FIAC 2012 (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain)

We were very fortunate to have gotten a VIP pass for this year's FIAC (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain) last week. It being the biggest art fair we could attend on this residency trip, we dutifully found ourselves systematically going through each and every single corridor, floor, gallery, event space, jardin... etc.

I wanted to write a summary of FIAC 2012 and I originally approached our visit with the same fastidiousness of previous gallery visits (taking notes and recording gallerist name/artist/work title). But there were probably around 200 galleries from all around the world, each showing a few dozen works on the walls and in their spaces and in their catalogues. Every wall was covered in works. Sometimes it was not even clear which gallery had filled the excess (and less strategic) walls which were formed around the pillars. Every corner was filled. Even by the most modest reckoning, this would potentially amount to TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ARTWORKS in the Grand Palais. After the first two hours there, we were crawling through its beautifully carpeted hallways, reduced to a kind of art-fatigue-meets-hunger-and-delirium, and all that I could articulate was a thin, strangled gasp of "help... does it... ever... end???"

So here is a photographic survey of this year's FIAC instead:

GRAND PALAIS - Ground Floor

GRAND PALAIS - 1st Floor

So that was FIAC 2012 at the Grand Palais.

We're fried.
Our toast is burnt.
The cow is cooked.
The end is nigh.



I want to write about the Prix Duchamp nominations too and there was also the works in the Jardins. etc........ BUT THIS IS INFORMATION OVERLOAD ALREADY. TO BE CONTINUED LATER.........