AIR DE
PARIS
Jumeirah Road
P.O. Box 26500 Duba•, U.A.E.
Tel : +971 4 399 4444
Fax : +971 4 399 42 00
airdeparis@hotmail.com
www.airdeparis.com
Swetlana
Heger / Plamen Dejanov
******
Plus (See You !)
Paris, FIN JANVIER 2001
Extrait de "Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov, Flux et stocks",
Pascal Beausse, in Art Press 265 :
(...) Le projet On Holiday est sans doute l'aspect le plus important de
leur travail, où se justifient leurs choix et s'explicite leur
réflexion sur la valeur-travail et cette "marchandise complexe"
qu'est l'art. Utilisant les frais de production d'une exposition, ils
partent en congés, en laissant simplement un panneau indiquant
les dates de leurs vacances, qui correspondent au temps de l'exposition.
En offrant ce principe au galeriste Berlinois Mehdi Chouakri et à
ses assistantes, puis en proposant àFlorence Bonnefous et Edouard
Merino de les rejoindre sur un paquebot pour une croisière pendant
leur exposition à la galerie Air de Paris, ils étendent
ˆ leurs interlocuteurs professionnels ce principe de congés payés
sur leur propre budget de production. Ce faisant, ils bouleversent les
rythmes de travail, en créant littéralement du temps libre
supplémentaire (...)
FIN FÉVRIER 2001
Communiqué de presse de ****** Plus (See You !) :
À la date de la rédaction de ce comuniqué de presse,
le projet se met en place. Une premire semaine passée avec les
artistes à Dubaï doit poser les jalons d'un projet plus large
qui brouillera les frontières entre le temps de préparation
d'une exposition, et lÕexposition elle-même. Il s'agit moins du
temps libre, que de l'aménagement du temps de travail : celui des
artistes, certes, mais aussi celui, plus routinier, des galeristes.
9 MARS
2001
Etat actuel du projet :
Ce n'est pas une semaine, mais douze jours que les artistes nous ont demandé
de passer à Duba• en leur compagnie. Nous sommes un peu inquiets
de partir si longtemps...
Douze jours, autant d'étoiles transparentes au mur, dans l'espace
vide.
Pendant le vernissage et les jours qui suivent, nos discussions avec les
artistes vont apporter des précisions complémentaires, en
particulier concernant le statut de ce qui apparait là comme l'oeuvre
-unique ou multiple ?-, ses modalités de présentation dans
un autre lieu ou un autre contexte, son prix bien sûr, qui à
ce jour n'est pas encore fixé....
D'autre part, il est fort probable que l'espace ne va pas rester vacant,
white cube inoccupé à l'odeur de Sol Plus. Pendant ces douze
jours, un rapport d'activité / de travail sera régulièrement
envoyé à la galerie, compte rendu des idées, des
projets qui vont naître et se développer très certainement
en abondance dans la mesure où notre Žloignement du lieu habituel
de notre travail de galeriste est une situation que nous savons d'emblée
productive.
Enfin, cette exposition personnelle de Heger / Dejanov est le point de
départ d'un vaste projet et participe ainsi de la mise en place
d'une exposition en 2002 aux Deichtorhallen ˆ Hamburg (exposition collective
"Art and Industry", conduite par Dirk Luckow). La croisière que
mentionne Pascal Beausse dans son article paru dans Art Press est d'ailleurs
prŽvue comme une étape ultérieure.
10 MARS
2001
Vernissage de ****** Plus (See You !) .
Des nouvelles bientôt, ˆ la galerie
32, rue Louise Weiss
75013 Paris
tel +33 1 44 23 02 77 fax +33 1 53 61 22 84
anything@airdeparis.com
ou sur notre site Internet
www.airdeparis.com/now.htm
DUBAI,
10/11 MARS
Première soirée a Dubai, le soir du vernissage à
la galerie, que nous appellons maintes fois pour prendre la température...
ils s'amusent bien, pas de stress.
