Laurie Simmons, Sean Kelly, Dan Cameron, and others imagine their fantasy shows.
Continue readingFor FIAC, Projects Sprawl All Over Paris as Dealers Ring Up Sales Inside the Grand Palais
by Laurie Hurwitz, artnet News
“Art is what helps draw us out of inertia.” On the street in front of the Grand Palais, where the dynamic 43rd edition of the FIAC or Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain, Paris’s international art fair, is being held from October 20 to 23, one can read the words of philosopher Henri Michaux. Spelled out in Michaux’s personal alphabet of symbolic letters, the phrase is the work of Jacques Villeglé, the 90-year-old French affichiste and multimedia artist best known for his lacerated posters.
The words are apt for this year’s fair, which, offering up a bold response to a lukewarm art market and a fragile European economy in a city wounded by the recent terrorist attacks, boldly spills out beyond its usual four walls, into the streets and beyond.
In the most important change this year, the fair’s director, Jennifer Flay, told ARTnews she was especially proud of “reclaiming this public space for art”—she obtained permission from Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to close the street in front of the Grand Palais, the majestic Avenue Winston Churchill, to traffic, transforming the street into both a pedestrian zone as well as a showcase for new pieces, including Villeglé’s philosophical phrase and commissioned works by Lawrence Weiner and Ernesto Neto.

MARC DOMAGE/©2016 FIAC/COURTESY GALERIE GP & N VALLOIS, PARIS
The street also leads to a completely new sector, On Site, for sculpture and installations, both contemporary and modern, hosted opposite FIAC’s main venue in the smaller, graceful Petit Palais (which, like its neighbor, was erected for the Exposition Universelle in 1900). Flay considers the sector, agreed upon after four years of discussion with the museum, “the fair’s most significant initiative.” She added, “FIAC is, I believe, the only fair that provides our participants with real museum conditions. We have already used outdoor venues for large-scale sculptures, but this is the first time we have been able to do it indoors.”
Organized in collaboration with Christophe Leribault, director of the Petit Palais, and curator Lorenzo Benedetti, On Site presents nearly 40 sculptures and installations by 35 artists in a more classic “museum” context, creating surprising juxtapositions in the palace’s elegant galleries and gardens or on the esplanade in front of it. Funny, jarring, subtle, and outlandish, the show brings together such works as Atlantis, by Mandla Reuter, a large-format, inflatable balloon; Alain Bublex’s eclectic, boxy installation dealing with different architectural viewpoints; new, white plaster horse “skins” by Guillaume Leblon; and works by Jan Fabre and Barry Flanagan. Others works on display include Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise—“because we don’t just deal with the super-contemporary,” said Flay; Damien Hirst’s Anatomy of an Angel (inspired by Alfred Boucher’s 1920 sculpture L’Hirondelle, but revealing anatomically human cross-sections of the angel’s body), Abraham Cruzvillegas’s Empty Lot light sculptures; Lee Ufan’s minimalist Relatum; and Not Vital’s stainless-steel Head No.4.

