FIAC, the international contemporary art show, is held every year in mid-October at the Grand Palais, the Louvre’s Cour Carrée and the Tuileries. You can come to the FIAC on foot from the Madison, Buci and Artus hotels located in Saint Germain des Prés, near the banks of the Seine and the Louvre.

 

FIAC is the meeting place for collectors, artists, professionals and institutional players, the press and the general public: more than 700 artists come, including Laurence Weiner, Pierre Soulages, Subodh Gupta, Sophie Calle, Wim Delvoye, Christian Boltanski, Ron Arad, Jonas Mekas, Anette Messager, etc.

At the 2007 FIAC, 179 galleries exhibited and 23 countries were represented, with 106 foreign galleries and 73 French galleries.

 

During FIAC in Paris, French and international actors from the art world propose a selection of exhibits and openings; national museums, Parisian institutions, foundations, outside shows, etc.

 

 

Established in 2000 by the collectors at ADIAF (Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l’Art Français), the Marcel Duchamp Prize is organised in partnership with the Pompidou Centre, the National Museum of Modern Art and FIAC. Its is intended to promote the international recognition of the French art scene by confirming the reputation of an artist living in France and working in the field of visual and fine arts: installations, video, painting, photography, sculpture, etc.

 

ADIAF – Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l’Art Français (under the French law of 1901) – is currently the most important grouping of private contemporary art collectors in France. Founded in 1994, the association mobilises the energies of its 220 members for ambitious objectives to support the French art scene, to encourage all new artistic forms and to increase awareness among a wider public of the vitality of contemporary creation. In the year 2000 it launched the Marcel Duchamp Prize, the first collectors’ prize created in France to encourage the recognition of new talents and to support their worldwide careers, now considered as the French equivalent of the Turner Prize. Six artists have so far won the award: Thomas Hirschhorn (2000-2001), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (2002), Mathieu Mercier (2003), Carole Benzaken (2004), Claude Closky (2005) and Philippe Mayaux (2006).