Just back from a long weekend in Paris, and a highlight was the exhibition by "Beat Takeshi" Kitano at Fondation Cartier running until 12th September, after which it will apparently tour, though no specific countries or cities have been mentioned.

If you're unaware of Kitano, he's best known in the west for his movies, most of which he writes, directs and stars in, including Sonatine, Kikujiro and Zatoichi. They're often very violent and filled with arresting imagery and off-centre humour. In Japan however, he's also a household name stand-up comedian and slapstick comedy TV host, as well as a newspaper columnist and poet, and there's really no-one else I can think of who straddles high and low culture the way he does - imagine Harry Hill also directing Trainspotting, or Mike Leigh presenting Hole In The Wall...

This is his first art exhibition, and is refreshingly designed primarily for children, who seemed to love it (there were a few school trips in progress when I visited), though adults will enjoy the sly jokes and absurdism of much of his work, like the "recently discovered" Japanese WWII plans to graft weapons onto animals (such as an aircraft carrier platform onto the back of a whale), his theories on why dinosaurs became extinct (e.g. in games of Rock-Paper-Scissors they could only ever do Scissors), and the world's most inefficient sewing machine... there's also a hysterical 20-minute compilation from his various TV series, and you can even buy "Buddha Waffles" from the stall outside!

Cheap (€7.50) and cheerful - highly recommended if you're in the neighbourhood over the next month. Details at http://fondation.cartier.com/