If it is true that a unit of measurement regarding the health of international art weeks is the quality and commitment of the collateral fairs, Paris this week gives us some clues about its further growth compared to the already sparkling 2024. While the corollary of small and very small fairs around London fades and fades away, in Paris not only are there many events, but the quality in some cases is absolutely valid and growing compared to last year. Both in terms of the market response, and in terms of the level of the galleries and their proposals, and finally in terms of the choice of interesting exhibition spaces.
The collateral fairs in the Paris of the art boom
And so in the capital of old and tired France, contemporary art is experiencing a moment of glory that only the rest of the twenties will be able to tell us if stable or futile. There is the Art Basel fair which is the non plus ultra on a global level; there are amazing museums that offer exhibitions that cannot be rivaled in any other European capital (indeed, worldwide!), there are private galleries that flex their muscles, be they those of the Marais or those of the new MatignonSaint Honoré district (which among other things they have allied themselves in an association), there are the auctions that surpass the London auctions and then there are the collateral fairs. All set up in eye-rubbing spaces (Asia Now went Mint, DesignBasel nell’ex hotel particulier di Karl Lagerfeld, AKAA dedicated to African art in the super functional spaces of the Carreau du Temple) and with first-rate contents.
Here we delve deeper with a little photo galleries the three main and qualitatively most relevant collateral fairs of this 2024: Paris Internationale, The Salon and Off Screen.
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Paris Internationale 2024 from Paris
In extremis again this year Paris International it was able to be held in the fascinating Central Bergère building in the Grand Boulevard area. A real estate project was supposed to start but it’s been delayed and so the organizers learned just in June that they could go back to setting up this perfect space for a fair: a 1911 building completely stripped of plaster and then refitted by the Swiss interior designers Christ&Gantenbein. The layout is truly beautiful, but the same cannot be said about the clarity of the route given that many ‘segments’ into which the floors are divided are shared by several galleries but it is difficult to see where one ends and the other begins. Beyond this and a certain density of participants (same problem as last year), the fair exhibits works of very high quality and research with little or no lack of style. A beautiful celebration for the tenth year of Paris Internationale (not the tenth edition however, given that some pandemic years were skipped) which now however must articulate its role as a fair that is no longer young and, indeed, full of ambitious and powerful galleries.
The Salon by Nada and The Community 2024 a Parigi
Nada (New Art Dealers Alliance) is an authoritative and powerful New York non-profit founded over twenty years ago. It carries out many activities, the most popular are the fairs organized in Miami and New York. On the occasion of Art Basel 2024 in Paris, Nada also debuts in Europe. He does it with the event The Salon together with the French curatorial collective The Community.
The Salon takes place in an office building in the 10th Arrondissement (very close to Paris Internationale) once a training center for the French state railway company and is a very well set up invitation-only fair for around fifty galleries, pleasant to shoot and with medium-high level works. With a predominant presence of North American galleries: there are pleasant cafes, common areas, gardens and courtyards.
Off Screen 2024 a Parigi
After the very convincing 2023 edition, Off Screen is back, the fair dedicated to the image set up inside a fascinating brutalist car-silo in Paris. Inside this now emblematic art deco garage we proceed in a spiral, encountering galleries as the mezzanines alternate. Each gallery brings an artist with some truly notable presences and some spectacular installations to say the least, also facilitated by the particular exhibition spaces in the car park. The guest of honor – who is on the top floor, the fifth (all these collateral fairs we are talking about are spread over five floors!) – this year is Chantal Ackerman represented with a speech which alone is worth the visit as well as that of Alfredo Year and others. This too has now become a fixed stop.
Massimiliano Tonelli
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