Today is the opening of the Art Paris Paris Art Fair at the Grand Palais. Photography plays an important role in this year’s fair, which runs through April 1. Several photo galleries will be exhibiting. We sat down with Guillaume Piens, previously the curator of Paris Photo, he has been the head curator of Art Paris for the past two years.
How is this edition of Art Paris different from other years? How does it compare to Paris Photo?
Guillaume Piens : We have many more galleries this year, 144 from 20 different countries, compared to 125 from 16 countries last year. And 43% of the participants are from abroad, the highest on record. The fair is changing. It’s finding it own style, its own place. I didn’t leave Paris Photo just to organize another photo fair disguised as a contemporary and modern art fair.
What else is new this year?
G.P : Russia is this year’s guest of honor. We have also created two new platforms: one for young galleries, called Promesses, and another platform for art books and artist’s books. All together, there’s a lot that’s new. I think that the festival has earned a certain credibility in the art world. The best galleries from previous years are back, while others will be exhibiting with us for the first time.
Why did you choose Russia to be the guest of honor this year?
G.P : Our strategy is to be a European art fair that looks to the East, and to set ourselves apart from other fairs that look only to the West and are dependent on the English-speaking market. Russia is just the first step in our exploration of the East. Next year China will be the guest of honor. Russia was an interesting case because it straddles Europe and Asia.
The market focused a lot of attention on Russia from 2005 to 2008, but since then it’s slowed down. The Russian art scene gets very little exposure. It’s been fantastic to put together the fair at the Grand Palais and to have so many Russian galleries participating for the first time. The country they come from is so immense! For example, if you’re a gallery in Vladivostok, that means you’re only two hours from Seoul, two hours from Tokyo. In any case, it’s far from Europe. Then you have galleries from Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov, which is near the Caucuses, still very far away. So we have galleries from all over Russia, not to mention 22 Western galleries who are exhibiting their Russian artists. We also have artists from Azerbaijan.
We’re trying to get past clichés about Russian art and associations with Lenin and political art. There’s nothing simplistic about Russian art. The country’s history is full of political upheaval and revolution, but we wanted to talk about Russia today, about Russian artists relationship with nature, shamanism and abstract painting. We wanted to go deeper than the red star, Lenin, Stalin meeting Marilyn Monroe and all that. It’s great stuff, but that’s not all there is to Russia!
What trends have you noticed in today’s art market? Where does photography stand?
G.P : The markets now are very linked to exhibitions. It’s funny to see how many shows there are now about kinetic and optical art, like Julio Le Parc at the Palais de Tokyo, for example.
Photography has become a major art form, that much is clear. It’s part of our language. At the same time, I find it interesting to see how many photo galleries are mutating into contemporary art galleries.
I also think that with photography, there’s a positive side to the fact that we’ve never talked so much about photography, but there’s also a negative side—and this is one of the reasons I’m glad that Paris Photo is behind me now—which is that we are seeing more and more images, but fewer and fewer works of photography. There’s a somewhat dangerous tendency to call something photography even though it’s not photography. I also think there’s a powerful decorative trend in photography.
Lastly, what would you say to a FIAC regular to convince them to visit Art Paris?
G.P : Art Paris is much more accessible, less elitist, than FIAC. You don’t have to worry about asking questions; the gallerists will be happy to respond. We’ve also developed an application listing the prices of the work on display for people who are hesitant to inquire. We want to go against that arrogant part of the contemporary art world reserved for the 1%.
Interview by Juliette Deschodt.
FESTIVAL
Art Paris Art Fair
March 28th – April 1st, 2013
Grand Palais
21, avenue Franklin Roosevelt
75008 Paris
France