©BLAISE ADILON/COURTESY GALERIE JOCELYN WOLFF
As part of another initiative, “Parades for FIAC,” which introduces a program of performative, cross-disciplinary practices, the fair had already begun showcasing unusual works in new spots three days before its opening. The program, which began with Corbeaux, a performance at the Louvre by Moroccan dancer and choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen, also includes bird chants by Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet and a poetry reading by Alex Cecchetti on the theme of heaven and hell, as well as versions of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” performed by drummer Nicolas Fenouillat, dressed in a full suit of medieval armor. The performances are being held in the Grand Palais and in empty spaces of the Palais de la Découverte, an old Paris science museum behind the Grand Palais (which has opened up the doors connecting the two spaces); the Gare du Nord train station; and the courtyards of the Louvre.
This year’s FIAC is also continuing to sponsor numerous “Hors les Murs” exhibits around town, although for the moment, it has postponed its sister fair, Officielle, a satellite event that had been showing younger galleries along the River Seine, further from the Grand Palais, at Paris at the Docks / Cité de la Mode et du Design.
At the Tuileries Gardens, this year’s visitors can see Thomas Kilpper’s working lighthouse for Lampedusa, intended to welcome refugee; a hair flag by Claude Closky; Ron Arad’s entitled crazy shell structure, Armadillo Tea Pavilion, which looks like an enormous caterpillar; Mircea Cantor’s intersecting metal flags; and a pair of resin trees by French duo Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus. The Place Vendôme (where Paul McCarthy’s scandalous butt-plug controversial tree was shown two years back) has now become a monumental forest by Ugo Rondinone—according to Flay, “the largest artwork he has ever made… five sculptures of olive trees, a monumental symbol of peace and nature, along with five anthropomorphic figures in stone”; and the Musée Eugène Delacroix has been invested by Stéphane Thidet with a living sound sculpture reminiscent of Thoreau’s Walden.

MARC DOMAGE/PRESENTED BY REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
And inside the Grand Palais, the fair itself is also spilling over into the Salon Jean Perrin, a roughly 3,200-square-feet space with a cathedral-like ceiling 33 feet high, where nine galleries are presenting solo shows of late 20th-century artists whose work is “currently undergoing critical reassessment and therefore participating in the movement to reevaluate under-appreciated artists,” said Flay. Those galleries include Endre Tót, Darío Villalba, Irma Blank, Henri Chopin, Tetsumi Kudo, György Jovánovics, and writer William S. Burroughs (whose painting Out of the Closet, for instance, is on display).
In all, the fair’s lineup brings together 186 galleries from 27 countries—up from last year’s 173 galleries from 23 countries—including 43 new exhibitors, including first-timers from Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, and Poland. Heavy hitters include Perrotin’s mostly black-and-white installation of work, curated by Elmgreen & Dragset; Sadie Coles HQ’s display of Urs Fischer’s vibrant snakelike sculpture and foam chairs; and Gagosian’s hyperrealist couple on a bench by Duane Hanson. Ten emerging galleries, in the fair’s Lafayette Sector, who receive financial support to appear, include Paris’s Galerie Allen and TORRI, London’s Arcade and Hollybush Gardens, Experimenter from Kolkata, Freedman Fitzpatrick of Los Angeles, Dubai’s Grey Noise, joségarcía, mx from Mexico City, and Berlin’s Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (with monumental works by Guan Xiao) and Micky Schubert.

MARC DOMAGE/©2016 FIAC MARC DOMAGE/©2016 FIAC
“There may be a slowdown in the art market, but we are not in crisis,” said Flay. Her statement is so far holding true for several galleries, including Sprüth Magers, who reported strong sales on opening day, including George Condo’s Untitled (Head #2) for $550,000 and a Karen Kilimnik painting for $110,000. Skarstedt Gallery also reported selling a George Condo, Untitled (Head #1), for $500,000, and Mike Kelley’s Three Part Yam Stack, from 1990, made of found stuffed animals, for $275,000.
Several other galleries also reported sales of work, including a Jean Dubuffet by Waddington Custot from London; pieces from Tornobuoni, Lehmann Maupin, and White Cube; Lisson, including works by Cory Archangel and Lee Ufan. And around the city, from the streets in front of the fair and radiating outwards, the city is buzzing everywhere with activity, from the YIA (Young International Artists) fair at the Carreau du Temple to Asia Now, the Outside Art Fair (now in its fourth edition), the Paris Internationale fair, Private Choice, and Rooms Part, along with “La colonie,” the new space by Kader Attia, winner of this year’s Marcel Duchamp prize, a sort of bar/restaurant/think tank in northeastern Paris, at a pleasant remove from the freneticism of FIAC.
Bigger than ever, the 43rd edition of FIAC explores utopias and displacement
BY ROOKSANA HOSSENALLY, Wallpaper*
Paris’ International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) usually revolves around the gigantic Grand Palais museum with satellite events across the city. This year, however, things are a little different. FIAC’s 43rd edition (running until 23 October) is the largest to date, with a line-up of 186 galleries from 27 countries, as well as an ever-diverse offering including a contemporary dance section and new On Site venues like the Petit Palais and Palais de la Découverte museums.
‘Offering the Petit Palais, such a prestigious venue, built at the same time as the Grand Palais for the 1900 World Expo, was a desire many exhibitors expressed,’ explains fair director Jennifer Flay. ‘And to see contemporary sculptures like Damien Hirst’s white marble Anatomy of an Angel exhibited among the paintings of Gustave Courbet for instance, helps to see things in a new and different way.’

