12/10/2001
by James Goulder

Although FIAC has gone ahead with tightened security measures this year, many US collectors and art professionals have decided to stay at home after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last month. However like Artforum in Berlin two weeks ago, the mood is defiant and in a press release on the 18^th of September, COFIAC stated that "this gathering of key players from the international art world will again confirm that art has no borders". With 164 galleries from 44 cities and 16 countries exhibiting at the 28^th FIAC, the dealers and artists have kept the spirit alive for this week despite fears that sales may be hit.

FIAC 2000 presented itself as the world’s first art fair to be exclusively dedicated to solo shows, an attempt which put FIAC back on the art world map. With reportedly brisk sales last year totalling more than $ 18,000,000 (€ 20,000,000) and an attendance of 70,000, this new approach created a specific character for the fair, which had been dogged by beaucratic decisions for much of the 1990's. For many collectors it was an occasion to buy ‘fresh-to-market’ artworks, as half of the exhibiting 200 artists chose to show their latest works or to create site-specific installations especially for the event. This year 74 galleries have chosen to follow suite. These include Crane Kalman, London who exhibit Alexander Calder’s sculptures, drawings and paintings ranging from $ 10,000-1,000,000 (€ 11,094-1,109,500), Hermann Nitsch’s paintings in various sizes at Krinzinger, Vienna from $ 5,000-25,000 (€ 5,500-27,500) and Botto and Bruno’s prints on canvas priced from $ 3,000 (€ 3,300) at Alfonso Artiaco, Naples. The rigorous selection made by COFIAC has, for the first time, allowed 14 galleries to participate including Jay Jopling/White Cube who shows photographs by Steven Meisel at $ 15,000 (€ 16,500) and works by Tracey Emin from $ 5,000 (€ 5,500) upwards. Metro pictures from New York exhibit photographs by Louise Lawler (starting at $ 3,000 (€ 3,300)) and Cindy Sherman (up to $ 80,000 (€ 88,500)).

Ten publishers of prints and multiples are also present. Of note, the Atelier Franck Bordas, Paris is devoting a solo show to Jean-Charles Blais' new work, Panoply (2001): a series of prints on rubber made from digitally processed combinations of fragments of human faces priced around $ 5,000 (€ 5,500) a piece. The New-York based publisher Sandro Rumney of Art of this century is exhibiting, among other works, Julian Opie’s stone and lead sculpture I remember her squatting hands in front from 2001, sized 40 x 23 x 8 cm, at $ 4,000 (€ 4,400) in an edition of 25 and Anish Kapoor’s Blood Solid, also from 2001 (in an edition of 8), at $ 60,000 (€ 66,200).

Funded for the second year by Ricard S.A., Perspectives, a juried selection of 14 solo shows by emerging artists, includes site-specific works by Jessica Craig-Martin, whose paparazzi like photographs adorn the space. Oscillating between documentary and art photography of the jet-set, her photographs, often in editions of 5, can be purchased from $ 3,500 (€ 3,750) upwards at the Maze gallery, Turin. Another new section this year is the Video Cube. The 500 square metre space is presenting 8 videos selected by Sabine Breitwiesser, curator of the Generali Foundation, Vienna, Eileen Cohen, the New York collector and Jean Conrad and Isabelle Lemaitre, collectors from London. On Thursday night the La Cinquieme-video Cube prize worth $ 7,000 (€ 7,600) was awarded to Chinese artist Wang Jianwei by Marc Tessier, president of France Télévision with a special prize going to Anri Sala.

Running parallel to the fair are a series of panel discussions taking place in the Café des Arts. Subjects here include tax issues, the presence of French artists on the market and, topically, the discrepancy between the art market and the current state of the economy chaired by the International Herald Tribune. Interestingly all these debates are being filmed by Creativ TV and relayed to selected Bang and Olufson television screens in Paris and netcast on www.fiac-online.com and www.creativtv.net