after the nuit blanche, the all-nighter Paris throws for the art tourist
each autumn, the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) set
up shop in the nineteenth-century glass-and-wrought-iron jewel the
Grand Palais and in the Cour Carrée – a square air-conditioned tent
in the Louvre’s courtyard. Part assault on the mounting importance of
other cities trolling for art bucks, part enduring Paris tradition as crucible
of innovation, the city’s efforts in recent years to climb back aboard the
art-market rocket has been formidable.
Comfortably reoccupying its former premises, FIAC – and its
above: Richard Deacon, Another Mountain (detail), 2007,
stainless steel, 290 x 420 x 340 cm, Thaddaeus Ropac
spawn, Show Off (Espace Pierre Cardin) and Slick (Pavillon Carré de
Baudouin) – finds itself competing with Frieze across the Channel and
Art Basel across the Atlantic and the Alps, not to mention a handful
of contemporary art fairs in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin, all
participating in the feeding frenzy around the contemporary-art circuit,
eager to scoop up any able-bodied collector in town.
“For many years FIAC was behind Art Basel, and then
competition from London, Miami and New York (the Armory Show)
hurt Paris – largely because it lost its most dramatic setting at the Grand
Palais,” says Thaddaeus Ropac, the Austrian art dealer whose Salzburg
and Paris galleries attended every significant art fair in 2007. “You could
really feel it. Paris was no longer the centre of the international artworld.
But since the return to the Grand Palais, collectors and dealers have
returned too. They love to come to Paris, and the city has found its
place without competing with London and its very young artists.”
The art bash in the French capital sounded like a great plan this
year until France lost in the Rugby World Cup semifinals to England
and the RATP decided to pull a massive Métro strike the day the art fairs
opened up to the public. Call it a performance piece with thousands of
collectors scrambling to rent Vélibs, the city’s public bicycles. (In spite
of the transport kinks, the FIAC reported a 17 percent rise on 2006, to
72,000 visitors, over the course of the five-day event.)
Ropac adds that 2007 didn’t have the typical wave of American
and German collectors, but many from Belgium, Switzerland and
France, a fact which, he concludes, “says a lot about the potential of the
FIAC for the French-speaking world”. above: Entry to Thaddaeus Ropac
Most high-end Parisian galleries attended the FIAC, and
facing page: facade of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
the tactic was clear: bathe prospects in Champagne and French charm
at home.
95 artreview
Pilgrimage_Paris.indd 95 7/11/07 10:21:35
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158