Art Basel Paris, with its 65,000 visitors and nearly 200 international galleries from 42 countries, confirmed the return of Paris as the centre of contemporary art in Europe, helped by the Brexit. This event is an opportunity to examine the role of art in a context of questioning the democratic model and geopolitical tensions.
Art and democracy, a relationship constitutive of democratic vitality
The democratic space encourages the free expression of artists and protects creation. It offers artists the opportunity to question our relationship with the world, with politics, and with our economic and social organisations. For Jean-Marie Schaeffer, philosopher of the language arts, there is ‘a causal relationship between the expansion of access to the arts and the birth of the democratic political regime’[1].
A mirror held up to our world
At Art Basel Paris, artist Lou Fauroux has imagined K-Detox, an internet detox centre in a future where the network disappears as a result of dwindling resources. With her work, she asks us about what we could be dispossessed of with the loss of the network. When Olivia Guigue with Tamésiologie, étude d’un musée des futurs, currently on show at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, poetically questions the impact of our activity through elements taken from the bed of the Thames. What about chewing gum or pebbles? Our eyes are lost.
A vehicle for nurturing democratic values
At a time when a Cese-Ipsos survey in September 2024 revealed that 23% of French people have doubts about democracy as the best political system, this figure rises to 31% among the under-35s!
Technologies have strengthened the links between artistic works and the public, particularly since the Covid period, which has accelerated the digitisation of access to works of art via virtual museum visits, for example. Instagram has become a privileged channel for artists, while platforms are democratising the acquisition of works.
For their part, institutions are increasing the number of participatory initiatives, as illustrated by the Fondation de France’s New Sponsors programme. This enables citizens to call on art to respond to social issues or local development challenges. In 2004, for example, Christian Boltanski created Le Parcours d’Ombre, a cathartic work to rethink public lighting and combat feelings of insecurity in Vitteaux in Burgundy.
This participatory dimension is all the more valuable in a society of individualists, recreating a space for shared dialogue. When, beyond our cultural borders, the power of dialogue that the work of art conveys proves to be an invaluable ally of diplomacy.
Contemporary art, a geopolitical vehicle
Art has long played an important role in relations between nations. However, contemporary works of art have only recently become the subject of art geopolitics, as part of the concept of ‘soft power’ theorised by Joseph Nye in 2004. For Megan Beyer, director of the Art in Embassies programme at the US State Department, ‘art makes you feel what a diplomat can only try to make you understand’. Both actors and subjects, artistic productions provide a geopolitical reading.
Artists in touch with the burning news of their territory
The emergence of Border Art is an example of artistic expression in the face of a tense situation. Born in the 1980s along the American-Mexican border, it has spread to other areas of conflict: the two Koreas, the two Irelands, the Israeli wall, demonstrating art’s ability to transcend borders.
Artworks at the centre of states’ game of influence
Museums have become tools of geopolitical influence. The Bilbao Guggenheim (1997) asserted American domination of the contemporary art market, while the Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017) illustrates the Middle East’s ambition to become an artistic hub between Europe and Asia.
An art market reflecting geopolitical upheavals
Political tensions in China have altered the dynamics of the Asian market, leading gallery owners, for example, to abandon Art Basel Hong Kong in favour of the Seoul fair. Contemporary African and Afro-descendant art has also taken over from the effervescence that existed around Chinese artists, developing a more authentic approach according to gallery owner Nathalie Obadia[2].
The diaspora, a melting pot for transcending borders
Diaspora artists build bridges between cultures and revisit an often painful history. Yasmina Berrada, director of Loft, the first Moroccan gallery to exhibit at Art Basel Paris, explains that the show attracts collectors from all over the world, providing a showcase for Moroccan art as well as art from the African continent and its diaspora. The gallery owner notes the extent to which bridges and dialogues are very much in evidence, and much more obvious than one might think.
An acceleration in the internationalisation of contemporary art
The emergence of events such as the Dakar Biennale and the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Marrakech illustrates this globalisation. The number of countries active in auctions has increased by 56% since 2000, facilitated by the internet[3].
Works of art, although individual expressions, create a space for wisdom which, through their questioning, their interpretation and their vision, have a salutary effect in rebalancing the forces at play, the doxa, and bringing people together. As the philosopher Joëlle Zask points out, ‘to democratise is not to level and conform but to liberate, in the same way that art is a liberation’[4].
More than a reflection of our societies, contemporary art is an active agent in the creation of links and a guide to the challenges of the 21st century, inspiring even the communication professions with its universal language and its ability to resonate with shared values.
By Ingrid Bregeon-Fall
[1] Régimes politiques et arts, Blog Culture.lu
[2] Géopolitique de l’Art Contemporain, Nathalie Obadia, éditions le Cavalier Bleu
[3] Le Rapport du Marché de l’Art Contemporain et Ultra-contemporain 2024 / artprice.com by artmarket
[4] Art et démocratie : les peuples de l’art, Joëlle Zask, Puf
