MENART FAIR

After ten years of success of Beirut Art Fair in Lebanon, Laure d’Hauteville joins Paul de Rosen and launches MENART FAIR, with the participation of Joanna Chevalier as artistic director
MENART FAIR is the first international modern and contemporary art fair, dedicated to artists from the Middle East & North Africa, selected by must-see galleries.

For this first edition, some twenty international galleries are gathered for four days in the private mansion of the Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house, in Paris 8th district.

This new art fair with a confidential format offers an initiatory journey through a demanding selection of more than sixty modern and contemporary artists, most of whom are recognized in their respective countries.

The Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and the Middle East are represented here by MENART FAIR, with artists from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Unprecedented in the West, this first fair (face-to-face & on-line) exhibits artistic scenes that are sometimes unknown to European collectors and amateurs. It creates a dialogue between the different cultures of these regions, which are as rich as they are distinct from one another.

Through the selection of participating galleries, MENART FAIR highlights the fertility, uniqueness and originality of the artistic scenes of MENA, today supported by a number of renowned museums and institutions.

The Routes of Art are called upon to lead us to these transversal and little-known lands…

Between the Mediterranean Basin and the Tropic of Cancer, between the East and the West, this neo-continent is positioned in a unique way in the world. From north to south and from east to west, it has always been a gateway for people and the different cultures that abound there.

Thus, this vast region, both geographically and historically, has benefited from an experience conducive to artistic creation and thought.

« Relatively little known to audiences, the contemporary artistic mosaic of MENA is still young. Several «moderns» have asserted themselves there, now internationally recognised, and the young generation of contemporary artists is among the most numerous on the international art scene. This new generation is unparalleled in its richness and diversity, its fertile ebullition, its languages which converge or contradict each other, forming an unexpected mirror of the world!

At the crossroads of Eastern and Western codes, a singular creative syntax is taking shape before our eyes, conveyed in a potentially global way: it’s a generational fact, amplified by this technological groundswell that now connects all points of the planet in the moment »

Laure d’Hauteville, founder & director of the fair.

Participating Galleries

The editorial choice of the first edition of MENART FAIR is determined by its name, «MENA» (for Middle East / North Africa). MENART FAIR is an unprecedented fair which presents a geographically localized scene, comprising the countries of the Maghreb, the Levant and the Gulf, including Iran.

Full of their cultural, historical and structural diversities, the 19 ME.NA countries concerned are creative breeding grounds of intense artistic richness. They are part of their own cultural tradition nourished by their own history. MENART FAIR wishes to share and report through this Parisian event, the dynamism and cultural effervescence of ME.NA.

The fair will feature 22 galleries from 13 countries, selected for their artistic relevance.

Some of these artists living in the West have the recognition of institutions and collectors as well as real rating on the international art market, such as Mona Hatoum, Kader Attia, Etel Adnan, Youssef Nabil, Nabil Nahas, Simone Fattal, Ahmed Mater, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, to name a few.

MENART FAIR will allow the discovery of around sixty artists, including some established from the 50s, 60s, 70s, such as Mohamed Hamidi, Hamed Abdalla, Hussein Madi and a large number of contemporary artists, often unknown in France. Middle Eastern art bridges the cultural gap between East and West.

From Saudi Arabia, the ATHR Gallery is a precursor of the contemporary scene, and Mono Gallery is a young rising and dynamic gallery.
From Tunisia, Elmarsa Gallery attracts with works of great modernity.
From Jordan, Wadi Finan Art Gallery always relevant in its selection.
From Lebanon, Mark Hachem representing established artists, Saleh Barakat discoverer of talents, Galerie Tanit, the first to have presented ME.NA artists in the most important international fairs and Galerie Cheriff Tabet, specialized in artists of the Lebanese diaspora, but also, Nada Debs studio internationally recognized designer.
From Iran, SHIRIN ART GALLERY defends an emerging scene as well as Eiwan al Gassar Gallery from Qatar.
From Morocco, LA GALERIE 38 offers a daring choice.
From the United Arab Emirates, Leila Heller Gallery makes a bridge between East and West.
In addition, European and international galleries such as GALLERIA CONTINUA, Galerie

Nathalie Obadia, GALERIE BESSIERES, Esther Woerdehoff, ATELIER RELIEF, as well as a young generation of emerging French galleries: 193 GALLERY, AYN GALLERY,
By Lara Sedbon x Durazzo Projects and Galerie La La Lande.

“The private mansion of the Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house, an intimate place on a human scale, encourages dialogue between artists and will offer visitors the opportunity to interact with each gallery owner, take the time to discover, appreciate and to take full advantage of the fair. All the arts will be represented, paintings, sculptures, photographs and video”
Joanna Chevalier, artistic director of the fair.

Courtesy of MENART FAIR