Catching up, June 2023 - 3: Open Studios at POUSH, and MacParis

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POUSH is an interesting place. This is how it presents itself on its website:

'Opened in March 2020 on 9 floors of a former office building that lay vacant in Porte Pouchet in Clichy, the POUSH project moved to Aubervilliers in April 2022, with the ambitious aim of developing a creative and cultural neighborhood there.

'In this 20,000 m² industrial campus, with buildings that date back to the 1920s, (formerly owned by the perfumery L. T Piver and now belonging to the Société de la Tour Eiffel), POUSH brings together an impressive array of 250 established and emerging artists that showcases the vitality of the French art scene, enhanced by the work of artists from more than thirty different countries.

'The artists benefit from studios and additional support with their artistic development, production, administrative matters and communications.'


My own first encounter with POUSH was marred by one of those frequent examples of unprofessionalism in the contemporary art world that drive me mad: having checked the opening hours on the website before going (to see an installation by Ittah Yoda), I found the venue nevertheless closed. (The same sort of thing happened when I visited Het HEM, a 'new Mecca of contemporary art,' as it describes itself. Accompanied by a friend, I took a train from Amsterdam to Zaandam, then walked to Het HEM's waterside site to see an installation by Kévin Bray, to be told, at the ticket desk, that the artist was at that very moment dismantling the exhibition. 'Oh, we made a communication error on the website.' Fortunately, Kévin was indeed there, and my companion and I spent a pleasant half hour over drinks chatting with him on the waterside terrace.)

That was at the 'old' POUSH, in a 70s office building in Clichy. Now that it's moved to its vast factory complex in Aubervilliers, there are so many young artists renting studios at this new POUSH, or subletting them to to others, that you often hear people say 'Tout le monde y est,' everybody's there. That creates a 'draw': it's almost as if you're either there already, or wishing you were and wondering how to wangle it.

Every so often, POUSH's artists open up their studios for a day or two, so you can get quite an interesting peek at the (very varied) work going on there. I spent nearly four hours there on Saturday, taking pics and, sometimes, talking to the artists.

(For MacParis, scroll past these pictures.)















MacParis
MacParis is a twice-yearly event (spring and autumn) organised by an association, Mac2000, that's been around for over 40 years. I first came across it when it was held at the Espace Champerret in the 17th arrondissement. That's where I met Mona Luison and her poignant textile works. But for the past few years, the exhibitions have been held at the Bastille Design Center, a converted workshop on three levels - and that's where I discovered the unsettling, highly-finished ceramics of J. P. Racca-Vammerisse. I don't know exactly what the selection criteria for MacParis are, but the organisers seem to be trying to offer a professionally-presented platform allowing artists not necessarily represented in galleries - or in Paris - to achieve some visibility.

The result is up-and-down: there are original voices, there are imitators, there are graduates of top art schools who haven't gone on to find an outlet for their work, there are artists with phenomenal technique but weak ideas, but there are also works with real appeal that are affordable... There's no telling, unless you go and find out, whether a particular selection will be interesting or not - which is why I go there every six months.

What is interesting is what the bargain prices of some of the works, however much technique and effort is combined in them, teach you about the workings of the art market: what's in fashion, what isn't, what sells, what doesn't, fame or obscurity, and the impact on prices...























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