3-7 April 08 / Grand Palais

Ever more cutting-edge,

Ever more international!

From the 3rd to the 7th of April 2008, artparis returns to the Grand Palais to showcase a hundred French and international art galleries. Each spring, the event welcomes almost 40,000 visitors.

Since it was launched, this art fair has continued to develop a more cutting-edge and international character, representative of today's art market.

This year, as more and more contemporary art galleries display their collections under the spectacular glass roof of the Grand Palais, 22 new exhibitors will swell the ranks of the art fair. Fifteen art galleries will be dedicated to photography, a medium which was extremely popular in our show last year. Contemporary art galleries will mix with the most famous names of the Parisian modern art market. Some galleries will focus on the artists of the Narrative Figuration school, in anticipation of the exhibition at the Galeries National du Grand Palais, which will run from the 16th of April.

In 2008, artparis will feature a hundred galleries from 18 different countries and, for the very first time, 40 per cent of the exhibitors will come from outside France. Europe will be well represented, notably by Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Four American galleries will cross the Atlantic for the occasion. Furthermore, confirming the growing relationship with the Arab world, consolidated by last November's Abou Dhabi art fair, there will be galleries from Syria, Iran and Tunisia.

This bridge reaching towards the Middle East seduced Brahim Alaoui, art historian, who conceived for artparis an exhibition entitled ‘Traversées'. It will unveil a selection of twenty talented artists among whom will feature Mounir Fatmi, Kader Attia and Monna Hatoum.

"Artparis has always embraced foreign cultures, and in particular, it has always shown an interest in the Mediterranean world. This interest is sincere, and not simply motivated by economic considerations, and this is what convinced me to join the artparis team to organize this exhibition. This fair has a very specific spirit - a simplicity and a warmth that I experienced in Abou Dhabi last November."

Flashback: The organisers revisit the origins of artparis

Henry Farault manages France Conventions, the company behind the organisation of artparis. He remembers the day when Caroline Clough-Lacoste and Alain Lamaignère knocked on his door to present their new project:

« I believed instantly in artparis, an artfair which mixes professionalism and conviviality. In 2006, the annual artparis fair was held at The Grand Palais to celebrate the reopening of this Parisian monument. This clearly contributed to the institutionalisation of the fair on a national level, while reinforcing its international influence. I am greatly honoured to see this fair, which has become a symbol of quality, being exported beyond France's borders, as illustrated by Abou Dhabi last November.

Caroline Clough-Lacoste reassesses the position of the fair, ten years after its

inception:

« As an international modern art fair, artparis features both historical art galleries, which have a strong reputation and have always been faithful to us, and other more recent galleries, which have reanimated artparis with the vitality and energy which define it. This perfect combination of national and international galleries has enabled us to promote artists who are French or live in France. It has also allowed us to encourage cultural and economic exchanges on an international level."

... a concept which is also close to the heart of Henri Jobbé-Duval, artistic director

of the fair :

"I joined the team in 2002, moved by a desire to promote galleries which had remarkably high standards of quality... which is not necessarily compatible with a certain audaciousness!" And art collectors were not disappointed: large numbers of them return each year with a real enthusiasm which keeps us going until the following spring."

List of the exhibitors of artparis 2008 as of 4 january:

GALERIE 1900-2000 Paris FRANCE

GALERIE ACTE 2 Paris FRANCE

GALERIE ARNOUX Paris FRANCE

GALERIE ARTISCOPE Brussels BELGIUM

AYYAM GALLERY Damascus SYRIA

GALLERIA ALESSANDRO BAGNAI Florence ITALY

GALERIE BAUDOIN LEBON Paris FRANCE

GALERIE ALBERT BENAMOU Paris FRANCE

GALERIE CLAUDE BERNARD Paris FRANCE

GALERIE BERTHET AITTOUARES Paris FRANCE

GALERIE BRIMAUD Paris FRANCE

GALERIE JEAN BROLLY Paris FRANCE

GALERIE DENISE CADE New York UNITED STATES

GALERIE CAMERA OBSCURA Paris FRANCE

MASSIMO CARASI Milan ITALY

GALERIE LOUIS CARRE & CIE Paris FRANCE

PHILIPPE CHAUME Paris FRANCE

CHINESE CONTEMPORARY LTD London GREAT BRITAIN

GALERIE DARGA & LANSBERG Paris FRANCE

GALERIE DI MEO Paris FRANCE

DIE GALERIE Frankfurt am Main GERMANY

GALERIE DINA VIERNY Paris FRANCE

GALERIE FRANCOIS DITESHEIM Neuchâtel SWITZERLAND

PATRICIA DORFMANN Paris FRANCE

GALERIE RAYMOND DREYFUS Paris FRANCE

ERIC DUPONT Paris FRANCE

GALERIE EL MARSA La Marsa TUNISIA

GALERIE EMOTION Paris FRANCE

ERDESZ & MAKLARY FINE ARTS Budapest HUNGARY

FLATLAND GALLERY Utrecht THE NETHERLANDS

GALERIE FORNI Bologna ITALY

GALERIE FORSBLOM Helsinki FINLAND

GALERIE PASCAL GABERT Paris FRANCE

GALERIE CHRISTOPHE GAILLARD Paris FRANCE