Diner un peu solitaire ici, car Swetlana et Plamen ne sont pas encore
là. Nous passons la soirée avec Sylvie, qui est là
pour visiter hôtels et restaurants, elle organise les voyages d'affaires
pour American Express et Hermès.
Elle connait Sandrine D ! (ça ressemble à un chocolat de
l'ambassadeur !!
Le téléphone portable ne prend pas de réseau , et
il nest pas possible de connecter le Ibook sur les prises téléphoniques
dans la chambre 321, ni aucune autre d'ailleurs. Nous négocions
un espace bureau dans le lobby.
Première journée, toujours pas de Plamen ni de Swetlana.
Premières brûlures du soleil, un petit buggy rouge nous propose
de régulieres margaritas... les nuits tombent vite, grosses vagues,
beaucoup de vent du désert, vue sur la mer et étoile du
berger.
Jusqu'à maintenant c'est plutôt ON HOLIDAY que ON THE JOB...
Testes : SINGAPORE et ORIGANO, à l'OASIS BEACH. No good.
MARCH
13
Plamen has arrived, one day late, without Swetlana, whom we still
expect !
We switch now to english...We
installed our new space, the hotel offers 3 computers with Internet access,
so we reconnect now, near BUDGET booth. The office is much bigger than
in Paris !
We haven't yet been out of the hotel, that is slightly Las Vegas or Euro
Disney like... When PLamen arrived at the airport, he bought an expensive
voucher (140$), waiting now for a tombola, he could win a BMW 750 - this
guy has something with cars indeed !...
First discussions, first possible developments for the project : the stars
that are on the gallery wall in Paris will sell as a series of twelve
pieces, each one connected to one day spent out of the gallery, each coming
together with a specifically dated certificate. We already know which
collectors we may propose such pieces, and the bit of adventure that goes
along.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the shopping malls ( it is DSF, Dubai Shopping
Festival), who knows what can come out of this...
Also, several events that could take place in the gallery are approved
by Plamen and Swetlana, that could/should now be organized, partly from
Air de Paris in Dubai, with the help of Helene, Karin and Yasmin in Paris:
- a wine degustation with Linda Grabe (check our upcoming wine page on
Internet)
- the launching of JENNY , videotape by Carsten Holler, now ditributed
by BDV
- an
intimate concert from The Married Monks
- a lecture by Nicolas Pages, of
course, still to be proposed to whom it may concern !
Plamen and Swetlana heard that Andy Warhol tried once in the eighties
to develop a business towards Dubai, and apparently spent some time here,
so we should check this out.
First faxes from the artists' Viennese gallery, and a very sweet fax from
Daisuke Miyiatsu, whom we look forward to meeting soon.
TESTED: AL IWAN, at the BURJ AL ARAB, great Lebanese food in a funky golden
amazing location, and later the bar on 27th floor
MARCH
14
The souk indeed, but at siesta time.... Pretty quiet ! then the taxi driver
whom we asked to drive us to the biggest mall of the city drops us at
City Center, which is what it is, Zara, Carrefour.... We won't find much
food for thought there...
Plamen stresses...
Concerning our Warhol infoseek, we had faxed to Michel Nuridsany who just
published a book about the artist, he sent back a nice and long fax that
comes from Cairo, but impossible to read...
And in the evening, a fax from Gianni from MigrosMuseum (another shopping
address !) suggesting DON'T SHOP UNTIL YOU DROP, don't worry Gianni, we
don't, no we don't....
TESTED: SHO-CHO, after Reiko advice, very "branché" and/but very
good !
