“Art Basel wants to reflect new geographies”

What does this installation at the Grand Palais change for the fair?

The overall volume is, overall, comparable to that of the FIAC, as is the size of the stands. Improvements in access conditions, such as elevators or emergency exits, reduce the available space. The largest stands are approximately 77 m2, compared to 66 m2 at the Grand Palais Éphémère for last year’s edition.

How did the committee select the new exhibitors?

Around forty additional galleries have been added compared to the 2023 edition at the Grand Palais Éphémère. The committee wanted to highlight regions less represented until now, paying particular attention to the Mediterranean region. For North Africa and the Middle East, we welcome the Loft gallery from Casablanca and Marrakech, the first Moroccan brand to participate in Art Basel; Selma Feriani from Tunisia, Dvir from Tel Aviv, Paris and Brussels; two Lebanese galleries from Beirut, Marfa’ and Sfeir Semler (also based in Hamburg), Athr Gallery (Jeddah, AlUla, Riyadh) from Saudi Arabia; and The Pill, from Istanbul. Two South African galleries are participating for the first time: Goodman Gallery in the main sector and Whatiftheworld (Cape Town) in the Emergence sector. Finally, for newcomers, there are Nara Roesler, based in Brazil and New York, American galleries like Lehmann Maupin, Casey Kaplan, etc., as well as a gallery from mainland China, Vitamin Creative Space, and another from Hong Kong. Kong, Kiang Malingue. Not counting the five Japanese galleries this year! We are delighted with this strong geographical diversity.

What about young galleries?

The Fair has made a fairly notable effort to support young galleries in transition to a market position, so as not to keep them in thematic sectors for too long. This is an ecosystem and generational issue for us at Art Basel. When we felt that a gallery could take a step forward, the committee wanted to bring it into the Galleries sector, despite its very competitive aspect in Paris where we have relatively little space compared to Basel or Miami Beach. Some have, for example, opted for shared spaces; I think of Felix Gaudlitz from Vienna and LC Queisser from Tbilisi, who were in the emerging gallery sector last year and are now moving into the main sector with a shared or untitled stand, from Paris, which is following the same path, this times with its own stand. It is always the quality of the programming that takes precedence.

You are launching a new sector, Premise…

Premise distinguishes itself from other sectors of Art Basel in Basel in that it has few, if any, restrictions regarding the typology of works presented (paintings, sculptures, installations, etc.) and that it can include pieces prior to 1900. The objective is to create a space of curatorial freedom within the fair. The projects cover all periods until the end of the 1980s, since the Bombon Projects gallery in Barcelona presents comics by Nazario, one of the most controversial cartoonists in Spain in the midst of the transition between Francoism and freedom, with eloquent queer drawings. We will also see, among others, works by Douanier Rousseau and Séraphine Louis at the Parisian gallery Dina Vierny and Nil Yalter at The Pill, from Istanbul and Paris.

Can we talk about decompartmentalization?

The moment is ripe for rewriting the canons of art, as we saw notably during the Venice Biennale or the Documenta in Cassel. If this role falls rather to institutions, that of the market is to account, at any given moment, for the various debates and movements underway in creation. A fair is a market tool, but it also produces a discourse on the market. It is also our responsibility, at Art Basel, to make more visible the works of artists who have been hitherto invisible or undervalued, and to bear witness to new geographies.

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Art Basel Paris from October 18 to 20, 2024, Grand Palais, 3, avenue du Général-Eisenhower, 75008 Paris.