Between 25-28 January 2024, 80 internationally renowned modern and contemporary art galleries participated the 12th edition of the artgenève exhibition at the Palexpo in Geneva. Since 2013, F.P. Journe has been supporting the best monographic exhibit of the show. This year, the Prix Solo was awarded to the drawings of Pascal Vonlanthen by the Lovay Fine Arts gallery.
First held in 2012, artgenève has been known to be a fair with a ‘human-scale’. It is organised in an easily accessible, relatively small international city, with exhibitors from all over the world, but due to its reasonable size it still maintains a more sustainable ‘salon d’art’ concept. The fair has a strong programme including talks and experimental presentations.
Following last year’s turbulences, former director and founder Thomas Hug (who since then has started the Gstaad Art) was replaced by Charlotte Diwan in August.
She has initiated new programs, like the first edition of artgenève/sur-mesure – a selection of singular works and large-format installations presented by galleries. The showstopper was a monumental textile creature, ‘Valkyrie Mumbet’ by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. She used different fabrics and components of Portuguese handicrafts, such as Pico lace, a fine crochet lace technique from Pico island. High-fashion lovers can recognise her name, as she created an amazing floral installation for Dior’s autumn/winter 2023 show.
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Monumental textile sculpture “Valkyrie Mumbet”, created by Joana Vasconcelos
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Cultural institutions remained in the spotlight, as the line up included vernissage events at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire and the Centre d’Art Contemporain, and collections like the Boros Collection from Berlin (a private collection of contemporary art by Karen and Christian Boros) or the Thalie Foundation from Brussels (private art foundation, offering a multidisciplinary program, a residency, and exhibition space).
Switzerland’s important art school, the HEAD – Genève (created in 2006 from the merger of two prestigious schools, the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Haute École d’Arts Appliqués) showcased a selection of the creations of its students. Visitors could discover the winners of the New HEADS prize at the exhibition entitled ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Sensors of Ourselves’, curated by Varun Kumar.
Long time artgenève partners UBS, F.P.Journe, Gübelin and la Mobilière extended supporting the event this year. With over 30,000 works, UBS has one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art globally. The company has been a vivid patron of arts, being associated not only with artgenève since 2013, but also Art Basel. UBS just presented the second edition of ART SG, 19-21 January 2024 in Singapore.
Prix Solo artgenève-F.P.Journe
The Swiss-French high-end manufacture d’horlogerie, F.P.Journe has been a devoted patron of talents in the field of horology, gastronomy or art. The company established the Young Talent Competition for watchmakers in 2015 and they awarded the 11th Prix Solo artgenève-F.P.Journe prize this year to the best personal exhibit presented at the show. The artworks of the winner are purchased by the manufacture, which is then offered to public institutes. Each year, the previous year’s winner is featured on the F.P.Journe stand at artgenève.
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F.P. Journe booth at artgenève
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F.P. Journe booth at artgenève, Isabella Ducrot, Galerie Mezzanin, 2023 winner
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In 2024, about 30 solo exhibitions eligible for the Prix Solo artgenève – F.P.Journe were presented by galleries. F.P. Journe asked Mohamed Almusibli (curator, appointed in November 2023 as the next director of Kunsthalle Basel), Véronique Bacchetta (director of the Centre d’édition Contemporain, Geneva), and Marc Blondeau (art consultant) to jury. On Wednesday evening, this year’s prize was awarded to Lovay Fine Arts Gallery for the solo show of drawing artist Pascal Vonlanthen.
Pascal Vonlanthen (*1957, Rossens) is a self-taught artist from Fribourg, Switzerland, where he still lives and works. He has been an active member of Fribourg’s CREAHM, an atelier enabling people with disabilities to create and develop artistic works.
‘As an illiterate person with cognitive dysfunctions, he interprets printed typography, advertisements, weather reports and other illustrations by hand. Unlike advertising copywriters who produce data in an attempt to capture our attention, Vonlanthen writes in such a way as to subvert its intelligibility. The collage and appropriation of printed newspapers has its roots in the early works of Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) or in Cubist and Dadaist works (Hannah Höch,1889-1978), and references to media by artists throughout the 20th century right up to the present day (Robert Rauschenberg,1925-2008, Martha Rosler, 1943, Sarah Charlesworth, 1947-2013, Richard Prince, *1949).’ – the gallery shares.
In 2021 a Brazilian/Swiss film director Andrea Sautereau created a short film about his inspiration and creation process.
At artgenève Lovay Fine Arts presented an unpublished selection of drawings made by Pascal Vonlanthen over the past three years on unfolded packaging boxes.
His works, acquired by the watch company, were offered to the MAMCO Geneva.
Galleries
The fair features a broad selection of around 80 modern and contemporary art galleries, many from Europe but also from New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Toronto or Dubai. Two important international galleries, the Pace Gallery and the Gagosian are missing this year; while other interesting ones, like von Bartha, Perrotin, Templon, Bailly Gallery or Hauser & Wirth were there to exhibit.
As you can see in the gallery below, visitors had the chance to discover a diverse range of art – for example ’modern classics’ like Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger or Marc Chagall, like ceramics from Picasso, exciting works by African and Middle Eastern artists and multidisciplinary neo-pop contemporary creations.
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Giuliano Macca, Gowen Contemporary
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Shirin Neshat, Richard Saltoun Gallery
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Photo credits: F.P. Journe. Loupiosity.com
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