Invention to survive crises: events throughout the year 2010 in 16 cities between France, Switzerland and Germany

From 28 January to 31 December 2010, border cities will create a network through the Métropole Rhin-Rhône association to imagine a communal development including a selection of exhibitions with the theme « utopias & innovations ».

Launch of the event on 28 January in Besançon with the exhibition Charles Fourier. L'écart absolu at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie.

Le Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie in Besançon presents from 29 January to  26 April 2010 the exhibition « Charles Fourier. L’Ecart absolu » as part of the project« Utopia & Innovation », which brings together all the museums of the Rhin-Rhône metropole.

After a first edition brought in 250,000 visitors in 2005, « Jours de fêtes », under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, initiated by the public establishment of the Grand Palais and organised by Marcel Campion, President of the Association du monde festif  (Associated of Festivity), returns to the Grand Palais from 18 December to 1 January 2010 uniting fairground arts and gypsy and « manouche » jazz for this new edition.

Situated at the heart of the Quartier of creation on the Ile de Nantes, the Manny building is being built on the initiative of Patrice Coupechoux, CEO of the Coupechoux group by the Nantes-based agency Tetrarc who create emblematic architecture, an urban event that bears witness to the vitality of the creation.

Official Partner of Estuaire Nantes<>Saint-Nazaire since its creation in 2007 (supporting "les anneaux" (“the rings”) by Daniel Buren and Patrick Bouchain), the Coupechoux group proves once again its engagement in inviting two artists, Rolf Julius and Angela Bulloch, to respond to the architecture of the building.

Christelle Maureau / christelle@claudinecolin.com

Dorelia Baird-Smith / dorelia@claudinecolin.com

In the coming autumn, the Rodin Museum in Paris will be staging a face-to-face encounter between two outstanding creative artists who were only a generation apart, Henri Matisse et Auguste Rodin. Rodin was the dominant figure in the sculpture of the period while Matisse, Rodin's contemporary for the first seventeen years of the 20th century, introduced revolutionary changes in its painting. The story of the encounters and relations between these two major artists is one that has remained unexplored until now.

Following an invitation by Paris-based Galerie Patrick Seguin, Zurich gallery owner Eva Presenhuberhas put together an exhibition titled We Are Sun-kissed and Snow-blind, which features works – some more recent, some dating from the last few years – of 22 artists of the gallery (Doug Aitken, Martin Boyce, Angela Bulloch, Valentin Carron, Verne Dawson, Trisha Donnelly, Maria Eichhorn, Urs Fischer, Peter Fischli / David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, Mark Handforth, Karen Kilimnik, Andrew Lord, Hugo Markl, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Ugo Rondinone, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Josh Smith and Franz West). All works are, simply put, white.

Opening October 22 2009, 4pm to 9pm

The 36th edition of FIAC reasserts the strengths of the fair’s identity: its position in the heart of Paris, the close ties it maintains with the protagonists of the Parisian art scene; its generalist vocation manifested in the presentation of a balanced panorama of modern art, contemporary art and cutting-edge creation; its focus on different facets of artistic activity, notably by means of the in-situ projects presented in the Tuileries Gardens and in the cycle of artists’ performances presented in collaboration with the Auditorium of the Louvre Museum ; and its constantly reiterated ambition to reinforce both the selection of the exhibiting galleries and the quality of the artworks on view.

Situated at each extreme of the chronological spectrum covered by the fair, FIAC 2009 is distinguished by two important initiatives:

At the Grand Palais, a joint presentation of modern masterworks, presented by - and on the initiative of - a group of 10 of the leading international galleries in this field.

At the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, a new sector bringing together 14 international galleries, remarkable for the quality of their prospective programmes, presented with the support of the Galeries Lafayette Group, official partner of FIAC 2009.