Guest blogger Kanika Anand shares her impressions of FIAC and its representation of Indian artistsĀ
Paris:Ā Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain, popularly know by the acronym FIAC, is Franceās primary fair of contemporary art, hosted at the Grand Palais in Paris in October every year.
Enthused by my first visit to the fair and the general buzz of art events around it in Paris, I made my way one rainy evening to discover for myself the depth of the hullabaloo. The fair offered the usual suspects of the contemporary art world, both in terms of galleries as well as artists, such as White Cube, David Zwirner, Lisson, Victoria Miro, Galerie Perrotin along with their blue chip artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor & Yayoi Kusama. Takashi Murakami bedazzled and Paul McCarthy mockedā¦ and shocked! Incidentally, this edition of FIAC marked Gagosian Galleryās debut at the fair. These art market biggies dominated, if not wholly comprised the selection at FIAC.
Indian representation was limited to artists who already have a market in Paris and could be better defined as international artists of Indian origin. Widely exhibited in Europe, Mithu Senās solo showĀ ‘Devoid’ opens todayĀ at Galerie Nathalie ObadiaĀ in Paris. This will be the artistās first solo in France, although her work has been exhibited at FIAC before. Hanging in the galleryās booth at FIAC was Mithuās You taste like Pao Bhaji alongside a sculptural work by the galleryās long time represented artist, Rina Banerjee. Banerjee already has a marked presence in Paris; noteworthy of mention was her solo exhibition, Chimeras of India and the West at the prestigious Guimet Musee in 2011.
A series of 10 āUntitledā drawings by N.S.Harsha hung on the outside wall of Greene Naftali Gallery (New York). Zarina Hashmiās beautiful gold flaked āTasbihā hung in the corner of Jeanne-Bucher/Jaeger BucherāsĀ (Paris) booth, in the deserving company of Joan Miro and Susumu Shingu. Tasbih is from Zarinaās most recent body of work shown at the gallery in a solo exhibition titled Noor last year.
A painted store shutter titledĀ Mumtaz by Atul Dodiya and a painting by Jitish Kallat adorned two main walls of the large booth of Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris). The last day of FIAC coincided with the conclusion of Atul Dodiyaās first solo exhibition in Paris – Scribes from Timbuktu at their gallery space. The gallery has in the past supported Indian and other Asian artists, showcasing works by Sudarshan Shetty, Anju Dodiya, Hiroshi Sugimoto & Yue Minjun.
Two round shiny Anish KapoorĀ steel works in gold and purple, one each at the booths of Lisson (London/ Milan/ New York) and Gladstone Gallery (New York/ Brussels) shimmered akin to the gloss of the fair itself. But for me, the fair lacked spunk – no experimental works, no new names, no interesting project booths and notably no Indian galleries! It was all that I āexpectedā, but then again Iām no collector.
FIAC, Paris runs several parallel events and programs around the fair. More information is available at http://www.fiac.com/.
Kanika Anand is an art professional and budding curator specializing in Indian contemporary art. She holds a degree in Art History from the National Museum Institute, New Delhi, and has worked in the field for five years with Gagosian Gallery, Gallery Espace and Talwar Gallery in New York and New Delhi. She is currently pursuing the Curatorial Training Program at the Ecole du Magasin in Grenoble, France, in line with her interest toĀ responsiblyĀ curate projects towards making art more accessible as well as inter-disciplinary.