Art Paris is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and has definitively established itself on the map of unmissable events for contemporary creation and the art market. More than 130 French, European and international galleries meet under the dome of the Ephemeral Grand Palaceat the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
For the director ofArt Paris Guillaume Piens, the time for public and professional recognition has come. “We are experiencing a historic turning point where renowned foreign galleries are coming to settle in Paris: before, it was London, now it’s Paris: “Paris is the place to be” and it’s true that it’s is another driver in this success,” he points out.
“Art Paris is a fair that is open to all audiences,” he continues. “It also highlights the French scene since there are 60% French exhibitors, there are also many foreign galleries – we have 40% – and some come from very far away,” he specifies.
Telling identity and exile
The French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak came to inaugurate this event which goes beyond the national framework. In particular, she visited the galerie Saleh Barakat from Beirut, one of whose artists Anas Albraehea Syrian refugee in Lebanon, is part of the “Exile: dispossession and resistance” trail organized by curator Amanda Abi Khalil.
“Where do we sit to talk about exile, what is our identity, what is our color, what is our gender, what is our positioning?” challenges Amanda Abi Khalil. “It’s this critical look that I liked to bring with French artists, artists who live in France, but also many artists who have just left Burma, Cuba, Brazil and Palestine,” she indicates.
“Responding to Today’s Realities”
Galleries from 25 countries and artists from around the world are therefore present for this edition, which has grown in size compared to previous years.
Second guest curator for this edition, Marc Donnadieu took a look at the French art scene by questioning the links between art and commitment.
“It seemed important to me for the public of Art Paris, to show how artists could respond to the realities of today, of the world around us and on which there is a need to engage,” says Marc Donnadieu.
A young and promising Turkish gallery
Among the newcomers, the young and promising “The Pill”, the first Turkish gallery present at Art Paris. Two of its artists were selected by the two guest curators.
The gallery’s founder, Suela J. Cennet, digs the furrow of an uninhibited and committed art. “The gallery has a program that revolves around questions of displacement, dispossession, feminist identity, the question of the body, its imprisonment or its empowerment – as we say in English -, questions of violence, of its representation, of the archive, of history, of the imprint,” lists Suela J. Cennet. “It’s also a gallery that carries a generation, a group of artists who are friends, who talk to each other, who know each other,” she explains.
The 25th edition of Art Paris is to be discovered at the ephemeral Grand Palais until Sunday April 2, 2023.