were sat there and it was frankly insulting.

By the end of the time there, I felt that Grand Palais had truly missed the mark in presenting some unique, incredible and alternative pieces of artwork in an environment that reflects the inspiration the 70+ pieces had for their subject matter (in case you’re wondering the theme of the decor is…Black and White!) Few pieces had a real stand out presentation as they had done in London and we’re tucked into corners and walls around the U to ensure you pass them, but leave little to ‘discovery’. It was all just ‘there’ and that was about it. The missing texts or pieces in the artwork could have easily been rectified in between the day of the press launch on the Wednesday and the official opening on the Friday.

I hope that fans attending will enjoy the artworks (especially the Dangerous Album Cover) because ultimately that’s what it’s all about. I just hope they’re able to see beyond the indiscretions of incomplete works and that gift shop!

One final thought, please take a jacket and scarf as it’s absolutely freezing inside.