SPECIAL FEATURE: Bienvenue Art Fair

Exhibitors: Galerie DIX9, Laufer Gallery, Galerie Chloé Salgado, Galerie Pierre-Francois Garcier, Galerie Eko Sato, Money Gallery, Lily Robert, Chambres à Part, Galerie Bernard Jordan, Verve Galeria, Espace à Vendre, Galerie Valeria Cetraro, Galerie Isabelle Gounod, Pierre Poumet, Florence Loewy, Homaar, Atelier Tchikebe, Noaddress Gallery, Kuk Gallery, Atelier Ecru, Galerie Vis à Vis, Galeria Hilario Galguera, KUK Gallery

Curated by: Domenico de Chirico and Marialuisa Pastò

Venue: Bienvenue Art Fair, Paris, France

Date: December 16 – 19, 2021

Photography: images courtesy of the artists, galleries and Bienvenue Art Fair

Living the reality of going through a pandemic, in the contemporary art fair scene we’re in, means to spectate a continuum of events that tend to overlap, chasing each other in a marathon that see the recovery time as their primary aim.

This often involves, among other things, a lacking in atmosphere, conceivably justified by the consolidated polarisation state that makes the advocacy of the value of criticality all the more pertinent now.

As a matter of fact, in this ever-growing condition of uncertainty, exploring diﬀerent formulas it’s a requirement. This allows a participatory approach where art being restored at its viewer in a way that favors a reflective thinking: giving a central role to the urgency to choose, the viewer is encouraged to experiencing and trust his own intuition.

But it’s also a container of symbolic and experiential meanings. Hosting a contemporary art fair in an intimate reserved place such as a hotel means to welcome bespoke experiences: the rooms turn into small private galleries, while the common spaces contribute to create a narrative path responding to a renewed perception of the intimacy of our domestic environments, whether they framed by the permanent nature of a dwelling or contexts that temporarily host us.

Bienvenue traces the timeless beauty of the La Louisiane history, with its mysteries and the echo of the greatest artists who came to live there.

The presence of the artworks fits into a rediscovered aspiration to the telling: they spread over the rooms and along the walls, letting them appear as watermarks, like background echoes where they fix their transient nature. In doing this, they trigger an interaction between the past and the contemporary which brings us back to rethink even the original meaning of the concept of hospitality.

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Founded in 2018, BIENVENUE is an events platform which aims to connect galleries, professionals and art industries with both collectors and amateurs.
In the spirit of decompartmentalization, BIENVENUE deploys its actions in the fields of Contemporary Art, Design, Applied and Decorative Arts.

BIENVENUE will set up its latest art fair in the heart of Saint-Germain des Prés at a very special venue, the Hotel La Louisiane.

Wrapped in the magic of its own history, La Louisiane has served as an intimate and bohemian refuge for almost 80 years, where writers, poets, musicians, filmmakers and artists have chosen to spend a moment, a night or a lifetime.

Jean-Paul Sartre lived in room 10, which he then passed on to Juliette Gréco, where she loved Miles Davis madly, before it became the chambers of Simone de Beauvoir — altogether making it the headquarters of existentialism.

Filled with the words of writers such as Arthur Miller or Ernest Hemingway, resonating with the notes of Charlie Parker or Jim Morrison, hosting Hollywood minds such as Quentin Tarantino — the walls of La Louisiane have witnessed (and continue to bear) the 20th century cultural effervescence.

It is in the privacy of this atmosphere that 25 art and design art galleries, invited by guest curators Domenico de Chirico and Marialuisa Pastò, will each occupy a mythical room.