15 Feb 2018

Art Paris Art Fair 2018: Switzerland Guest of Honour

Art Paris Art Fair : Switzerland Guest of honour

From April 5th to 8th, 2018, the 20th edition of Art Paris Art Fair will play host to 142 galleries from 23 different countries providing an overview of European art from the post-war years to the current day, while leaving room for the new horizons of international creation from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Open to all forms of artistic expression, including video art and design, Art Paris Art Fair offers a theme-based approach emphasising discovery and rediscovery.
This year's guest country is Switzerland

The prolific and diverse Swiss art scene, with its taste for all things minimal and off-beat sense of humour, is like the country itself lying at the crossroads of different European traditions and cultures.

Art historian and exhibition curator Karine Tissot has been entrusted with the Switzerland Guest of Honour programme, which will endeavour to promote the wealth and diversity of the Swiss scene with a rich programme whose major features are :

A selection of around one hundred modern, contemporary and emerging artists represented by either 13 Swiss or European galleries. Taking a closer look at the 13 Swiss galleries exhibiting at the fair (from Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Zürich and Neuchâtel): Ditesheim & Maffei's booth is entirely devoted to major artists from the Swiss scene, from Giacometti to Thomas Huber and from Louis Soutter to Jean Tinguely; Galerie Rosa Turetsky is orchestrating a 'confrontation' between the different generations of artists from Pierrette Bloch to Sandrine Pelletier who are represented by the gallery; Duflon Racz is bringing together 6 young artists who work in painting and sculpture/objects including Simon Deppierraz, huber.huber and Elisabeth Llach; Galerie Andres Thalmann is establishing a dialogue between its Swiss artists (Katja Loher, Guido Baselgia and Barbara Ellmerer) and French painter Claude Viallat. In parallel, certain European galleries have chosen to pay tribute to Swiss creativity: on the same stand, Eric Mouchet and Zlotowski are juxtaposing Le Corbusier's paintings and drawings with Matthieu Gafsou's series of photos 'La Chaux-de-Fonds' (Le Corbusier's hometown); Galerie Tanit is presenting conceptual works by Adrian Schiess, Sigrid Gloerfelt and John M. Armleder, as well as works by Sylvie Fleury and Urs Lüthi which play with humour and philosophy.

The presentation of Helvetia Art Collection's latest acquisitions focusing on emerging talents little known in France. Since the 1940s, Helvetia, which is also an art insurer, has continued to expand its collection of contemporary Swiss art, which has become one of the most important of its kind with more than 1,700 works by 400 artists.

A video art programme in the Project Room that provides a forum for 25 Swiss women artists from different generations and which brings together, from a conceptual standpoint, the history of art and Swiss civil history; the arrival of this new medium in Switzerland in the 70s coincided with women obtaining the right to vote, which was introduced on a federal level in February 1971. Emmanuelle Antille, Marie-José Burki, Claudia Comte, Saskia Edens, Joëlle Flumet, Mireille Gros, Luzia Hürzeler, Stéphanie Jeannet, Gabriela Löffel, Selene Mauvis, Ursula Palla, Elodie Pong, Anne-Julie Raccoursier, Delphine Reist, Pipilotti Rist, Anne Rochat, Carole Roussopoulos, Laura Solari, Katja Schenker, Annelies Strba, Marion Tampon-Lajarriette are some of the artists featured in this programme.

A programme of digital projections on the Grand Palais façade which showcases a highly innovative generation of Swiss artists including Camille Scherrer, Alan Bogana and Yves Netzhammer (who represented Switzerland at the 2007 Venice Biennale). Three artists who represent, by their origin, three different cultural regions of Switzerland (Camille Scherrer for French-speaking Switzerland, Alan Bogana Italian Switzerland, Yves Netzhammer German-speaking Switzerland).

The monumental walls of the north and south naves will host four all-over wall compositions designed specifically for the fair by Renate Buser, Christian Gonzenbach (Galerie C), Sébastien Mettraux and Christoph Rüttimann (presented by Mai 36 Galerie).

The Switzerland guest of Honour programme has received the support of the Swiss Embassy in France and Helvetia. The video art programme is supported by Vidélio.