PARIS — Mona Lisa’s smile may still draw
throngs of tourists to Paris, but the city’s contemporary art scene also
has its own allure. This week collectors and art fans are invading
Paris fresh from London’s Frieze for the International Contemporary Art Fair, also known here by its French acronym, FIAC.
As other international art fairs have begun to export their brands, FIAC, which opened today in Paris, has chosen to invest locally. In addition to outside star exhibitors like the Gagosian Gallery, Pace, and Andrea Rosen, the 40th edition of the fair features French artists, more public outdoor installations, a new performance series and a lineup of films.
Jennifer Flay, FIAC’s director, who joined the fair in 2003, said, “It’s important that FIAC continues to be a force in the local community while remaining international.”
Only four years younger than Art Basel, which now has outposts in Miami and Hong Kong, FIAC has stayed steadfast in its birth city. Even London’s 11-year-old Frieze has reached New York. But FIAC remains centered in Paris and is also distinguishable because it occupies some of the city’s most illustrious patrimonial spaces, including its main venue, the Grand Palais.
Organizers expect about 70,000 people to pass through the main Grand Palais exhibition over the next five days to see some of the world’s top galleries and works by the hottest names in contemporary art like Ai Weiwei’s “Iron Tree,’’ at a height of 6.28 meters, or 20.6 feet.
The “Hors les Murs” (Outside the Walls) series, which includes public installations throughout the city, also offers alternatives for those who might not be willing to stand in long lines or pay the €35 or almost $50 tickets. Jean Dubuffet’s sculpture “Welcome Parade” is now outside the Petit Palais, while the Jardin des Plantes and the Tuileries serve as sculpture gardens for works from artists like Juame Plensa, Giovanni Anselmo and Didier Faustino. Tadashi Kawamata’s “Tree Huts” dresses up the Place Vendôme, and the artist group Societé Réaliste has used United Nations member states flags in a new installation next to the Seine.
FIAC this year has also introduced a new series focusing on performance art, called In Process. Alex Cecchetti and Emma Kotatkova, along with other artists, will produce conceptual pieces around the theme of memory in various venues, including the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, a hunting and nature museum.
Films will be shown at the Grand Palais and at the Cinéphémère, a 14-seat construction container in the Tuileries. The director David Lynch’s exclusive nightclub Silencio will host nightly screenings, concerts and talks. Other institutions and galleries are using the fair as a pretext for planning their own events. On Sunday, for example, François Pinault played host to an exclusive preview of an exhibition at La Conciergerie, the former royal palace turned French Revolution prison on Ile de la Cité. The show features confinement-themed works by the likes of Damien Hirst, Kristian Burford and Michelangelo Pistoletto. On Thursday, most Parisian galleries will stay open for late-night art hopping.
From 700 applications this year, FIAC admitted 184 galleries from 25 countries, according to organizers. The majority of exhibitors are European, with the French leading the pack at 30 percent. The United States is the second-largest presence with 33 galleries.
The New York gallery Lehmann Maupin opened a Hong Kong branch in March and is showing some of its Asian artists, including Lee Bul from South Korea and Liu Wei from China, after a two-year absence from FIAC.
“Exhibiting in Paris is an opportunity for us to introduce new audiences to works by Asian artists who have not shown in Europe,” said David Maupin, who founded the gallery with Rachel Lehmann.
Even with the fair’s art-for-all focus, there is still a commercial aspect. Last year, some 20 pieces went for more than $1 million. In 2009 a Piet Mondrian sold for $39 million.
However, Ms. Flay insists that FIAC is not just for elite, wealthy collectors. “Artists work for everybody,” she said.
As other international art fairs have begun to export their brands, FIAC, which opened today in Paris, has chosen to invest locally. In addition to outside star exhibitors like the Gagosian Gallery, Pace, and Andrea Rosen, the 40th edition of the fair features French artists, more public outdoor installations, a new performance series and a lineup of films.
Jennifer Flay, FIAC’s director, who joined the fair in 2003, said, “It’s important that FIAC continues to be a force in the local community while remaining international.”
Only four years younger than Art Basel, which now has outposts in Miami and Hong Kong, FIAC has stayed steadfast in its birth city. Even London’s 11-year-old Frieze has reached New York. But FIAC remains centered in Paris and is also distinguishable because it occupies some of the city’s most illustrious patrimonial spaces, including its main venue, the Grand Palais.
Organizers expect about 70,000 people to pass through the main Grand Palais exhibition over the next five days to see some of the world’s top galleries and works by the hottest names in contemporary art like Ai Weiwei’s “Iron Tree,’’ at a height of 6.28 meters, or 20.6 feet.
The “Hors les Murs” (Outside the Walls) series, which includes public installations throughout the city, also offers alternatives for those who might not be willing to stand in long lines or pay the €35 or almost $50 tickets. Jean Dubuffet’s sculpture “Welcome Parade” is now outside the Petit Palais, while the Jardin des Plantes and the Tuileries serve as sculpture gardens for works from artists like Juame Plensa, Giovanni Anselmo and Didier Faustino. Tadashi Kawamata’s “Tree Huts” dresses up the Place Vendôme, and the artist group Societé Réaliste has used United Nations member states flags in a new installation next to the Seine.
FIAC this year has also introduced a new series focusing on performance art, called In Process. Alex Cecchetti and Emma Kotatkova, along with other artists, will produce conceptual pieces around the theme of memory in various venues, including the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, a hunting and nature museum.
Films will be shown at the Grand Palais and at the Cinéphémère, a 14-seat construction container in the Tuileries. The director David Lynch’s exclusive nightclub Silencio will host nightly screenings, concerts and talks. Other institutions and galleries are using the fair as a pretext for planning their own events. On Sunday, for example, François Pinault played host to an exclusive preview of an exhibition at La Conciergerie, the former royal palace turned French Revolution prison on Ile de la Cité. The show features confinement-themed works by the likes of Damien Hirst, Kristian Burford and Michelangelo Pistoletto. On Thursday, most Parisian galleries will stay open for late-night art hopping.
From 700 applications this year, FIAC admitted 184 galleries from 25 countries, according to organizers. The majority of exhibitors are European, with the French leading the pack at 30 percent. The United States is the second-largest presence with 33 galleries.
The New York gallery Lehmann Maupin opened a Hong Kong branch in March and is showing some of its Asian artists, including Lee Bul from South Korea and Liu Wei from China, after a two-year absence from FIAC.
“Exhibiting in Paris is an opportunity for us to introduce new audiences to works by Asian artists who have not shown in Europe,” said David Maupin, who founded the gallery with Rachel Lehmann.
Even with the fair’s art-for-all focus, there is still a commercial aspect. Last year, some 20 pieces went for more than $1 million. In 2009 a Piet Mondrian sold for $39 million.
However, Ms. Flay insists that FIAC is not just for elite, wealthy collectors. “Artists work for everybody,” she said.
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