Candy floss floaters and Yayoi Kusama’s punctured pumpkin: all the fun of the (Fiac) fair

VIP visitors to this year’s Fiac art fair (until 20 October) at Paris's Grand Palais found themselves in a spot of bother when candy floss created by Vivien Roubaud flew through the air as part of the French-born artist’s project on Avenue Winston Churchill, sticking sometimes to their clothes and body parts. Roubaud’s centrifugal ovens are whipping up vast quantities of the sugary substance which spin into the atmosphere thanks to a bank of very powerful thrust fans. “Is this art?” asked one distinguished US visitor who proceeded to clean her hair with a lemon wet wipe after the floss became entangled in her lustrous locks. Meanwhile, Yayoi Kusama’s giant inflatable pumpkin in the Place Vendôme (Life of the Pumpkin Recites, All About the Biggest Love for the People, 2019) has fallen foul of high winds, and stands no more in the prestigious Parisian square for safety reasons (the piece, part of the Hors les Murs public art programme was deflated in other words).