This is Not a Fair
October 18th
︎︎︎ October 26th, 2025
For a long time, galleries were influencers,
people who gave direction and discovered
creators. However, the development
of social media and the proliferation
of media and distribution channels mean
that anyone can now have their say in a kind
of cacophony without a clear message.
Today, anyone can improvise as an actor,
writer, designer and therefore gallery
owner. A garage with a leaky roof in the
middle of the countryside, an Instagram
account, image processing software, good
AI, and you're all set. This is undoubtedly
a great opportunity, and a multitude
of things will come out of it. Some good,
some bad; the future will sort it out.
And ultimately, does it make sense to have
a gallery these days? We're talking about
a space and a selection of creators and
works. Gallery owners invest, take risks, get
involved. They put themselves on the line.
Gallery owners make choices. Through their
decisions, they develop ideas, meaning and
create an intelligible narrative. We tend
to forget this today, but it must be said that
they are as important as those they exhibit.
Take it from a gallery owner. One cannot
exist without the other. At a time when
Paris Art Week and art fairs have long been
part of the contemporary cultural
landscape, it is worth remembering these
few ideas.
At a time when we are witnessing
an increase in offers and opportunities
to see, if not buy, we wanted to invite
galleries whose work we admire. Galleries
founded by passionate people who bring
meaning and who are perhaps reinventing
their profession. Four galleries. Not one
more. Two spaces. A hundred square
metres. This is Not a Fair. An event on
a human scale. The galleries present here
have a deep love of design. For them, it all
starts with passion, not ambition.
No posturing, just love. Love of objects,
of the relationship between object and use.
Everyone here has made choices, and that
is what we wanted to highlight.
Etage Projects, Copenhagen. Since 2014,
Maria Foerlev has developed her own unique
identity. She is probably one of the first
to have promoted productions that straddle
art and design to such an extent and to have
taken up the torch of the gallery owners
of the 1980s and 1990s, who emphasised
this aspect of design, which was somewhat
neglected at the time. What do we see
at Etage Projects? Art? Design? Art/
design? While productions described
as art/design can be criticised for their
tendency to draw on an expressionist
artistic register when they are not
conceptual and minimalist, this is not
the case at Etage. Here, there is no mimicry,
but a genuine questioning of what
constitutes art or design, or both at
the same time. Etage Projects has helped to
bring to the fore some of the most
interesting creators of the moment.
Maniera. From Place de la Justice
in Brussels to the Hotel Danckaert, there
have been many exhibitions and events,
and it's not over yet, as the gallery is still
evolving today. At Maniera, identity also
comes from the personalities of
its founders, Amaryllis Jacobs and
Kwinten Lavigne. With their rich individual
backgrounds, they have chosen creators
who are not necessarily designers, and
rather not, in the fields of contemporary art
and architecture. It seems obvious,
but when they started out, it wasn't.
The identity that emerges is strong. There
is nothing gratuitous about Maniera's
creators. Because they are mainly
architects, their relationship to function
is very particular. When does an object
become or cease to be functional? This
is surely one of the main ideas found in
the works exhibited at Maniera. The result
is a collection of rare and original pieces.
Vivid Gallery, the gallery of Aad Krol and
Saskia Copper celebrated its 25th
anniversary last year. What can we say
except that for a design enthusiast turned
gallery owner, this gallery was a model.
It was one of the very first to invent
exhibitions and exhibition concepts with
strong ideas, selecting unique objects,
whether contemporary or already part
of design and art history. Of course,
the establishment of the gallery in
the Netherlands in the wake of designers
and artists such as Richard Hutten,
Hella Jongerius, Lily van der Stokker
and Maarten Baas, to name but a few, is no
stranger to this. But it was still necessary
to have a taste for these objects and know
how to choose them. Galerie Vivid, whose
reputation is well established thanks to
the historical figure of Rietveld, was the
first to showcase Jaime Hayon, Aldo Bakker,
Nacho Carbonel, Drift, for example. When
opportunities arose, Aad and Saskia had the
flair to seize them. Intuition is one of the
most important qualities of a gallery owner.
Finally, since it is time to introduce
the participants, should we mention
the authors of these lines who initiated this
event? Even if you do not know them
personally, you are surely already familiar
with their story. There is therefore no need
to repeat it.
Photos : © Yann Bohac / A1043
