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Summary 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. The exhibition is open to the public from Thursday (November 10th) until January 9th 2012.
