Paris Internationale: art on display during the protest
Set slightly further from the city centre, the exhibition in the 10th arrondissement remains open, much to the delight of all 60 international gallery owners and non-profit venues taking part. There is a significant selection of works by female and male artists
Key points
One exception was the Paris Internationale art fair, now in its 12th year, which announced on Thursday its decision to remain open even during the major event on Saturday 24 October, bucking the trend of the flood of press releases announcing the early closure, on Friday evening, of the events during Paris Art Week organised by Art Basel. The decision came against a backdrop of tension marked by demonstrations by trade unions, students and the ‘yellow vests’: left-wing groups and far-right factions took to the streets together to express their discontent and denounce the disconnect between institutional policies and the reality on the ground. “The art world is a prism through which we can view and process the tensions within society,” commented the Milanese gallery owner Martina Simeti. It is therefore no surprise that almost all of the 60 international gallery owners and non-profit spaces taking part in this year’s fair agreed on the importance of remaining open. No barricades as in the city centre, but just a few precautions at the entrance to the building on Quai de Valmy, along the Canal Saint-Martin, in the 10th arrondissement. As the gallery owners Ciaccia Levi and – among the event’s founders – pointed out, this is where Parisians and the artistic community itself live: the very places that, in recent weeks, have become the scene of protest.
Italian galleries
Among the eight participating Italian galleries, the presence of artists from Italy was significant – a choice that reflects a sense of responsibility in promoting Italian artistic practices beyond national borders. Zazà, with branches in Milan and Naples, showcased the works of the Neapolitan artist Rosa Panaro, presenting a selection of institutional significance that challenges religious and pagan iconography through humble materials such as papier-mâché, in the spirit of social and ecological protest (2,000–16,000 euros). Zazà and Tiziana Di Caro, who was also present at Paris Internationale, chose to dedicate two major monographic stands to her: in Paris and, the following week, in Turin, in the ‘Back to the Future’ section of Artissima, dedicated to rediscoveries. A career as an outsider, spanning from the 1950s to 2022, which – with the exception of her participation in the 1978 Venice Biennale and her ongoing presence at the Museo Madre in Naples, would have deserved wider recognition. At the Gian Marco Casini Gallery, the stand showcased video and photographic works by the young artist Clarissa Baldassarri (€3,000–15,000), whose practice explores religious glossolalia – an international phenomenon based on meaningless languages with atavistic sounds – which intertwines forms of Freemasonry, corruption and rituals of salvation. At Martina Simeti’s gallery, meanwhile, two Italian artists from the diaspora were featured: Costanza Candeloro and Marco Pezzotta (works ranging from 4,000 to 14,000 euros): she from Paris, he from Berlin, the two artists draw on stories of feminist struggles, domestic labour and craft practices such as crochet — in a collaboration between Pezzotta and his mother — and the stencil technique for reproducing texts and images, which remains synonymous with militant practices to this day.
International galleries
Generally speaking, this edition of Paris Internationale featured a full range of artistic techniques, bucking the trend seen at other fairs which, partly due to the crisis of recent years, have favoured paintings of dubious quality, driven by commercial considerations. Champ Lacombe presented a re-edit of the video by Lucy Beech, commissioned by the New Museum in New York for this year’s reopening exhibition, screening it on an LED wall alongside videos and photographs of vultures created for the Lyon Biennale and an intimate sculpture by the artist. The stand was a poetic evocation of the intertwining relationships between the individual and the industrial, plant and animal ecosystems that run through her work (6,000–20,000 euros). The works by the artist Yasmine Anlan Huang, presented by the Chinese gallery Magician Space (€3,500–6,000), also explored intimacy, violence and the interpenetration between humans and animals, but from a more personal perspective: that of a modern-day Lolita in search of her identity.
The political dimension re-emerged at the Callirrhoë stand in Athens, dedicated to the Greek Vasilis Papageorgiou, currently in residence at Gasworks in London. Bronze rocks were displayed on the wall – a tongue-in-cheek choice and, at the same time, a poetic and irreverent reinterpretation of the sculptural tradition, addressing the issue of overtourism in the Cyclades, a phenomenon that now affects the entire Mediterranean. His work was also recently exhibited as part of the widespread public art exhibition Una Boccata d’Arte and acquired by the Municipality of Tredozio, and will feature prominently in the next edition of Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo, curated by the Italian Lucia Pietroiusti. Finally, among the non-profit contributions, the editions by Jean-Luc Moulène stood out, offered from 5 euros by Lab’Bel, the Bel Group’s fund for contemporary creation, active in the dairy sector. Among the Collector’s Boxes featuring a popular cheese such as La Vache qui rit®, which features in the collections of the MMK in Frankfurt and the MAC in Marseille, lay a reflection on the relationship between form, concept and society – a reflection which, in recent days, has brought art into dialogue with the street and with the very idea of survival in the face of the high cost of living.
