Oh La La!, a New Initiative at Artwork Basel Paris, Spotlights Playful Artwork


For the primary time because it landed in Paris two years in the past, Artwork Basel has taken up the freshly renovated Grand Palais. On this event, the honest has launched a brand new initiative dubbed Oh La La! As a French lady fortunate sufficient to journey the world, I questioned, ‘why not name the initiative ‘Ooh La La!’, an expression that, although hardly ever uttered in France, is handled as a quintessential French exclamation overseas.

“As a non-French-speaker, I couldn’t say, however I spotted that some individuals say ‘ouais’ [French for ‘yeah’] however nonetheless write it ‘oui’ [a formal ‘yes’ in French]. Isn’t it, indirectly, the identical factor?” Vincenzo de Bellis, Artwork Basel’s director of festivals and exhibition platforms, advised ARTnews. Level taken.

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The exterior of the Grand Palais on the opening day of Art Basel Paris.

Anne-Claudie Coric, the overall director of Paris’ Galerie Templon, had a unique take: “Oh la la is the one French expression that even non-French-speakers can bask in: it’s playful and ambiguous, it might specific awe, shock, or pleasure, precisely what experiencing artwork is all about!”

The overall concept, it appears, was to maintain the general public on their toes. To take action, the Oh La La! marketing campaign has inspired 35 exhibitors within the honest’s primary sector to showcase “uncommon, thought-provoking, or hardly ever exhibited artworks” on October 18 and 19, the primary two of Artwork Basel Paris’s three public days. (The invitation-only previews had been on October 16 and 17.)

“The administrators did a very good job at approaching us in a casual, pure approach. I notably appreciated the thought of creating house for one thing completely different on the honest,” stated Massimo De Carlo, founding father of the namesake gallery and a longtime participant of Artwork Basel.

The primary version of this initiative, centered on a variety of themes—love, Surrealism, queer identification, historical past, eroticism—is meant to attract any VIPs inclined to indulge elsewhere within the Metropolis of Gentle again to the honest. The initiative additionally provides basic guests a possibility to find recent artwork.

Paris-based galerie anne barrault responded on to the idea with a drawing by French illustrator and filmmaker Roland Topor (1938-1997), who might be finest identified for the avant-garde animated basic Unbelievable Planet (1973). The work on view at Basel is titled Oh la la (1973) and options three ladies in numerous phases of consciousness amid a mysterious pure setting.

“I found Roland Topor by way of one other unbelievable artist, Paulina Olowska, who did a efficiency based mostly on his Grotesque Alphabet for a present that I curated on the Walker Artwork Heart, in Minneapolis,” stated de Bellis, who’s blissful to see Topor’s story come full circle in Paris.

Roland Topor, Oh la la (1973).

Courtesy galerie anne barrault

Like different exhibitors, the Vienna-based Layr Gallery picked a unique path for his or her presentation. “Now we have been enjoying with the thought to introduce a historic place within the up to date context for some time now, and it appeared like the right alternative to take action,” a spokesperson for the gallery stated. On view at Layr is the aquatint Pflüger mit stehender Frau im Vordergrund (Plougher with standing lady within the foreground) by the German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945).

Galerie Templon, in the meantime, pays homage to the Fluxus artist Benjamin Vautier (identified in his work as Ben) who died at 88 earlier this 12 months. Templon chosen one among Vautier’s humorous painted slogans, that includes white, childlike handwriting on a black background. The title, Je peut tout me permettre (1971) has a spelling mistake (it’s peux, not peut), which proves the artist’s level: ‘I can afford to do something.’

“This work marks Ben’s debut in Paris and seems like a unbelievable moto for all artists at present,” stated Templon’s Coric. “We considered him immediately, as a result of he’s acknowledged to be one of the vital influential artists of the French up to date scene, he has been a part of the gallery’s historical past for the reason that very starting within the Sixties, and since, earlier than his passing, we had been already planning a particular present for his ninetieth birthday subsequent 12 months.”

Massimo De Carlo additionally noticed Oh La La! as a possibility to honor the previous. “The idea that was offered to us was open to interpretation. Slightly than specializing in the current, as anticipated at a recent artwork honest, we had been extra desirous about demonstrating the historic depth of the gallery’s roster by way of a choice of works by Maurizio Cattelan, Thomas Grünfeld, Paola Pivi, Massimo Bartolini from 1999 solely,” De Carlo stated.

Maurizio Cattelan, A Excellent Day, 1999.

Courtesy Massimo De Carlo

Galleria Continua’s proposition for Oh La La! flirts with provocation and banks on distinction and duality. “The themes that enchantment to us probably the most are these of the weird and the thought-provoking. We wished to problem typical perceptions and spark curiosity”, stated a consultant of the gallery. On show is Pascale Marthine Tayou’s Poupée Pascale (Hybridation), a mixed-media figurative sculpture that represents a fusion of various cultures—particularly, varied cultures hailing from Africa and Europe—a seminal theme for the artist.

“Tayou’s works carry important political weight, vividly illustrating the complexities of cultural contrasts. Via a playful and colourful method, he invitations viewers to interact with these themes in an accessible method,” the gallery added.

On a unique be aware, fairgoers are all invited to have pre-dinner drinks at Air de Paris’s sales space. The Romainville-based gallery, named after a Marcel Duchamp ready-made, has introduced a neon signal by Japanese artist Shimabuku, who invented Sakepirinha, a drink based mostly on the recipe for the Brazilian Caipirinha cocktail; and Bruno Pélassy’s Bye Bye Jeff (1998), a phallic sculpture regarded as a tribute to porn star Jeff Stryker. Additionally on view on the sales space is Gaëlle Choisne’s ceramic piece L’éveil du cosmos (The Awakening of the Cosmos), from 2022. Choisne, you will have heard, simply gained the distinguished 2024 Marcel Duchamp Prize.

“Guests are welcome to eat olives from Choisne’s work, sip an interpretation of Shimabuku’s Sakepirinha, whereas gazing at Pélassy’s large phallus made from glass pearls,” co-founder Florence Bonnefous advised ARTnews. “The works might be on view all day, however the bartender gained’t arrive till 7 pm.”

Gaëlle Choisne, L’éveil du cosmos, 2022.

Courtesy Air de Paris

So, will Oh La La! be a Paris-only program, or ought to we count on some iteration of it on the subsequent Artwork Basel Miami this December? Or perhaps at Artwork Basel, Switzerland?

“As , Artwork Basel has completely different titles for various sections that present comparable issues,” stated de Bellis. The Meridians sector, for instance, is the equal of Basel’s Limitless and Hong Kong’s Encounters. “The Kabinett sector, which provides curated exhibitions inside the honest, takes a whole lot of house and work already. We have to readjust a bit of, earlier than we are able to introduce the Oh La La! idea in Miami.”

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