Art Market

Five galleries will open spaces at a new contemporary art hub in the Paris suburbs.

Benjamin Sutton
Jul 29, 2019 4:52PM, via The Art Newspaper

The future site of Komunuma. Photo © Axelle Poisson, courtesy Fondation Fiminco.

Five Parisian galleries will open spaces at a new complex in Romainville, a suburb northeast of the French capital, in October. Dubbed Komunuma, the facility will span multiple buildings and more than 118,000 square feet, housing new locations for the Parisian galleries Jocelyn Wolff, Imane Farès, Sator, Air de Paris, and In Situ -Fabienne Leclerc. The latter two outfits will shut their spaces in Paris proper and operate exclusively out of Komunuma, while the other three will open satellite locations while maintaining their Paris bases. The October opening of the Komunuma complex is likely timed to Paris’s FIAC art fair, slated to open October 17th this year.

In addition to commercial galleries, the new complex in Romainville will also house an artist residency program operated by the Fondation Fiminco and the Jeune Création association. A new outpost of France’s regional network of contemporary art spaces, Fonds régional d'art contemporain (FRAC), will also join the complex in the fall of 2020.

According to The Art Newspaper, the initiative is partly a result of the “Grand Paris” initiative to stimulate development in the city’s suburbs. It will not be the first major gallery destination on the outskirts of Paris; in 2012, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac opened a massive outpost in a former factory in the nearby neighborhood of Pantin, and Gagosian launched a large-scale exhibition space a little further north in Le Bourget.

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Benjamin Sutton