MARCH
15/16
Two days desert drive, we rent a 4 Wheel Drive, going first to the Hatta
Mountains across Oman, searching for some water in the Wadis, no water
in the Wadis, many discussions with AC, landscape looks like some parts
of Iran or Khyber Pass, Le Pont du Trieur windy and dry images... We recognize,
by chance, a spot where Torbj¿rn R¿dland shot a piece that has been exhibited
in Elysian Fields ! So, we think that may be we should keep Dubai time
when back in Paris, and adapt our business gallery hours. Also, since
we are invited to Art Dealers in Marseille end of May, we decide that
****** project will be on-going there. We stop on side of the motorway,
for a photo of the invitation card with our Dubai address in the desert,
and have some problems getting out of the sand, even with the 4X4 high
range, the tarmac is only 150 cm on the left.... We are not ready for
dune bashing apparently....
TESTED: Room Service / RUAN THAI at the Wafi Pyramids, super bon, then
the VU,s on 51th floor of Emirates Tower. First meeting with a collector,
he is in Antiques Business. Then we work until 3 am in the gallery.
MARCH 17
BDV launches its last video edition, Carsten Holler's
JENNY at the gallery.
We keep the 4X4 one more day, for further brain-storming in the desert.
We
follow the beaches with it, and exercise driving in the sand one after
the other; Florence is not the slowest one, and Plamen can't evitate a
small bath towel (the only one on a beach 30km long and 30 meters wide
!! unlucky owner screams and gesticulates in the sea ...).
We decide that we will do an Air de Paris newsletter when back in Paris.
Look forward to reading THE GAZETTE !
Just had some news, BDV launching is crowded, lots of people in the gallery.
And first emailed answers from collectors we had contacted.
TESTED : BICE, at the Hilton, so said the best Italian in Dubai. Bad Grappa
though....
MARCH
18 Sunday.
Day off. We are on for an organized desert safari, bring baby camel fur
toy with us for some souvenir photos for Luna, spend several hours hardcore
dune bashing with an experimented driver... Sunset in the dunes... This
leads us to a beduin-like camp where over thirty 4WD join, carrying all
sort of tourists... Diner on a carpet on the sand, we had decided "no
work today", but still meet this South Afrikan miraculous collector !
He is having a week off, before launching the 30 M long boat he designed
himself , that took five year to get built.... and he asks to the artists
for a proposal of a piece that would include a boat in acrylic glass !
We have a long dicussion about finding a name for the yacht, and get to
an agreement on ****** (EXCALIBUR).
There's a god for art dealers !!!
MARCH
19/20
Back to our office in the lobby. Next to us, the Budget office is now
occupied by another company, we don't understand what is their occupation
actually. We get a mail from Shimabuku, for whom we are preparing the
shipment of his 'I travelled with a 165 meter mermaid' to a museum in
The Netherlands. We can't find anymore the 165 meter rope that is part
of the installation, it drowned somewhere in one of our storages... We
learn that he is now travelling from North to South of Japan with Rika
Noguchi, Helmut Battista and.... an elephant ! We decide for Marseille
to get the cristal model of South Afrikan collector built anyhow, that
will be put on top a large stack of coloured paper. Plamen and Swetlana
will join us to the opening of Bruno Serralongue exhibition in Tours,
next Friday. We organize for the realization of a wallpainting by Stephane
Daffflon in a private appartment in South of France. And still discuss,
what is work ?
TESTED: Small restaurants in the Indian and Pakistanese area.
MARCH
21st
Last day, last star, since our planes take off tonight. The subject
of the day is mainly our Basel booth, that we set , change, and set again
until we agree that we got it super beautiful... Duty Free Shop, and return
gifts: a raffle ticket for Maya, who might win $ 1 Million, a wrist camera
for Bruno, and a surprise for our Charly's Angels.... and...THAT'S ALL
FOLKS !!!!!!
..../...to
be continued....
Pendant
ce temps à la galerie :
samedi 24 mars : shooting de Bosco
samedi 31 mars : concert impromptu de Isabelle Le Doussal
samedi 7 avril :
"LA POLYTECHNIQUE DU BABY-FOOT"
projection du film de Marc Cortès et Emmanuel Loiret
"MATCH RETOUR"
le concert de Mike Brank VS Isabelle Le Doussal