The Biennale des Antiquaires is France's oldest art fair — but its director is hoping that this year, you won't notice that. In an effort to make Paris's swankiest art event feel fresh again, Christian Deydier has convinced fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld to serve as the fair's official "scenographer." And as if this shake-up weren't enough, now he's also doing something else unprecedented: expanding the venerable biennale to some of the world's fastest-growing art markets. In addition to debuting a new fair in New York this November at the Park Avenue Armory, Deydier is planning to launch mini-fairs in Hong Kong and Istanbul in the fall of 2013.
“We always hear, 'This fair is the most important fair in the world,' but because it is a biennale they forget,” Deydier told ARTINFO. To keep the fair competitive with glamorous annual events like TEFAF, the Syndicat National des Antiquires (SNA), the antiques organization that runs the fair, will organize the two small, four-day art fairs, each one featuring 15 to 25 dealers — mostly galleries that are part of SNA, with a few local names thrown in.
Both of the new mini-biennales will be tailored to their locales: “The fair in Istanbul will have Islamic art, art deco, and Chinese art because there is a big market for that there, as well as painting,” Deydier said, while the fair in Hong Kong will feature Chinese art and design as well as African art. “We chose Hong Kong because it is a central place in Asia — it’s easy for people from Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan to come, and it’s also easy for us to import and export art, unlike in Shanghai, for example.” No specific dates or locations have been set, though Deydier says he is working with the French consulate in Turkey to secure a location there.
Deydier’s international plans were inspired by a tour he is currently taking across the globe to promote this year’s biennale, which runs September 14 to 23. The tour was inspired by the same desire to spice up the event that led to last week's appointment of Lagerfeld as "scenographer." (Deydier has called his predecessor’s biennale in 2010 “sad and dull.”) The famed designer, who has used the Grand Palais as a venue for his high production Chanel fashion shows, plans to transform the massive space into a bazaar from the turn of the century.
“We never thought he would agree to do a fair,” said Deydier, who served as SNA president from 2002 to 2007 before being reelected following 2010's biennale. But the dealer got his way thanks to a friendly wager. When Lagerfeld visited the last biennale, said Deydier, “He told me, ‘The design is good, but not good enough for the biennial.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you do the biennale next time, if you think it’s not good enough?’ He said, ‘If you are reelected president, I will do the biennale for you.’”
Deydier hopes Lagerfeld’s star power and a larger-than-ever roster of exhibitors (150, according to the most recent count) will help the fair get the attention it deserves. “The biennale format enables us to do all of this, but it’s also our weakness, because every time people are waiting for us to surprise them. When they go to the other fairs, like Maastricht, it’s always the same — the only thing they change is the color of the flowers. But us, we have to change everything.”