Observations in Paris

Chen Haoyue

Frieze and Basel, nearly at the same time this year.
Busy and crowded, golden September and silver October.

In contrast, Basel is a bit more diverse than Frieze, with more emerging galleries and bolder artworks selections. In a nutshell, there are still a large sum of paintings on the shelf and walls, and some bits of sculptures and very few installations – where public viewers and professional observers would both take selfies.

Alongside Basel, so many fairs happened in Paris, including Paris Internationale, Offscreen, Asia Now and so on. For Paris Internationale, so many young galleries worldwide introduced themselves through flexible and changeable curating – rotten dried nuts & flowers on the floor, candle ruins, muddy tunnels, playable clay and lift indicators. All these unconventional ways of occupying space showcased the ecology of the contemporary art market, where existing discourses take the position of the architectural structures that support the altar, seeming to offer the open blank space to those outside the system, while still holding the line of defining their values.

Offscreen, which takes the space of a former hospital, had tried hard to diversify the exhibition scenes. Here, the existing structures are not pure canvas but supporting branches to the newborns, adding layers of narratives to the pieces. For instance, there were works in a confessional by artist Annegret Soltau, utilising it as a cannon behind bars for viewers to poke about the hidden secrets on the topics of pregnancy, motherhood and aging. This work gains its contemporary effectiveness precisely through its encounter with this specific architectural setting, regardless of whether the confessional formed part of the original conception or is simply inherited from the venue. A common problem would be; what if this stays the same (wooden) case next year?

As for Asia Now, personally I’m glad that Asian art appeared in the centre stage of the cityscape, not as decorations for major showcases in search of exotic tastes. However, this positioning can also function as an excuse for participation; some galleries present one or two Asian artists in order to meet the fair’s framing, while their primary focus lies elsewhere, often detached from the cultural context being invoked. This reminds us of the actual situation for outsiders to the centralised or eurocentric societies, or let’s say the general real attitude towards commercial art to the world right now. It is a nice piece on the cake, as what we find in bakery stores.

https://parisinternationale.com/
https://offscreenparis.com/
https://asianowparis.com/