Art Basel Paris to Close Two Days Early, Citing Protests
Amid ongoing nationwide demonstrations for better living conditions in France, the fair said it will shutter over the weekend “in the interest of safeguarding our visitors.”
Art Basel Paris will prematurely end on Friday, October 23, at 7 pm, “in light of potential demonstrations across Paris this weekend and in the interest of safeguarding our visitors,” event organizers told exhibitors in an email reviewed by Hyperallergic.
The main program of Art Basel Paris was scheduled to run through Sunday, October 25, at the Grand Palais. Following a temporary lockdown during installation on October 17, event organizers proceeded with the original program before announcing the fair's early closure, citing the ongoing nationwide protests over France's failing education system and public services.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has stated that military forces from Operation Sentinelle, rather than police officers, will be deployed over the weekend to control protesters. Operation Sentinelle was started in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks of January 2015 with a stated aim of defending against terrorism.
"We strongly encourage galleries to keep their representations intact through the fair's close tomorrow at 7 pm, and ask that general move-out not begin until access and removal instructions have been issued," Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s chief artistic officer, and Karim Crippa, the Paris fair’s director, said in the email to exhibitors.
A gallerist, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to Hyperallergic that operations and dismantling instructions are still pending.
Several artist advocacy groups and labor unions, including the Syndicat National des Artistes Plasticiennes, which represents visual artists and graphic designers, had pledged to join a protest outside the fair on Saturday at 4 pm. A flyer for the protest circulating online denounces the “privatization of culture and a market-driven art that accompanies the extreme right-wing shift in our country.”
Artists and organizations elsewhere have also expressed that their artworks will be taken down or prematurely dismantled. Fondation Louis Vuitton will close on Saturday, October 4, according to a banner on their website. Alicja Kwade, who is one of eight artists participating in the public program outside the Grand Palais for the fair's run, took to Instagram to announce the removal of her 14-foot sculpture, "L'Élévation des Mondes"(2026), citing “announced riots and people who simply want to resort to violence.”
The ongoing protests have seen a spate of police brutality against student demonstrators, including a 14-year-old child who was maimed by a tear gas grenade and a 15-year-old whose hand was blown off by a stun gun. Ahead of the protests, French authorities have also enforced strict curfews.
