Kooness team had an interesting dialogue with Romain Tichit about P/CAS, Paris Contemporary Art Show, the French art fair that was born by YIA – Young International Artists Art Fair, that he co-founded in 2010. The director focus is mainly on young artists and galleries, because his aim has always been to create a real fresh and vivid art community in his country and spreading it. That is why YIA opens its gates during FIAC period and Paris Photo, so to have more international visitors. Art workers and lovers can check out and learn new things in here.
Discover more about the latest Contemporary Art Fair by reading our MeetMe: MeetMe#18 | Frieze London 2019-MeetMe#17 | In conversation with Heinrich Carstens and Kristian Jarmuschek
What more can we expect from P/CAS - Paris Contemporary Art Show? Find out from its director Romain Tichit!
In the beginning, YIA wasn’t a fair. You brought together a group of artists friends who were approaching new ways to talk and do art, is it right?
It can be said that this is truth. My artist friends had just been signed by galleries. And after much discussion, we made a decision to open a new gallery fair for promoting the emerging art scene. On the first edition in 2010, we represented 15 galleries and 15 artists. It was the beginning of a very beautiful adventure.
Why were you pushed by this need to create a certain kind of trend in Paris contemporary art scene?
I think I did not invent anything. In Paris there was a general willingness to push the emerging scene and the young artists were really talented. Also, one could observe the strength of the support from the galleries that work all the year round in order to promote their artists. The art fair seemed obvious, so I'm happy to have been able to make it happen year after year.
What was the step that made you develop a fair? Do you think the art system needs more art fairs to spread the work of some artists and galleries?
Art fairs are crucial events for supporting artists and galleries and for augmenting their visibility. Also, galleries gain a lot from participating in art fairs and by doing so they promote their artists. Nowadays, the market is changing and the Internet is becoming a real force.
It seems that YIA is becoming, year by year, more international: you have galleries from Japan, South America, Russia. Do you think that this is a good sign?
Yes, absolutely. Every year we work very hard to become even more international; so each new edition has a larger number of foreign galleries, that are eager to be in Paris during these key dates for art.
