Paris+ par Art Basel’s inaugural Conversations program explores Paris and its art scenes, as well as some of its iconic figures. Dandyism in the 21st Century?, for instance, is a panel featuring four self-defined neo-dandies: playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris; queer filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger; gallerist, artist, and performer Emily Sundblad; and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO) Luca Lo Pinto. The focus on Paris continues in Curating ‘Dangerous’ Collections, in which artist Julien Creuzet, professor and Associate Curator of the KW Berlin Clémentine Deliss, and independent curator Eva Barois De Caevel revisit France’s colonial past by questioning the role of museums in constructing history. Finally, in What’s Next for the French Art Market?, journalist Farah Nayeri is joined by gallerists Romain Chenais, Co-Founder of High Art, Mariane Ibrahim and Thaddaeus Ropac to explore the country’s art ecosystem.

Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou by Hugues Laurent.
Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou by Hugues Laurent.
Left: Jeremy O. Harris by Micaiah Carter. Right: Emily Sundblad by Rachel Chandler.
Left: Jeremy O. Harris by Micaiah Carter. Right: Emily Sundblad by Rachel Chandler.
Left: Julien Creuzet. Right: Clémentine Deliss by Christian Werner.
Left: Julien Creuzet. Right: Clémentine Deliss by Christian Werner.

In keeping with Art Basel’s talks programs this first edition of Conversations in Paris aims to honor artists whose work most embodies the real and its upheavals. As such, the Premiere Artist Talk features Alicja Kwade in conversation with co-curators Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou on the artist’s monumental installation at Place Vendôme. Art Basel regulars will also be pleased to find a new edition of the Artists’ Influencers series, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries. This latest iteration presents a dialogue between artist Hervé Télémaque and feminist postcolonial thinker Françoise Vergès. The Artist and the Collector will bring together artist Julie Curtiss with collector, Founder and CEO at Docent, Hélène Nguyen-Ban to discuss their common interests and respective visions of art.

Left: Eva Barois de Caevel by Serli Lala. Right: Mariane Ibrahim, 2022. Photograph by Fabrice Gousset. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.
Left: Eva Barois de Caevel by Serli Lala. Right: Mariane Ibrahim, 2022. Photograph by Fabrice Gousset. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim.
Left: Françoise Vergès by Studio XL, Douala. Right: Grace Wales Bonner by Jamie Morgan.
Left: Françoise Vergès by Studio XL, Douala. Right: Grace Wales Bonner by Jamie Morgan.

Paris+ par Art Basel’s inaugural Conversations program will also delve into the tumultuous ties that exist between avant-gardes and countercultures. Pan-Africanism and Contemporary Aesthetics will inquire into the legacy of this movement that emerged in the wake of decolonial thought and advocated solidarity among African peoples. DJ and artist Christelle Oyiri, fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, architect Sumayya Vally, and Chief Curator of CAPC Bordeaux, Cédric Fauq, will reflect on what this legacy might mean today. In another vein, the conversation Sex and Art along the Seine brings together author Bruce Benderson, artist and poet Tarek Lakhrissi, philosopher and Director of the Department of Culture and Creation at the Centre Pompidou Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, and independent curator Juliette Desorgues in a bid to sketch a new carnal psychogeography of the ‘City of Lights’. For the program’s grand finale, the conversation Rave New World: Clubbing, Art, and Resistance – with artist Andreas Angelidakis, media theorist DeForrest Brown Jr, artist and performer Isabel Lewis, and Director of Museion in Bolzano, Bart van der Heide – will address clubbing culture as a space of both social and poetic emancipation.


Curator-duo Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou will program the Conversations for the inaugural Paris+ par Art Basel. In 2022, they launched ‘Paris Orbital’, a public conference series at the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Paris. Their book Cruising Pavillon will be published by Spektor Books, Leipzig and HEAD, Geneva in 2023.

All Conversations are free and open to all. To book a seat and browse the whole program, click here.

Conversations, Paris+ par Art Basel
October 20 – 22, 2022
Bal de la Marine
Port de Suffren, 75007 Paris

Caption for full-bleed image: Andreas Angelidakis, Infinity Teleport. Courtesy of the artist.

Left: Sumayya Vally by Lou Jasmine. Right: Juliette Desorgues.
Left: Sumayya Vally by Lou Jasmine. Right: Juliette Desorgues.

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