• La Fête
• Visual Arts
• Portraits de Mode

Since 2008, La Fête and ZEN Department Store have partnered to show great original outdoor photography exhibitions: there’s no entrance fee, and access is open to everyone 24/7.  Previous exhibitions "La Terre vue du Ciel", by Yann Arthus Bertrand, "Planet Ocean", by Laurent Ballesta, and "Portraits of Asia", by Eric Lafforgue, presented by Polka Galerie (Paris), were exceptionally successful and, all together, drew an audience of nearly one million people. This year, the closing event of the festival will be Jean-Marie Périer’s exhibition "Portraits de Mode". A time to celebrate Thai and French fashion in style!

"Portraits de Mode" will take you to the world of Haute Couture through the eyes of one of the most famous and unique photographers on the French fashion scene. Jean-Marie Périer’s photos show the hidden face of great fashion stars, such as Yves Saint-Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Chantal Thomas, Yohi Yamamoto, Kenzo, Issey Miyake, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Giorgio Armani, Dolce Gabbana, or Gianni Versace… Last year, "Fashion 3" presented about 10 of the artist’s photos. This year, La Fête will devote an entire exhibition to him, so that you can have a wide-angled appreciation of Jean-Marie Périer’s works!

In France, the story of Jean-Marie Périer is well-known and celebrated. At 16, his meeting with Daniel Filipacchi, the future founder of an international press group, jump-started his career as THE photographer of the French Nouvelle Vague generation of musicians, but also, as that of the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and The Beatles: "For the next 12 years, I was able to do anything I wanted. There were no budget problems, and no agents. We were young, and we had no image management to deal with. Now, those times are gone." At the beginning of the 70’s, he dropped his Leicas to start a career in the movies and advertisement in Los Angeles, but returned to his first love, photography, in 1990. At the time, his sister, Anne-Marie Périer, was the director of Elle Magazine and that’s where Jean-Marie Périer published his series on great fashion designers. With the help of François Baudot, his art director, they staged crazy colourful scenes: Kenzo riding an elephant in front of his staff and friends; Yves Saint-Laurent in his showroom next to top-model Carla Bruni; a duplicated Carla Bruni on either side of Christian Lacroix on the balcony of Villa Ephrussi; Sonia Rykiel in a pastiche of the painting "La Liberté guidant le peuple". "Fashion designers have talent, intelligence, a touch of fantasy, and money. No one measures up to Karl Lagerfeld. If he wants a glacier on his catwalk, they will bring him one from Sweden presto." And Jean-Marie Périer sums it up: "These are the rock stars of today, the new Rolling Stones."

Polka Galerie is a Parisian gallery dedicated to producing, promoting, and publishing photography and the works of photographers with collectors and institutions. It was founded in March 2007 by Adélie de Ipanema and Edouard Genestar who are brother and sister, and has in its catalogue internationally recognised photographers, such as Elliott Erwitt, Françoise Huguier, William Klein, Peter Lindbergh, Daido Moriyama, and Marc Riboud, as well as emerging artists, such as Ethan Levitas, Yves Marchand, Romain Meffre, and Donata Wenders. Along with its exhibitions in Paris, it organizes exhibitions outside its own space with the help of national and international institutions, such as La Cinémathèque Française and La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, or private foundations, such as HSBC Foundation for Photography. Polka Galerie also publishes "Polka Magazine" to support the research it does on photography. Founded and directed by Alain Genestar, "Polka Magazine" has become an international reference.