Rmn - Grand Palais and Perrotin are pleased to collaborate on WANTED!, an immense quest for contemporary art, taking place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 2020. Throughout the course of 48 hours, visitors are invited to search for 20 works (some of them will be replaced by facsimile during the event) by 20 of Perrotin’s artists which are concealed in the empty nave of the Grand Palais. The presentation intentionally echoes an exhibition deconstructed in both space and time.
We apologize for those who could not get a ticket. For safety precautions, capacity of Le Grand Palais has been limited to 20%.
The rules are simple: If you find an artwork in the Grand Palais, you will leave with the work. The project includes contributions by Chiho Aoshima, Iván Argote, Daniel Arsham, Genesis Belanger, Johan Creten, Elmgreen & Dragset, Bernard Frize, Laurent Grasso, Thilo Heinzmann, Gregor Hildebrandt, JR, Bharti Kher, Klara Kristalova, Takashi Murakami, Jean-Michel Othoniel, GaHee Park, Paola Pivi, Emily Mae Smith, Aya Takano and Xavier Veilhan.
While we regret that we were not able to ask all of our artists to participate, we are thrilled by the selection we are able to present.
It is open to all and free of charge. The project has been imagined as a joyful quest to celebrate the discovery of art in a historic venue prior to its imminent closure for renovation. This event complements the abundant cultural offerings proposed by galleries, museums, foundations, and a variety of cultural venues during this art week in October. This year, many exhibitions and events have been imagined by the galleries of Greater Paris, relayed by the Committee of Art Galleries with Le Pari(s), La Semaine De l’Art, in which Perrotin is participating.
This autumn, Paris remains an essential destination for international art.
In this time of great uncertainty, I had an unorthodox idea. Since we don’t know where we are going, it is almost as if anything is possible: immense, adventurous, and unapologetic projects make us feel connected to the world in this moment. I am happy that our artists have agreed to participate in this unprecedented project. Works of art are more precious than ever, which is why it is important to offer them to as many people as possible. I wish to thank the gallery team who put all their energy into this adventure, even though they are actively working on many other exhibitions.
WANTED! invites visitors on an adventure that honors the experience of contemporary art and the beauty of the cavernous, historic Grand Palais. For the weekend, the Palais’s empty nave will be transformed into a playground where every nook and cranny can be explored.
WANTED! recalls a project by Elmgreen & Dragset organized by Perrotin in September of 2016. The artist duo staged an art fair booth in the empty nave a month before the opening of the FIAC, dialoguing with the immensity of the Grand Palais and transforming the booth into a sculptural object.
WANTED! is part of the Grand Palais’s recent initiative to give artists who work in a variety of different disciplines carte blanche to create new work in collaboration with the historic architecture of the building, including Nave: Wim Wenders, Franck Scurti and a forthcoming project by Boris Charmatz. Although these artists are happy to use the term “exhibition,” their creations take unexpected forms that challenge the relationship between art and the public.
These experiments are part of the history of avant-garde art, and it’s truly astonishing how some of the participating artists have inventively hidden their work within the Grand Palais. WANTED!, organized in cooperation with Perrotin, is part of this continuity, but there is also a sense of fun and whimsy to the project. It’s true, I like to visit galleries and art fairs and these visits sometimes remind me of a treasure hunt. They are both physical and intellectual activities. Like many, however, works of art are usually not within my grasp, and I cannot have everything that I see. For this reason, I am even more so saddened by the cancellation of art fairs in 2020. However, here, it is the opposite. With WANTED!, the value of the work depends on the effort made by the visitors. Indeed, the true love of art is often a matter of chance: you often find what you were not really looking for. And it’s also true that in many public and private collections, works of art are hidden.
For WANTED! all the artworks have been donated by the artists and Perrotin.
For safety reasons, the capacity of the nave will be reduced to 20%. Face masks and social distancing are mandatory
