Worlds Collide as Galleries Converge for an Art and Design Fair in the Heart of Paris
Most have focused their attention this week on Art Basel’s new Paris+ fair, which has more than 150 exhibitors and is taking place near the Eiffel Tower. But a smaller, more tightly curated affair just a half hour’s walk away offers a much different vision of what it looks like when galleries converge.
Seven galleries focused on the intersection of art and design have banded together at the 18th-century Hôtel de Guise for an event called Zut!, whose name is a cute way of saying “damn” in French. Set in a former hôtel particulier, the space was once the opulent home of a wealthy Parisian family—a doorway on the third floor shows the family’s height measuring chart—and has become derelict over the years. Wallpaper peels in certain places, and the elevator has been removed.
The arrival of Paris+ prompted Salon 94 Design to wrangle other galleries who present work in the liminal space between art and design. Zoe Fisher, a director at the Salon 94 Design, said that the gallery wanted to present something that “engaged with the space and with the unique history of Paris.”
Pic: Work by Leonor Fini at Zut!. MAXIMILÍANO DURÓN/ARTNEWS
