Restons Unis is a collaborative project with 26 top Paris galleries at Galerie Perrotin (May 23 – August 14)
Paris is taking the bold step of making its streets lively once again with its art-viewing crowds, by inviting 26 Paris-based galleries to present a selection of work from their artists. Debuting in their Saint-Claude space, the exhibition will consist of four consecutive two-week-long presentations, with each one inclusive of six to seven independent galleries.
For the uninitiated, Saint-Claude in Paris is a very important art district, because it is at the heart of the galleries and museums area, where Galerie Perrotin is located on the ground floor of the same building as the Christie’s Salesroom and Office. Nearby is the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Daelim Museum, which showcases photography, lifestyle, and design products. It is a great company to be in to say the least!
“This collaborative project evolved out a desire to celebrate the experience of seeing art in person and it also marks the re-opening of our Paris galleries, one that will be accompanied by the strict enforcement of safety guidelines. With most of our museums and fairs closed, we believe it’s important to fill that void,” writes director Emmanuel Perrotin in his reclamation statement.
Perrotin points out that although it may not ‘rectify’ the larger systemic issues of our industry, it does underline the importance of what we accomplish on a daily basis. Online viewing rooms will never replace physical exhibitions. However, these presentations will also be sent to all those digitally subscribed to the Perrotin mailing list. “We hope to share the fertile world of these galleries and their artists with as many people as possible,” says Perrotin.
After all, Galleries are the primary spaces for the public to engage with artists and their practice, and they allow artists to meet their public, often for the first time. The tremendous creative experimentation by a growing number of artists is a testament to the work of many galleries.
“Diversity is important and necessary, and twenty-six galleries are not enough to fully illustrate the depth and breadth of work being produced in our current moment. This list is necessarily imperfect,” says a critically reflective Perrotin, adding that though they would have loved for many more galleries to join them, they do believe that our partner galleries celebrate the richness of the Paris gallery landscape.
Established in Paris in 2007 by Daniele Balice and Alexander Hertling, the Galerie Balice-Hertling focuses on artists like French multimedia media and performance artist Isabelle Cornaro. The gallery exhibits her triangular reliefs, entitled Homonyms. In these works Cornaro represents in a unitary form, molded in a material akin to colored concrete, accumulations of found objects, typical of European culture. Each of the Homonyms was cast in the same mold. Their shape is therefore identical, but their pigmentation distinguishes them subtly.
“It is no coincidence that these reliefs recall the textures and grotesques of the 16th century. The exaggeration of forms and the series of heterogeneous patterns are characteristic of the Mannerist environments that appeared at the same time as the invention of life-casting techniques – a mechanical reproduction process, that puts the artist’s gesture at a distance,” observes Hertling.
The Galerie Anne-Sarah Benichou represents abstract painters like Julian Discrit, Marian Baruch, and Mireille Blanc. Frank Elbaz Gallery also tends to represent highly conceptual and abstract work.
Semiosis at the 44, Rue Quincampoix presents Stefan Rinck’s stone figures that form a motley and comical community of, for the most part, animals, chimeras, and monsters. They wear costumes and masks; they are endowed with particular symbols or characteristics, some bear the names of heroes of Greek mythology or of legend. “Rinck’s sculpted figures make up a discordant but related assembly of non-humans: they come from elsewhere, an archaic imaginary world, woven from myths and legends. With his collection of fauna, the artist is exploring a comical, imaginary yet realistic vein, breathing new life into its iconography, using a technique typical of the Middle Ages: sculpting his figures directly from stone,” writes gallery assistant Mathilde Halperin.
Rinck’s sculptures remind us of the figures of Roman art, which populate the columns and tympana of churches. They share the same morphology and style, the hybrid aspect of the chimera and monster. These are grotesque figures, in which we recognize the vitalist comedy typical of medieval realism which could be observed during the parades of jesters and buffoons at religious and popular festivities. Yet if the Middle Ages seem to color Rinck’s art, its frame of reference, in fact, crystallized around a number of Gothic obsessions of the Romantic kind: a taste for mythology and folk tales, for different epochs and cultures for the fantastic or figures of hubris and excess, typical of our times before the Lockdown.
For the coming months, the galleries will keep their doors open; in order to reduce the use of handles, all countertops will be fitted with a plexiglass screen, documentation will be accessible via QR code, the staff will carefully manage the flow of gallery visitors, all entrants will be asked to wear a mask, and they will forego opening events to avoid large crowds.
Although difficult, this is the time to underline the foundations of our profession and our commitment to diversity, openness, and art. Every visit to an exhibition or a new gallery is a source of wonder and surprise. Through this reckoning, our world has become more open and collaborative, which offers us a small comfort in this current moment.
The Grand List of 26 Galleries:
Dates and Galleries featured | Dates and Galleries featured | Dates and Galleries featured | Dates and Galleries featured |
---|---|---|---|
MAY 23 — JUNE 6 | MAY 13 — JUNE 27 | JULY 4 — JULY 18 | JULY 4 — JULY 18 |
Balice-Hertling | Galerie Danysz | Air de Paris | Marcelle Alix |
Anne-Sarah Benichou | Valeria Cetraro | Galerie Allen | Art: Concept |
Crèvecoeur | Laurent Godin | Salle Principale | gb agency |
Frank Elbaz | Edouard Montassut | Galerie Poggi | Campoli Presti |
Antoine Levi | Mor Charpentier | Praz Delavallade | High Art |
Semiosis | New Galerie Sultana |
Joseph Tang And Jocelyn Wolff |
In Situ |
Although difficult, this is the time to underline the foundations of our profession and our commitment to diversity, openness, and art. Every visit to an exhibition or a new gallery is a source of wonder and surprise. Through this reckoning, our world has become more open and collaborative, which offers us a small comfort in this current moment.
Text By Georgina Maddox
Image Courtesy: Isabelle Cornaro Photo: Galerie Balice-Hertling, Stefan Rinck Photos: A. Mole Courtesy Semiose, Paris, and Galerie Perrotin’s Saint Claude’s space
Find out more about the Artists and Gallery:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-claude/
http://www.daelimmuseum.org/eng/index.do
http://www.balicehertling.com/
https://www.instagram.com/danielebalice/
https://www.instagram.com/alexanderhertling/?hl=en
http://annesarahbenichou.com/en/artistes/oeuvres/2543/julien-discrit
https://www.galeriefrankelbaz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mathildehlpn/?hl=en
https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2533/Antoine-Levi
http://www.galerievaleriacetraro.com/
https://www.mor-charpentier.com/