(Image credit: Claire Dorn)
Flay is also eager to see the Avenue Winston Churchill that runs between the two museums – where several artworks will be shown – restored to a pedestrian esplanade as it was in the 1900s. In addition, the event will also see the reopening (after a decade) of the forgotten corridor between the Grand Palais and the Palais de la Découverte science museum, emphasising the building of links between space and time, as opposed to putting up walls.
In fact, many of the installations outside the Grand Palais will explore the unofficial theme of utopia. ‘Although it’s not a deliberate response to what’s going on at the moment, there is a link,’ says Flay.
Another must-see on Flay’s list is Ugo Rondinone’s installation of ten 5m-high sculptures of gnarly olive trees and anthropomorphic stone figures on Place Vendôme. ‘It’s not an easy space to occupy, and this is by far the largest footprint we’ve had on the square,’ says Flay.

(Image credit: Jean Nouvel)
In the Tuileries Gardens, Pezo Von Ellrichshausen further explores the unofficial theme with a mock-up of the lighthouse he plans on building in Lampedusa to help guide immigrant boats, built from bits of washed up wood from shipwrecks. Nearby, architects Jean Prouvé and Jean Nouvel contribute with their all-terrain emergency housing, a response to homelessness caused by natural and political disasters. For Flay, this FIAC is more meaningful than ever. ‘We are so thrilled to present these pieces in this context because it makes us think about the terrible situation immigrants are in. But also about possible solutions.’

(Image credit: Courtesy of Maud Remy Lonvis)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Maud Remy Lonvis)

(Image credit: Youssef Meftah, Bruxelles)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Galerie Perrotin)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Maud Remy Lonvis)

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Xavier Hufkens)

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, Courtesy of Marcelle Alix)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Damien Hirst and Science Ltd., © White Cube (Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd))

(Image credit: Man Ray)

(Image credit: Courtesy of the Estate of Tom Wesselmann)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Tornabuoni Art)

(Image credit: Mike Bruce)

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Kamel Mennour, Courtesy of Archivio Carol Rama, Torino and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Philippe De Putter)

(Image credit: A Burger)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin, Courtesy of Gaudel de Stampa)

(Image credit: Bloomlab.it)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Maud Remy Lonvis)

(Image credit: Marc Domage)

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Courtesy of Galerie Daniel Templon)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Maud Remy Lonvis)

(Image credit: Courtesy of Galleria Alfonso Artiaco)

(Image credit: Dove Allouche)
INFORMATION
The 43rd edition of FIAC is on view until 23 October. For more information, visit the FIAC website
FIAC 2016: Art Exhibitions, Live Performances and Film Screenings
By Urban Mishmash
The highly anticipated international contemporary art fair, FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporaine), will run from October 20 to 23, 2016 in Paris.
Bigger in scope than its previous editions, the 2016 edition will bring together 186 art galleries from around the world at the Grand Palais in Paris, including, for the first time, exhibitors from Japan, Hong Kong, Poland and Hungary. The art fair will also feature a series of outdoor exhibitions, live performances and film screenings at various historic venues across Paris, including the Louvre, Petit Palais, the Tuileries Gardens and Place Vendôme.
FIAC 2016 at the Grand Palais
The main exhibitions of the 43rd edition of FIAC will be on view at the Grand Palais in Paris. The Nave will host 108 international art galleries presenting works by internationally acclaimed and emerging artists, while the Salon d’Honneur and the Upper Galleries on the first floor will feature several art galleries dedicated to discovering and promoting new and emerging artists.

