‘An artist-run space is sometimes just a couple of artists with a garage,’ remarks the artist Nelson Pernisco. He knows the Paris scene intimately; in 2013, he co-founded the artist collective Le Wonder, which opened its shared production and exhibition space of the same name in Saint-Ouen a year later. At the time, the model of venues set up and managed by artists was rare in France. ‘We were among the first to negotiate directly with real estate developers,’ he explains. Le Wonder quickly made a name for itself by rehabilitating vast post-industrial locations while equipping itself with a fleet of machines that would make art schools envious. Multiple relocations successively led the collective from Saint-Ouen to Bagnolet, La Défense, then Clichy, before settling in Bobigny in 2023. After a year of construction work, the 70 residents now occupy an indoor and outdoor site of 16,000 square meters, open to the public through guided tours and performative events called ‘opéras’.

DOC also belongs to the first wave of shared studios in Paris. In 2015, a group of 12 graduates from the École nationale supérieure d’art de Paris Cergy took over a former high school in the 19th arrondissement. Around 28 classrooms were renovated to house production and distribution, residencies, and a vibrant exhibition space. During the same period, smaller structures were emerging, like Tonus. In 2014, the duo of artist-graphic designers Jacent (Jade Fourès-Varnier and Vincent de Hoÿm) began organizing lively exhibitions around banquets or parties. Initially operating from a garage in the 15th arrondissement, Tonus now continues its programming from the Cité Montmartre-aux-artistes in the 18th.

‘These are largely venues that operate sporadically,’ Benjamin Thorel remarks of a scene with an erratic approach to timetabling. For the co-founder of After 8 Books, an art bookstore combined with publishing and events, ‘running a bookstore was a bit like curating an exhibition: choosing books, discussing them, and bringing them to life through encounters.’

The origins of After 8 Books can be traced back to a simple bookshelf within the independent space castillo/corrales, which was active from 2007 to 2015 in the Belleville neighborhood. When it closed, the bookstore Section 7 Books and publishing house Paraguay Press continued under a new team. This became After 8 Books, which has been housed in its current 10th arrondissement space since 2019. ‘We became booksellers somewhat by chance, wanting to make available here books we couldn’t find, relating to practices and ways of doing things we weren’t seeing,’ Thorel continues. ‘We think of the bookstore as a social space, where we don’t just receive boxes of books.’ This guiding principle – the importance of horizontal exchanges – helps create a network of peers. Those involved have recently collaborated with other independent venues for off-site events: Treize in the 11th arrondissement for a reading-projection with Chris Kraus, and Bagnoler in Bagnolet for an exhibition centered around Piero Heliczer. The printed page also weaves other connections, including with Three Star Books, founded in 2007 by Christophe Boutin and Mélanie Scarciglia – a publishing house and studio in the 13th arrondissement dedicated to producing books and artist editions in unusual formats.

Across the street from After 8 Books, a back courtyard leads to its neighbors at Goswell Road. For the Anglo-French artist duo Coralie Ruiz and Anthony Stephinson, everything began in 2016, as it so often does, in a small artist’s studio. Fresh from London, they wanted to revive a scene they perceived to be dormant. This gave birth to Goswell Road, an exhibition and publication space installed in a back courtyard on rue de l’Échiquier: ‘We wanted to turn to the margins of culture to find artists whose engaged or transgressive work we felt needed to be reevaluated.’ For each exhibition they create a bouquet, and Ruiz and Stephinson explain: ‘Our own work gradually moved into the background. What remains are flowers: an ephemeral sculpture that testifies to our goodwill toward invited artists.’ The same year saw the opening of the artist-run space, Julio, in the 20th arrondissement, the initiative of Argentine artists Maria Ibanez Lago and Constanza Piaggio, and symptomatic of an ongoing process of internationalization.

Since the early 2020s, there has been a second surge in independent spaces. In 2021, Shmorévaz expanded the geographical reach of artist-run spaces by settling on the Left Bank. In an abandoned shoe store in the 7th arrondissement, curator Salomé Burstein explores themes of body and gender through curatorial activities, publishing, readings, and conversations. The same year on the other bank, Tati – the discount department store known for its pink and blue gingham – closed its doors, and in 2022, the site was made available to the Union de la Jeunesse Internationale cultural center. The project, often called the ‘Palais de Tokyo of the diaspora’ by co-founder Youssouf Fofana, aims to continue mixing social classes, this time around art. The atrium houses a neighborhood radio station, media library, and cafeteria, while upstairs, the programming earlier this year included a recreation of the photo studio installed by Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé in 1998 within the same walls.

‘Today, we’ve begun a process of making things permanent,’ Pernisco concludes about Le Wonder’s current evolution. ‘Making production facilities available is a real challenge because we see our artists’ vocabulary constantly evolving.’ Paris is undeniably undergoing a transformation, due to economic pressures, but also thanks to internationalization and the pluralization of different scenes. ‘Some might wonder why we continue,’ add the team behind Goswell Road, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in November. ‘But we think it’s more important than ever that spaces with alternative programming exist.’