ART FAIRS:FIAC 2017, Part I
One of the oldest and respectable Art Fairs, FIAC, opens for its 44th Edition at the Grand Palais in Paris. A major event for artistic creation, FIAC 2017 continues its development and confirms its status as a leading international Art Fair. Remaining attentive to the evolutions and concerns of contemporary creation, questioning the transformations of the careers of gallery owners and exhibition organizers as well as artistic practices themselves (Part II).
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: FIAC 2017 Archive
The 44th edition of FIAC takes places in Paris at the Grand Palais. This edition brings together 193 galleries from 30 countries under the nave of the Grand Palais, and upstairs in the Salon d’honneur, the Upper Galleries, and the Salon Jean Perrin (inaugurated in 2016). 41 new galleries join FIAC this year. This year FIAC is re-introducing a Design sector, with the participation of 5 galleries internationally renowned for their expertise in the field of 20th and 21st design: Jousse Entreprise, Galerie kreo, LAFFANOUR – Galerie Downtown, Eric Philippe, and Galerie Patrick Seguin. Inaugurated in 2016, the On Site sector, presents around 40 sculptures and installations for this new edition, at the Petit Palais and on the Avenue Winston Churchill, which are pedestrianised for the occasion. In 2017, FIAC further increased its presence in the Palais de la Découverte, through its performance festival, Parades for FIAC. In association with Chantal Crousel, Eva Presenhuber and Luhring Augustine, this year FIAC gives carte blanche to American artist Oscar Tuazon to present an in-situ project on Place Vendôme. Since 2006, FIAC and the Louvre’s Hors les Murs programme, presents for exhibition, outdoor works in the Tuileries Garden: architectural projects, sculptures, performances and sound pieces are installed in the prestigious context of the Domaine National du Louvre et des Tuileries, close to the Grand Palais. The implication which both artists and galleries manifest in this programme and the exceptional qualities of the site makes it possible to feature some twenty projects every year, which take up temporary residence on the alleys, lawns, ponds and fountains of the garden creating an impressive outdoor exhibition lasting one month. It enables FIAC galleries to exhibit monumental artworks that echo the patrimonial context and respond to the scale and the perspectives of the Garden. Thje Musée Eugène Delacroix opens to FIAC visitors, in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre. Situated in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Eugène Delacroix Museum is an unexpected haven of peace, niched between courtyard and garden. Designed by the painter himself, the studio was transformed into a museum through the initiative of Maurice Denis and other major painters of the 1920s. Launched in 2016, Parades for FIAC, is a festival dedicated to performative practices and exchanges between contemporary art disciplines. This programme presents some twenty performances held in various emblematic Parisian locations near the Grand Palais, during FIAC week in October. It investigates intersections between music, contemporary dance, theater, performance and poetry and presents a series of experiments in the form of live actions that explore new avenues in the field of artistic performance. The cycle pays particular tribute to the pioneers of performance, who blurred the boundaries between these practices. FIAC presents a two-day conferences cycle, on 21 & 22 October, in the Conversation Room inside the fair, on the first floor of the Grand Palais. In 2017, FIAC invited 89plus, a long-term, international, multiplatform research project co-founded by Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist, investigating the generation of innovators born in or after 1989. Marked by several paradigm-shifting events, the year 1989 saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the start of the post- Cold War period, and the introduction of the World Wide Web and the beginning of the universal availability of the Internet. Positing a relationship between these world-changing events and creative production at large, 89plus introduces the work of some of this generation’s most inspiring protagonists.
Info: Fiac 2017, Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri (19-20/10/17) 12:00-20:00, Sat-Sun (21-22/10/17) 12:00-19:00, Admission: Full-fare ticket 37 €, Reduced fare 20 €, Children under 12: free entry, Daily pass + FIAC catalogue 60 €, Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris, Days & Hours: Wed & Fri (18&20/10/17) 11:00-21:00, Thu (19/10/17) 10:00-20:00, Sat-Sun (20&21/10/17) 10:00-19:00, Admission: Free, Jardin des Tuileries, Duration: Until November 2017, Days & Gours: Daily 7:30-19:30, Place Vendôme, Duration: Until November 2017, Musée Delacroix, 6 rue de Furstenberg, Paris, Days& Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 9:30-17:30, Admission: Free upon presentation of your FIAC ticket, www.fiac.com
