This week on Paris des Arts, meet two artists who refuse to be put in a box. Actress Alice Taglioni shares her love of the piano, and Jessica Préalpato, named the world's best pastry chef in 2019, reinvents afternoon tea in four different courses.
Alice Taglioni is best known for her roles on the big screen, but she's stepping into new territory with her debut classical album, DNA. The piano has been part of her life since childhood, a passion she's never let go of. "People often project what they imagine me to be," she says, "based on an image, on the roles I've played. With this album, I'm delivering who I actually am, even if it's in a very unconscious way. I think it's inevitably tied to a sensitivity that's entirely my own."
Jessica Préalpato grew up around pastry, her father being a baker, but it was her years in the kitchens of haute cuisine that sparked her desire to do things differently. Working alongside Alain Ducasse, she developed the concept of desseralité: desserts that are less sweet, more plant-based, and where the ingredients take centre stage. She now brings that philosophy to the Hôtel San Régis, with an afternoon tea that catches guests off guard. "Going back to a lemon tart, putting a new spin on a Paris-Brest... I'd get bored very quickly," she explains. "What's interesting is being able to introduce guests to a different way of working with pastry, but also to new ingredients they might never have come across."
Finally, gallerist Christophe Person turns the spotlight on abstraction in contemporary African art. "African artists bring a great deal of narrative to abstraction," he says. "Very often, a painting may appear abstract but is actually telling a story, one we sometimes fail to grasp, though usually out of unfamiliarity with African culture rather than anything else. That's precisely what this exhibition sets out to address."
