MIRAGES:XLVI

This month our attention is focused on Art Paris Art Fair 2018, which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Since its foundation in 1999, the fair has established itself as Paris’ leading modern and contemporary spring art event and became a highlight on the international art calendar and a major event on the Paris Scene. Open to all forms of artistic expression and accessible to all categories of visitors, Art Paris Art Fair presents a wide range of modern and contemporary creations, reinforcing its unique identity by focusing on European creativity. For its 20th Anniversary and in reference to its initial vocation of supporting the French art market, Art Paris Art Fair asked exhibition curator and art critic François Piron to take a subjective look at the French art scene. The idea is to select 20 artists among the projects presented by participating galleries and to produce an in-depth textual analysis of their work. His choice puts the spotlight on some unique figures from the 1960s to the present day. Art Paris Art Fair has forged its reputation by exploring foreign art scenes, where within the framework of ART PARIS ART FAIR, through a well-organized and thorough tribute, the visual scene and the artists of a country or region are presented. After South Korea in 2016 and Africa in 2017, this year Guest of Honour is Switzerland. Also it must be noted that in its 20 years course, Art Paris Art Fair except the work of young artists presents the work of great and important artists, who have left their mark in the history of art. We consider that the tribute to Switzerland is very important, because the art historian and exhibition curator Karine Tissot has been entrusted with the Switzerland Guest of Honour Program and presents 100 modern, contemporary and emerging artists that they are using different means of expression and are represented by either 13 Swiss or European galleries. As she told us in the interview you will read on March 18, “Artists today no longer limit themselves as a matter of principle to any one medium; they use different processes and techniques depending on their artistic objectives. One of the strengths of Art Paris Art Fair is that it abides by the three unities: the unities of time, place and action, which means that visitors aren’t dispersed. I’ll wager that the 2018 edition will reveal the breadth and depth of Swiss art”. The Switzerland Guest of Honour program also includes: the presentation of Helvetia Art Collection’s latest acquisitions focusing on emerging talents little known in France and a program of digital projections on the Grand Palais façade which showcases a highly innovative generation of Swiss artists.

For our magazine this Tribute to the Swiss Art Scene, which played an important role in the shaping of the international art scene since the 1960’s, is considered to be significant because comes in the time that Paris has regained its place and is moving dynamically in the international contemporary art scene, always retaining its own unique identity.

Good Month!!!
Efi Michalarou
1/3/18