In and around FIAC 2012

The Parisian Fair that fills the magnificent Grand Palais is not just for show, but a real component of the international market, in seasonal competition with the innovations of its eternal rival Frieze.

In a most untimely move, just a few days before the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) 2012 opened, the parliamentary bill changing the rules on artworks and including them in the calculation of wealth tax (Impôt de solidarité sur la fortune, ISF) dampened the sector's enthusiasm. This is a fact that must be mentioned from the start, because rhe Parisian Fair that fills the magnificent Grand Palais is not just for show, but a real component of the international market, in seasonal competition with the innovations of its eternal rival Frieze in London which first caught collectors and enthusiasts off guard by opening Frieze New York and then got them to identify with the new ecumenical concept of the brand-new Frieze Masters, a concentrate of what is on the horizon for private collectors. Now they have all that is modern and contemporary, albeit expensive, gathered under a single heading. FIAC is the drive behind a unique French offer that, in one action-packed week, includes and concludes nearly all the cultural events, becoming the common denominator in each of the associated activities.

Almost as if to go deliberately against current international critical trends, the Ricard Prize, which gives strong critical backing to the young French scene, went to Katinka Bock; and this year's winners of the Duchamp Prize are the French-English duo Dewar and Gicquel — while an exhibition by last year's winner Mircea Cantor is on at the Beaubourg.

However, when all is said and done, everyone exploits this burst of international visibility to promote a product. It all began a few days in advance, with dinners and openings that revolved around the agoraphobic battle for the most cubic gallery-hangar metres in the Parisian balie. Two big guns on the contemporary market, Ropac and Gagosian, shared Anselm Kiefer's fame with two monumental projects: Morgentau Plan in the Le Bourget spaces renovated by Jean Nouvel; and a gentler re-staging of the 1969 Beuys work Titus Andronicus/Iphigenie, accompanied by another monumental exhibition by the Kiefer, Die Ungeborenen, to be seen at the Pantin.
Top and above: Jeremy Deller, <em>Sacrilege</em>, 2012, installation view at Les Invalides. Photo by Marc Domage
Top and above: Jeremy Deller, Sacrilege, 2012, installation view at Les Invalides. Photo by Marc Domage
There were plenty of analogies to be made, especially when comparing the capacity of a decidedly museum-like exhibition dimension with an intramuros offer for new-money collectors who cannot remember the names, categories and movements of the most recent art history, and who seem to advance in a decorative delirium that manages to combine the harshest conceptualism with the wallpaper and sofa colour charts of houses revamped by famous architects — the same ones that design luxury boutiques all over the world. In this period, however, these collectores become more visible, or at least more talked about. Despite all this, the finest and major works all went to FIAC but, when in the mainstream galleries, they frighten no one and stand out as elegant classics: from Picasso to Dan Flavin, with some Boetti, Stingel and Sherrie Levine in the mix.
Anselm Kiefer, <em>Morgentau Plan</em> installation at the Le Bourget industrial spaces, Larry Gagosian's new gallery designed by Jean Nouvel
Anselm Kiefer, Morgentau Plan installation at the Le Bourget industrial spaces, Larry Gagosian's new gallery designed by Jean Nouvel
Everyone has their own favourite saint and areas of research — whether or not they can afford them — but, when the informative component is ignored, we are still left mystified by works with prices that are best ignored, ending as they do with three to six zeros. There are absolute gems and works by cult artists — some deceased and hard to come by (e.g. André Caderé and Guy de Cointet) and others who remain intentionally on the verge of the market system, trying to circumvent it as best they can, from Ben Kinmont to Louise Hervé & Chloe Maillet.