This year’s edition of FIAC will also see the inauguration of Salon Jean Perrin and will host nine art galleries presenting solo exhibitions of ten artists from 1970s onwards, including Endre Tót, Darío Villalba, Nil Yalter, Hessie, Irma Blank, Henri Chopin, William S. Burroughs, Tetsumi Kudo, Ilona Keserü and György Jovánovics.

Additionally, the Lafayette Sector of FIAC 2016 that focuses on the international emerging arts scene will feature exhibitions by ten art galleries from seven countries, including Mexico, India, Germany and England.
FIAC 2016
From October 20 to October 23, 2016 (from noon to
8pm, late night opening until 9 pm on October 21, 2016)
At the Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
Day Ticket €35 (Reduced Tariff €20); Catalogue €35; Day ticket + catalogue (package) €60
Hors Les Murs
FIAC 2016 will also unfold a series of sculptures and visual and sound installations for the Hors Les Murs sector at three outdoor venues in Paris: the National Museum of Eugene Delacroix, the Tuileries Gardens and Place Vendôme. Swiss installation artist Ugo Rondinone will present his new series alluding to the ‘ghosts of the passage of time’ at Place Vendôme.

Visitors will also have free access to large-scale installations and artworks by artists such as Mircea Cantor, Gloria Friedmann, Ron Arad, Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen at the Tuileries Gardens.
At the Tuileries Garden (Inauguration at noon, October 18, 2016, runs through November 2016), Place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris; Place Vendôme, 75001 Paris (runs through November 2016); Musée National Eugène Delacroix, 6 Rue de Furstenberg, 75006 Paris
Free Access
On Site at the Petit Palais
For the first time for its 2016 edition, FIAC has announced the opening of the new On Site sector at the Petit Palais. On Site will feature around forty sculptures and installations in the various galleries and the garden of the Petit Palais.

On Site
From October 19 to October 23, 2016 (10 am to 6 pm, late night opening until 9 pm on October 19 and 21, 2015)
At the Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
Free Access
Poetry, Music and Performance
This year’s FIAC will also see the inauguration of a performance arts festival Parades to support and strengthen artistic intersections between music, poetry, contemporary dance and performance arts. The festival will feature multiple live performances at the Louvre, Grand Palais and Petit Palais. Amongst other performances on the programme, Moroccan dancer and choreographer
Amongst other performances on the programme, Moroccan dancer and choreographer Buchra Ouizguen will present a nomadic performance at the Louvre, while artist and director Tim Etchells will collaborate with violinist Aisha Orazbayeva to present an unusual interaction between music and spoken text at Palais de la Découverte.

