This and that in December 2023: Paris and Toulouse

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I don't actually feel like I'm getting much done, but December has got off to a lively start, with quite a few exhibitions (not all mentioned here), as well as a quick trip to Toulouse.

First of all, there was a resident artists' open day at the Fondation Fiminco, a place I've written about before on this blog. Three of the artists there this year caught my eye (in addition to Pooya Abbasian, someone I've known for a while now). Two of them, interestingly, are graduates of fashion, not art, schools, and working in textiles, which seem to be booming in contemporary art these days. Célia Boulesteix' work is greyer and grittier than that of Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, which is more colourful and, in part, performance oriented. As usual, I was drawn to his smaller-scale works inspired, so at least I thought, by Iranian traditions. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance actually to meet Nicolas Faubert, who if I understand correctly comes from a hip-hop background, but his friends talked me through his installation, which included some VR, as well as some fun videos about his travels, even ceramics and 3D-printed pieces based on dance moves.

The Fiminco document behind this link has a full list of all this year's residents.







Every year Montrouge, a suburb to the south of Paris, organises a 'salon' of selected young artists, and I try not to miss it as there are always one or two 'finds', more in a good year. This year (I didn't write it up as I don't have any good photos to hand)  one artist attracted me in particular, Amine Habki, yet again working in textiles and playing with gender stereotypes. I looked him up on Instagram, and saw he'd be one of three artists in a show at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, so along I duly went. Turned out to be a very handsome little group show.





I've already mentioned Rayan Yasmineh in various posts on this blog. This year, Rayan (who seems destined to be a serial award-winner) won the 'Mezzanine Sud 2023' prize from the Abbatoirs contemporary art museum in Toulouse. As he told me to 'Come to the opening,' I did. The exhibition, so he told me, brings to an end his current series of 'verticals' - pictures marked by vertical divisions on, and in the case of diptychs and triptychs, between paintings. One or two of the paintings in Toulouse were new to me. Le songe de Gilgamesh, reproduced in the entrance hall to the Abbatoirs (see the photo below), wasn't in fact there, though the model, Rayan's younger brother, was. It will be very interesting to see where Rayan's work goes next.

I took advantage of the trip (only an overnight stay), to get to know the town a little bit better, and take a closer look at St Sernin and the Jacobins monastery. Oh, and eat a cassoulet.















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