Asia Now Art Fair Relocates to Historic Paris Mint
Hoping to print money for its galleries, the fair will take place alongside Paris+ par Art Basel from 20 to 23 October 2022.
The Cour d'Honneur at the Monnaie de Paris. Courtesy Monnaie de Paris.
The Asia Now Paris Asian Art Fair will move from its pre-pandemic home at 9 Avenue Hoche to the Monnaie de Paris, or Paris Mint, for its eighth edition.
The Mint, which still produces France's coins, is housed in an 18th-century palace on the Left Bank of the Seine, a short walk from the Louvre.
'We wanted to stand out in the historic centre of Paris,' said Alexandra Fain, Director and Founder of Asia Now.
'I believe that the statue of the goddess of prosperity in the museum of La Monnaie will bring [participating galleries] everything they want,' she said, 'and that 88 galleries in our eighth year will bring us luck.'
Among the galleries joining are A2Z Art Gallery, Alisan Fine Arts, Almine Rech, Dumonteil Contemporary, HdM Gallery, P21, Perrotin, Praz-Delavallade, Richard Saltoun Gallery, Yavuz Gallery, and Yeo Workshop.
The Artistic Director this year is Kathy Alliou, a director at Les Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 2021, Alliou curated a show for Asia Now that took inspiration from the Matsutaké mushroom. This year, she chose the theme 'Feux de joie' (Flames of joy) in celebration of fire as a medium in the creation of not just coins but also ceramics.
Alliou said fire 'symbolises the happiness found in communing together after the distance and separation we went through collectively' during the pandemic. She quoted Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran (1911–1995), saying 'joy is the only bulwark against the world'.
Japanese ceramicist Natsuko Uchino will share her experiments with hemp-based concrete in one of the fair's special projects, and ceramics by Cuban-Chinese artist Wifredo Lam will be exhibited in dialogue with the Qing Dynasty porcelain collection at the Musée Guimet, France's national Asian art museum.
Among the other ceramic works Alliou is excited to show at Asia Now are Kara Chin's Fallen Kingdom installation, which takes inspiration from the Jurassic World movies, and Pauline Bazignan's Interiors, which she creates by filling hollowed-out citrus fruits with liquid clay.
Describing the fair's evolution, Fain said, 'our continuing efforts to focus on various regions, generations, and now practices across art communities in Asia positions Asia Now as the leading contemporary art fair dedicated to pan-Asian artists and projects and Asian diasporas.'
Artists creating in-situ projects at La Monnaie include Trevor Yeung, Meekyoung Shin, Wang Keping, and Iranian trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian.
Other highlights of this year's Asia Now include Cai Guo-Qiang's NFT project Your Daytime Fireworks, the release of Hans Ulrich Obrist and Cao Dan's art book do it China 2021, and a film programme focused on the Persian Gulf with works by artists and filmmakers including Sarah Abu Abdallah, Sophia Al-Maria, Monira Al Qadiri, Farah Al Qasimi, and Larissa Sansour. —[O]