All the galleries share a difficult parterre that is revamped after the VIP-preview rush, which sets the trend of blue-chip values and is then quickly re-arranged. We are left with fine, opted works: works by the highly political Paul McCarthy such as Static shown by Hauser & Wirth, Basquiat's stratospheric projects and Marisa Merz's delightful, fleeting apparitions, on display at Barbara Gladstone, and Alan Vega's unexpected post-Punk pieces, such as Suicide, at Laurent Godin. Not a sample collection but an attempted sampling.
The off-site and hors-les-murs events are ever richer, with routes in the Jardin des Plantes and Tuileries, and we all made one great rush through the Paris rain to flash exhibitions, some held in splendid private apartments
Mircea Cantor, <em>Threshold Resign</em>, 2012, Jardin des Tuileries. Courtesy of Yvon Lambert, Dvir Gallery, Magazzino d'Arte Moderna
Mircea Cantor, Threshold Resign, 2012, Jardin des Tuileries. Courtesy of Yvon Lambert, Dvir Gallery, Magazzino d'Arte Moderna
The off-site and hors-les-murs events are ever richer, with routes in the Jardin des Plantes and Tuileries, and we all made one great rush through the Paris rain to flash exhibitions, some held in splendid private apartments: from the excellent Squat #1 by Nina Yassar and Balice-Hertling, centred on the relationship between art and design, to Rue Tilsitt and Arc de Triomphe, a fine exhibition by Hanna Liden and Nat Lowman coming from London's Carlson Gallery.
Installation view at the Grand Palais
Installation view at the Grand Palais
The work that, in my view, best summed up the spirit of this year's FIAC and the way it relates to the many whims and stereotypes of contemporary art fruition was certainly the beautiful Sacrilege, installed by Jeremy Deller in Les Invalides, a few hundred metres from the Fair's headquarters. This masterpiece played on the potential exchanges between the public and the artistic and historic heritage rooted in the mass imagination. Queues anxious to discover the contemporary trends were countered by the joyous and free enjoyment of an faithful inflatable reproduction of England's megalithic Stonehenge. People could run and jump around aligned dolmens, menhirs and stones, collectively experiencing a work of exceptional iconic longevity. At night, the work disappeared, only to be inflated again in the morning just as it happens with playgrounds. There were no attendants, just the odd smiling mediator and no special opening times, press visits, lunches and embedded or commercial relationships. You just took your shoes off, kept an eye on the kids and jumped. Unfortunately, the rain slightly dampened its success but it was popular!
Jeppe Hein, <em>Modified Social Bench,</em> 2006, Jardin des Tuileries. Photo by Florian Ludde
Jeppe Hein, Modified Social Bench, 2006, Jardin des Tuileries. Photo by Florian Ludde
Private foundation spaces were far less flexible but, as we all know, the concept of fruition is extremely subjective. At Maison Rouge, by contrast, on the day a fine Giuliana & Tommaso Setari collection exhibition opened, the Parisian circulation and transport problems were compounded for some hours by the absurd and an attendant — who might have been instructed for a Tino Sehgal work —, which forced more than a few to think that the FIAC is, indeed, still aimed at the habitual private club of exhibition-goers, those who park their jet beside the sand and wire fences of a metaphorical incarnation of the Morgenthau Plan for art. Ivo Bonacorsi
Dora Garcia, <em>Real Artists don’t have teeth</em>, 2010-2011. Photo by Thorsten Arendt
Dora Garcia, Real Artists don’t have teeth, 2010-2011. Photo by Thorsten Arendt
Carlos Cruz Diez, <em>Chromosaturation</em>, 1965, FIAC 2012, Jardin des Tuileries
Carlos Cruz Diez, Chromosaturation, 1965, FIAC 2012, Jardin des Tuileries
Odile Decq, <em>Atom</em>, temporary shelter for migratory birds, MNHN, Jardin des Plantes. Courtesy of Odile Decq, Galerie Polaris and Galerie Mica
Odile Decq, Atom, temporary shelter for migratory birds, MNHN, Jardin des Plantes. Courtesy of Odile Decq, Galerie Polaris and Galerie Mica

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