Guillaume Piens: chief curator of the international art fair Art Paris

1. You have been leading Art Paris since 2012, and you yourself said that when you arrived “it looked like a flea market.” What made you want to take on this challenge?

Guillaume Piens: The challenge of Art Paris was immense. Everything had to be rebuilt, everything reinvented, and that’s precisely what interested me: how to transform a fair people loved to hate, as Le Monde put it in 2012, into what has now become a major, must-attend spring event attracting 87,000 visitors and serving as a meaningful counterpart to Art Basel Paris in the autumn.

What drew me in was exactly that potential and the appeal of the challenge, along with the opportunity, for the first time in my career, to have a blank slate and complete freedom. That freedom was given to me by the fair’s owners, Valentine and Julien Lecêtre, so that I could fully reinvent it.

2. Over 28 editions, Art Paris has evolved from a regional fair into an international event at the Grand Palais. How would you define the DNA of Art Paris? What has remained unchanged?

Guillaume Piens: The DNA of Art Paris is built on a balance that has become more defined over the years: a regional yet cosmopolitan fair focused on discovery. Today, this translates very concretely: around 60% of the galleries are French, 40% are international, representing about twenty countries.

What hasn’t changed is the commitment to highlighting the French scene and its ecosystem by showcasing author-driven galleries, regional galleries, and emerging structures, while also welcoming mega-galleries, modern art galleries, and art publishers.

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What has changed are all the initiatives introduced to expand the reach of Art Paris. When I arrived, we created a communications and partnerships department, overhauled processes, redesigned the website, visual identity, and team. We also launched the Promesses sector for young galleries, and from 2013 to 2020 introduced guest countries or regions of honor, including Russia, China, Singapore and Southeast Asia, Korea, Africa, Switzerland, and Latin America.

From 2020 onward, the editorial dimension of Art Paris has become a true signature, with curated themes entrusted to guest curators whose topics reflect both societal concerns and artistic discourse. One theme focuses on the French scene, while the other explores the international scene.

This year, Babel – Art and Language in France, curated by Loïc Le Gall, explored the question of language. In parallel, Repair, conceived by Alexia Fabre, offered a more international perspective, featuring artists such as Otobong Nkanga, Mary Sibande, and Shilpa Gupta, who engage with ideas of memory, care, and reconstruction. These two curated paths shaped the 2026 edition, giving it a distinctive resonance that stands apart from the current standardization seen across many contemporary art fairs.

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3. Galleries are closing, many are struggling financially, and at the same time Paris is experiencing a kind of cultural renaissance with institutions reopening and new spaces emerging. How do you make sense of this apparent contradiction?

Guillaume Piens: It is not so much a contradiction as a reshaping that began with Brexit in 2016. The economic climate has indeed become more challenging over the past two years, and competition in Paris has also intensified with the arrival of many major international galleries such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, Esther Schipper, and White Cube.

Some galleries, particularly mid-sized ones, are being weakened, especially in the most contemporary segments.

At the same time, Paris is drawing global attention and becoming the place to be, thanks to the arrival of major international galleries, the rise of private foundations, the expansion of artist residency programs, an outstanding museum calendar, and a collective determination among both private and public stakeholders to position Paris as a global capital of the arts.

So we are in a moment where the market is slowing, while the cultural ecosystem is becoming richer and more dens

4. The global art market is going through a turbulent period. How is Art Paris adapting to this new context?

Guillaume Piens: In times of uncertainty, behaviors shift. We are seeing a move toward more thoughtful, more deliberate, and less speculative collecting. Collectors are gravitating toward established and historically significant artists.

Art Paris offers a well-established model that has proven resilient in times of crisis, including during Covid in 2020. It benefits from a strong local anchoring, rooted in France’s collecting culture, the presence of modern art which is currently seen as a safe haven, and accessible price points, particularly in the Promesses sector dedicated to young galleries.

Art Paris is not a speculative fair; it is a fair driven by discovery and passion, aligned with the current expectations of the art market.

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5. For a long time, the global art market was driven by American collectors. With Trump’s trade war and transatlantic instability, are we witnessing a reshaping of art market flows? And if so, is this an opportunity for Paris?

Guillaume Piens: Yes, clearly, since Covid there has been an ongoing deglobalization and regionalization of the art market.

In this context, Paris has a strong hand to play. First, because it is attracting an increasing number of European and international collectors who are eager to discover something different. Second, because it offers a distinct scene, less standardized and marked by genuine diversity.

France is now the fourth largest art market in the world and the country where half of all art transactions in Europe take place. By 2026, its share has grown from 7% to 8% of the global art market, despite geopolitical turbulence and economic challenges.

There is therefore a real opportunity for Paris, which is emerging as a haven city defined by openness and tolerance.

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6. This year, the Promesses sector brings together 27 young galleries with very diverse profiles, from Montreal to Singapore. How do you ensure that galleries of such different sizes and cultural backgrounds can coexist without smaller ones being overshadowed? And are art fairs still a springboard today?

Guillaume Piens: That is precisely why we created Promesses. It is a very important sector for us, dedicated to galleries that have been in existence for less than ten years, with the aim of supporting ambitious, carefully developed proposals. The fair covers 45% of participation costs, which allows galleries to present tighter, more demanding projects without being driven solely by commercial constraints.

But the challenge goes beyond the financial aspect. Located on the balconies of the Grand Palais, Promesses is designed as a clearly identified space that gives strong visibility to the emerging artists on display. The selection is made in collaboration with guest curator Marc Donnadieu, which brings a particular coherence to the sector and provides meaningful support to the participating galleries.

For visitors, it is a highly dynamic space of discovery; for us, it is a driver of renewal that also attracts a new generation of collectors, often more attentive to emerging artists and accessible price points.

The Promesses sector helps elevate the younger generation and serves as an important springboard for emerging galleries from a wide range of geographical backgrounds.

7. Art Paris is renewing this year the Her Art Prize with Boucheron and Marie Claire, dedicated to women artists. Is a prize enough, or do we need to go further structurally in the programming of art fairs? And where do women artists really stand in the market in 2026?

Guillaume Piens: A prize is not enough, but it is still necessary. It acts as a signal in a context where imbalances persist: women make up the majority in art schools, yet they remain underrepresented in galleries, collections, and major sales.

This year, the prize was awarded to Elsa Sahal, represented by Galerie Papillon. She is an important artist who has been working with ceramics for a long time, well before the medium came back into focus. Her work, very free in approach, explores the body and gender, with a dimension that is both political and deeply embodied.

The jury was particularly sensitive to this ability to shift boundaries, both formally and in the subjects she addresses. The €30,000 grant provided by Maison Boucheron, along with the visibility offered through the partnership with Marie Claire, represents a real lever.

But beyond the prize itself, the issue is structural. It lies in the choices made by galleries, in the programming, and in how the fair is constructed. The goal is for the representation of women artists to be lasting, not occasional.

Their favorite artworks