Guillaume Piens, Chief curator of the international art fair Art Paris

Guillaume Piens is the face of Art Paris, a major springtime event in the European contemporary art scene. He joined the team as Director and Curator in 2011, with a mission to restore it back to it's original glory.  Under his watch, Art Paris has strongly defined its European DNA as well as its positioning as a premium yet accessible fair, which has become its signature. Guillaume Piens was also the director of Paris Photo art fair, and is a knowledgeable art collector himself - valuable experiences that help him build a program that hits the mark for collectors. Meet this art market specialist with Artsper!

1. After a bold 2020 edition, which benefited from a global spotlight, the 2021 edition of Art Paris enjoyed a tremendous success. How do you see the 2022 edition playing out?

I see all of the ingredients coming together for a renewed success of Art Paris 2022. The return to our usual springtime programming, in early April, makes this 2022 edition one of the first major events to open the European fair season - at a time when the health protocols are being lifted. The cultural renaissance that Paris is currently undergoing has been attracting a lot of attention and interest. For this edition, we have a list of 130 high-flying galleries, but above all, an innovative strategy centered around a strong engagement for the environment. In that respect, we have two main themes, “Natural History" and “Art & Environment", which are associated with an ecological conception of the event - a first in the world of art fairs.

2. Art Paris offers an international program while maintaining a French core. How do you see the fair's DNA evolving as the fair grows?

I would say that Art Paris has become spring's main event - a regional and cosmopolitan fair, supported by the French scene. And the Fall will see the first edition of a new, very international art fair in Paris.

The international art fair, Art Paris 2021 © Marc Domage Champ-de-Mars

3. Each year, you invite a curator to participate on a theme, highlighting the French scene. The last edition was all about figurative art and portraiture. What can you tell us about this year's theme, “Natural Histories"?

The idea put forward by Alfred Pacquement was to interrogate the perspective that artists of the French scene have on the natural world - both animals and plants - and the renewed presence that this world enjoys in contemporary aesthetics. With this theme, we notice that many artists today center their work around nature. To quote Alfred Pacquement, “this open title expresses the great diversity of approaches, the possibilities generated by multiple meanings, and an obvious convergence of the matters of society and artists' work."

Our selection takes different generations into account. It creates a conversation between three deceased artists ( Etel Adnan, Gilles Aillaud, Jacqueline Lamba), two young talents under 35 (Hugo Deverchère, Justin Weiler) and a number of others, including duos (Anne and Patrick Poirier, Tursic & Mille) - and just as many practices, from Carole Benzaken to Barthélémy Toguo!

4. The 2022 edition will also focus on the theme “Art & Environment". In your opinion, is it part of the duty of a major art world event to communicate, in its own way, on environmental issues and the climate crisis?

Alfred Pacquement selected artists who look at nature. Alice Audoin, the other guest curator of this edition, focused her scope on artists who deal with environmental stakes, like the climate crisis or the destruction of biodiversity.

To quote Estelle Zhong Mengual, from her book Apprendre à voir, le point de vue du vivant (in English, Learning to see: the perspective of the living) which inspired me a lot: “The climate crisis that we're going through is not about a crisis of the living, but a crisis of our relationship to the living."

I find it interesting to use the communicative power of a fair to contribute to bringing a widespread and profound awareness of environmental matters. It requires an inevitable shift of outlook on the world of the living.