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26/4/2006

Europ'ART Geneve

Palexpo S.A., Geneve

International Art Fair. 15th edition

Who would have thought, seeing the numerous and almost insurmountable obstacles ahead, that the first Geneva art fair would get to celebrate its 15th anniversary? Yet, this is happening ...

Numerous and almost insurmountable obstacles? Yes indeed, because from the moment it was launched the fair had to be different, breaking away from the international contemporary art market and its rules, rather unfriendly and very one-sided as we all know.

We wanted to ‘invent’ a fair accessible to the public and the artists, close to everyone’s times during which knowledge and artistic practices mature. We wanted to give life to a fair with a human dimension, that would be accessible to the greatest number of people, that would work according to its own rules, and that would develop following its own rhythm, in ‘its’ region. A sort of historical crossroads in Europe.

In fact, we then introduced a concept which, nowadays, is more often called ‘local fair’ or ‘regional fair’.

Of course, in line with the image of the cosmopolitan Geneva, Europ'ART soon became a venue for world cultures, thanks to the multiple origins of its exhibitors (59 different countries have been hosted altogether). But, by choosing to be neighbours with the International Press and Book Fair, we immediately defined ourselves in favour of a popular fair, that is to say a fair which is held within a bigger cultural event (the biggest in Switzerland) and is, therefore, open to several types of audiences, of all ages and from all walks of life. The corresponding exhibitions illustrate a logically wide range of tastes and sensitiveness which, on most occasions, cannot be compared between themselves.

Europ'ART’s modus operandi thus proved to be different from that of other fairs of the time. Exhibitors were not simply limited to art galleries. Artistic movements and personal paths were brought together just as they were expressed around us, in Geneva and elsewhere: in studios, galleries and other cultural scenes, whether commercial or not. We followed a new course of action, trying to be both modest and demanding, without neglecting the vocations that needed a boost, or the public’s very favourites, or the potential talents that could be unveiled.

Since 1992, no less than 640 gallery owners, museums, institutions, groups of artists, associations and art publishers have thus introduced 4,557 artists at Europ'ART, with an average of 70 exhibitors and 250 artists per fair.

Along the years, visitors, estimated to be 600,000 in total, have gradually become a more curious, more faithful and keener sort of public. Keen enough to increase its visits to the big museums featured at Europ'ART (such as the Muse'e Ariana in Geneva or the Muse'e Suisse du Vitrail in Romont), and to buy over 1,200 works of art during the course of our last three editions (all formats and techniques included).

As to Europ'ART’s partners, a total of 186 of them collaborated with it during the past fifteen years (the cultural press, publishers, art fairs) while the fair’s web site is now among the most frequently consulted ones (22,994 pages seen only between April and May 2005, coinciding with the previous edition).

Finally, in 1997, to consolidate its activities, Europ'ART created the Visual Arts Foundation and, under the impulse of the latter, organised over fifty exhibitions promoting some meetings and exchanges between artists, intermediaries, distributors and audiences (see www.europart.ch/F/Fondation.html). The members of the board are (apart from the undersigned): Valentina Anker, art historian; Pierre-Marcel Favre, chairman of the International Press and Book Fair; Jacques Leenhardt, critic, doctor in sociology, master in philosophy, former chairman of the International Art Critics Association (AICA in French); Daniel Perren esq., chairman; and Michel Thevoz, former curator of the Raw Art Collection in Lausanne.

Is this enough to speak of ‘success’? Judging by all the comments made about Europ'ART nowadays, including abroad (even the Wall Street Journal Europe pointed out its singularity), we reckon that the fair has been able to secure its place in the world of art by shining a different light onto it.

But we also know that too many artists are still not visible enough, despite being really talented, despite the existence of intermediaries and distributors equally talented. In other words, there is still a lot for us to do - along with others ...

Geneva Palexpo
1218 Grand-Saconnex - Geneve

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