At Musée du Louvre, 75001 Paris; Palais de la Découverte, Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 75008 Paris; and the Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
Free access subject to availability unless mentioned otherwise in the programme.
Other events
The programme for this year’s FIAC also includes conferences organised in the “Conversation Room” in a dedicated space at the top of the stunning staircase of the Grand Palais, which will address art’s relationship with architecture, science and diplomacy.
From October 21 to October 23, 2016 (Conferences at 2 pm, 3:30 pm and 5 pm)
At the Grand Palais, Conversation Room, on the 1st floor from the Grand Escalier d’Honneur, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
As part of the seventh edition of Cinéphémère, a selection of short artists’ films will be screened in a beautiful, 14-seater theatre at Place Clémenceau. The programme includes new films by Sara Ramo, Klara Liden, Bani Abidi, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Loretta Fahrenholz and Laure Prouvost.
From October 19 to October 23, 2016 (noon to 8 pm, registration at the entrance)
At Container Place Clémenceau, 75001 Paris
Finally, at the Palais de la Découverte, PLATFORM (a grouping of 23 regional funds for contemporary art) will present a selection of films from their collection on the themes of art and science.
From October 19 to October 23, 2016 (4 pm to 8 pm)
At Conference Room, Palais de la Découverte, Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 75008 Paris
Entrance from 6.30 pm through the Salon d’Honneur of the Grand Palais
For more information about FIAC 2016, visit the official page here.
Design at Large: Kengo Kuma and Jean Prouvé feature in Art Basel’s 2016 offering
by Rosa Bertoli, Wallpaper*
For the third year, Design Miami/ Basel presented the large-scale projects of Design at Large, welcoming visitors to the South Hall of Messe Basel.
Eschewing a traditional booth, the Design at Large initiative invites gallerists to take part in a curated project that explores different points of view on design. This year, publishing heiress Martina Mondadori(opens in new tab) took the helm of the project, focusing on the theme of nature and outdoor living, explored via an eclectic mix of structures and installations.
Mondadori chose the theme of ‘Landscape’, she says, to ‘invite designers and galleries to confront themselves with the outdoors and re-imagine the space within gardens’. Mondadori cites inspirations such as 19th century British follies and Italian garden labyrinths as the starting points for her theme. The reactions from the nine participants were eclectic and diverse, proving that such a remit can excite and inspire creative ideas.
Installed like a canopy at the very entrance to the fair were Tom Price’s ‘PP Trees’ (created in collaboration with Victor Hunt gallery), an eerie forest made of polypropylene pile that invites visitors to question attitudes towards plastic and nature.
Inside the space, Galerie Patrick Seguin participated with the 1956 ‘School of Villejuif’ by Jean Prouvé, a temporary emergency structure for the Parisian suburb which in true Prouvé fashion could be installed and dismantled in a short time. The prefab acted as an anchor in the large venue, with further installations dotted around it in the cavernous hall. These included Kengo Kuma’s ‘Owan’ pavilion, part of Galerie Philippe Gravier’s ‘Small Nomad House Project’, an initiative dedicated to the marriage of art and architecture. Nearby, Dimore Studio’s ‘Verande’ took a completely different approach; presented like an outdoors and indoors space at once, the tent was furnished with Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci’s outdoors collection hidden in a deep forest of palm trees and enlivened by blue curtains and a soft breeze produced by the ceiling fans.
Nearby, two installations were presented in close conversation with each other: Masatoshi Izumi and Koichi Hara’s ‘Stone Tea House Meditative Alcove’ and Enea Landscape Architecture’s bamboo composition offered a corner of tranquil serenity.
On the other side of the show, Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk’s ‘Civilised Primitives’, developed with Nilufar, was a collection of handcrafted objects in bronze that invited viewers to ponder about survival in the present world. The collection was displayed under a large Bedouin-style tent featuring an abstract watercolor motif by the designer, in collaboration with print specialist Exposize.
Ron Arad’s ‘Armadillo Tea Canopy’, presented by Robbie Antonio’s Revolution Pre-Crafted Properties, is an independent shell structure for indoor or outdoor use, a multifunctional piece which can offer shelter as well as serve as a meditation space. The modular canopy is composed of five individual shells fixed together with exposed brackets and fixings, with the possibility of extending it by adding further elements.
Visitors to the fair took full advantage of Alexandra Kehayoglou’s ‘No Longer Creek’ installation, created in collaboration with Artsy. The Argentine rug maker reimagined the now transfigured Raggio creek, north of Buenos Aires, and through her work brought back to life its vegetation. People could walk and rest on the large tapestry, immerse themselves in its landscape and interact with the piece – it is in fact a Design at Large tradition that visitors often have the chance to get up close and personal with the structures and installations on show, offering a more intimate experience with design and expanding its boundaries beyond the gallery walls.

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: Kiki van Eijk)

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: designmiami)

(Image credit: designmiami)
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Design Miami/Basel website