Guests

Reaching beyond borders

For the first time, an art fair is extending its reach by encouraging galleries to partner with new players coming not only from the art market, but from other markets as well. Thanks to this broadening variety of invitees, ARTPARIS+GUESTS is extending the frontiers of art to the reality of the current cultural panorama and market. Such is the stated ambition of the GUEST concept developed by the new ARTPARIS team.

As a new type of project-based fair, ARTPARIS+GUESTS promotes networking and exchanges on both the market and purely artistic levels:

Cultural GUESTS

Contemporary art does not act in isolation from the various cultural fields that surround it and feed into it. The work of many artists draws inspiration directly from the artists’ connections to one musical culture or another. This was true of Raymond Pettibon with punk rock in the early eighties and is now equally true of Banks Violette or Damien Deroubaix with the music of their times. Some of these artists produce musical works more suitable to the disc market, while others produce movies for the silver screen. Still others produce objects belonging directly to the realm of design, while others, such as Atelier Van Lieshout, produce livable objects. Certain designers have been given the status of artist. As a result, the borders between various cultural fields are being blurred. The art market must redouble its inventiveness in order to adapt to these different types of works.

We also find that the offerings of young architecture contain a certain future for art, art exhibitions, and art fairs. Apart from the mutual inspiration and selective affinities between artists and architects, architecture invents some of the most intelligent staging designs. Let us recall the offering by Philippe Rahm for the 2009 "Force de l’Art" show. Likewise, Maxxi in Rome was first unveiled empty, since Zaha Hadid’s architecture stood on its own as a work of art, before a second unveiling took place for the collection. Consequently, several galleries will be inviting an architect for ARTPARIS+GUESTS. Jean Brolly and the VU’ Gallery are inviting the architects Jean de Gastines and Christian Biecher, respectively, to do the staging of their stands. Karl Lagerfeld and jeweller Lorenz Bäumer will also be guests of galleries. Still others are producing pieces born out of collaboration between an artist and a musician. This is the case of the InSitu-Fabienne Leclerc gallery for a piece by Damien Deroubaix designed in collaboration with Mick Harris.

GUESTS from the market

The twenty-first century art market is distinguished by the plurality of its players and their interdependence/interactivity. It is the vocation of ARTPARIS+GUESTS to showcase these market realities. As a result, we are encouraging participating galleries to partner freely with sometimes unusual market players, such as:

• an art collector,
• a private foundation,
• a museum,
• a curator,
• dealers from other areas of specialization,
• private companies…

Whether from the art world or not, the gallery’s GUEST will be participating as a partner. The GUEST may co-produce the stand of the participating gallery, as a sponsor might do. For instance, collector Antoine De Galbert is the guest of the Strasbourg-based Ritsch-Fisch gallery. The agencies BVA and Publicis are partnering with galleries in specific creative projects. Several galleries are joining forces on the basis of specific projects or selective affinities. Others prefer to collaborate with prestigious institutions, as in the case of the Christophe Gaillard and Christian Berst gallery, which are directly inviting the Arnulf Rainer Museum of Baden.

GUESTS offer galleries the twofold benefit of a strong creative impetus and project co-production. These connections are one of the strongest characteristics of art in our times. ARTPARIS+GUESTS wishes to have a direct hand in encouraging them.

Thanks to the numerous GUESTS participating in the fair on the ground level, ARTPARIS+GUESTS is becoming established as a crossover event reflecting the vitality of the Parisian art market and the international art scene beneath the glass dome of the Grand Palais.

ARTPARIS+GUESTS is directly encouraging crossover innovation and approaches. Gallery owners and their GUESTS are becoming associate promoters of the show.