South African art triumphed at a huge French show. Brenda Atkinson was there
So there I was in Paris, filled with strawberries and red wine, mingling with a 2 000-odd crowd of the young, hip, gorgeous and powerful. If these people sweat, I thought, then they sweat pure CK-One.
Let no one tell you that Parisians are inhospitable xenophobes who refuse to speak English. All it takes to engage someone is a bit of broken French and they will immediately break into a smile and babble away quite comfortably, relieving you of the burden of further linguistic embarrassment.
Plus they refer charmingly to large exhibitions as “manifestations”, as if the universe has created the conditions for art to quite suddenly manifest itself in breathtaking exhibition spaces.
The opening of Art in the World 98, a “manifestation” at the Passage de Retz in Paris last week, marked an ambitious and imaginative moment in the increasingly turbulent universe of contemporary art. Conceived and managed by Beaux Arts magazine (France’s foremost fine arts magazine), and substantially supported by the French Association for Artistic Exchanges (AFAA, which is also connected to the French Institute in South Africa), Art in the World focused as much on critical exchange and collaboration between writers as on exposure for young international artists.
An intensive week of meetings and debates between art critics and editors which preceded the exhibition opening ensured that we all earned our daily croissants and caf au lait. Not all of the 23 invited press members attended, but the 15 or so who did experienced an insanely packed and productive week of gallery visits, seminars and chatty encounters with such prestigious power-brokers as Daniel Abadie (director of the Jeu de Paume), AFAA director Jean Digne, and Regis Durand, director of the National Centre for Photography.
Schmooze value aside, the “week of encounters” provided an invaluable opportunity for discussion around the perceived global “crisis” in contemporary art.
It’s not every day you find yourself in the company of critics from places as far flung as Italy, Quebec and the Czech Republic, discussing elitism and corporate tax incentives while sipping Evian and sitting on Joseph Beuys-inspired chairs. And it was something of a revelation to do so in an environment free of territorial paranoia and egomania.
It was encouraging, in particular, to learn that there are certain crises that are universal: South Africa, I found out, is not the only country in the world where contemporary art suffers from lack of funding, accusations of elitism, institutional infighting and disputes around the politics of representation.
Once you stop feeling sorry for yourself, it’s possible to move on to practical considerations, and to find out what solutions others have effected elsewhere. And after a whirlwind tour of such trendy galleries as Jennifer Flay and Air de Paris, all exhibiting the work of young French artists in an area with much the same promise and problems as Newtown, I experienced relief at the knowledge that even the visually literate French are disinclined to venture to the urban periphery for their artistic edification.
I also felt a not unpleasant surge of patriotism as I mentally compared the work on show to South African artistic production. We have, I decided, a quite brilliant clutch of artists and cultural commentators.
Apparently, the Parisians agreed. Although everybody brought copies of their art publications for distribution to the group, these were all ignored as people pounced on the Mail & Guardian’s Friday, indifferent to everything but the beating of their hearts as they pored over it and cast admiring looks at me.
At the opening of the exhibition, artist Jo Ractliffe had to fight off fans queuing to discuss her video work Balaam, while the crowds that gathered around Tracey Rose’s dual-monitor video installation caused serious congestion in the gallery.
As a whole, the exhibition succeeded not in spite of, but because of, its eclectic and uneven nature. From oils on canvas to Oleg Kulik’s cows, the range of work from 25 countries made for fascinating viewing. The size of the show was manageable, and the curating accomplished.
With some luck, initiative, and a modest amount of money, South Africa might well find itself host to the next round of what we all agreed should become an annual event.