Many candidates, but few elected officials. For its 2024 vintage, the Salon de Montrouge received more than 2,400 applications, only retaining 40. The 2023 edition, led by Guillaume Désanges and Coline Davenne (respectively president and artistic advisor at the Palais de Tokyo), presented 36 emerging artists, discovered by more than 13,000 visitors. After two popular editions, the duo handed over the reins to Andrea Ponsini, responsible for exhibitions and visual arts at the cultural department of the City of Montrouge. After the collaboration with independent curators (Stéphane Corréard from 2009 to 2015, Ami Barak and Marie Gautier from 2016 to 2021), the town hall, which organizes and finances the event, therefore changes its curatorial strategy. A decision that is not entirely unanimous among veterans: in an X post from March, Stéphane Corréard, who collaborated with Andrea Ponsini during his years as artistic director, regrets this choice “ municipal », believing that he was “essential that the curatorship be carried out by one or more personalities capable of resisting demands, even pressures, which are in no way likely to strengthen the artistic missions, however crucial”. The press release announcing the artists promises to preserve the values of clearing and openness which have made the reputation of the event. The arrival of Andrea Ponsini is not the only change, since the curatorial committee has also been renewed. It brings together five curators and art critics (Anya Harrison, commissioner at MO.CO. from Montpellier, Matthieu Lelièvre, artistic advisor to the Lyon Contemporary Art Museum, Léa Bismuth, Chris Cyrille-Isaac, Licia Demuro, Sophie Lapalu), a collector (the lawyer Frédéric Lorin) and Henri van Melle, director of the Fabrice Hyber endowment fund and president of Les Jardiniers, an artistic third place in Montrouge. The artists of the 2024 edition come from ten countries (Belgium, China, South Korea, France, Japan, Madagascar, Panama, Salvador, Switzerland, Vietnam) and some are just out of school, like Carla Gueye, whose sand-covered sculptures were seen this winter at “100% L’Expo” in La Villette, or Sehyoung Lee, whose performance was part of “ Desire lines », annual exhibition of young graduates of the Beaux-Arts of Paris.
salondemontrouge.com
