Cécile Verdier, Presidente of Christie's France
invites
Marie-Bérangère Gosserez, founder of Galerie Gosserez
for the exhibition
Christie's Paris x Galerie Gosserez
From Friday, February 11, 2022 to Thursday, February 17, 2022
(except Sunday, Febuary 13, 2022)
From 10am to 6 pm.
Christie's Paris
9, avenue Matignon 75008 Paris
CROSSED INTERVIEW
Cécile Verdier - Marie-Bérangère Gosserez
Cécile Verdier, Christie's Paris opens its spaces to contemporary art outside its sales periods. Could you explain this initiative ?
CV: As the leading international auction house, Christie's also wants to be a House in the primary sense of the term, i.e., a place of life open to the city and society. Our exhibition spaces, refurbished by Jacques Grange, are intended to welcome a public beyond the bidders, especially young people and enthusiasts of all creative worlds. Therefore, we have decided to open this space to artists or gallery owners to express themselves in exceptional conditions.
Through this initiative, we wish to reinforce the image of Christie's Paris as a full-fledged actor in the French cultural and creative scene, bringing in a clientele and an international scope while introducing Christie's to a new audience.
For this first event, you have invited the gallery owner Marie-Bérangère Gosserez to exhibit contemporary design works. Why this choice?
CV: We give carte blanche to personalities whose trajectory is remarkable and who highlight Christie's role as a catalyst in the artistic world. Marie-Bérangère Gosserez began her career at Christie's, in the design department. She has come a long way since then, first as an antique dealer and then as an auctioneer, before becoming the universally recognized gallery owner in contemporary design that she is today. As an alumnus of our House, we are proud of her journey and happy to collaborate with her again through this event.
Marie-Bérangère is a woman of conviction who has committed herself to the service of new talents, often young designers whom she has accompanied to international recognition. Hence, this commitment, the accuracy of her choices, and her universe combining poetry and modernity are what we wanted to share with a large audience.
Marie-Bérangère Gosserez, it is sometimes said that gallery owners and auction houses are competitors, and here you are invited to Christie's. How do you respond?
MBG: As far as contemporary art is concerned, I would say that we are interdependent rather than competitors. It is also the message that Cécile Verdier and I wish to convey. We both work for contemporary artists to express themselves and explore new territories, but, for them, to find their public and live from their art too.
For the Gosserez Gallery, this invitation is an acknowledgment of the work we have been doing since 2010 in our two Marais showrooms to bring out a generation of talent around an haute-couture approach, exclusive know-how, and forays into current or ecological issues.
I had a legal background that wasn't destining me for art at all, and indeed, it was my years at Christie's that led me to become an auctioneer, and later on, to embark on a more personal path. Poetry is the key to my artistic direction; an aesthetic full of nuances and variations that forms the common thread of my collaboration with designers. That's what I'm passionate about!
So this exhibition is a loop that closes while opening new fields of collaboration in the future.
What have you prepared for this exhibition?
MBG: The public will be able to discover a selection of our most beautiful design pieces in a place that lends itself perfectly to their display, especially for the largest of them, such as the furniture by Valentin Loellmann or the aeronautical honeycomb suspension by Vincent Poujardieu.
All the pieces will be for sale. For example, the public will be able to buy Diane de Kergal's luminous sculptures, composed of gigantic and incredible cocoons woven by silkworms. One of the most original things to be seen! One of the artist's pieces has just joined the collections of the Mobilier National.
We also imagined a different scenography from what the public usually sees in our galleries. We wanted to change the way people look at the white cube exhibition and propose a wall display that will stand out. Thus, we will present a new version of the "wild posting" that will put our designers in the spotlight. It's a very current nod to our urban roots and Parisian Fashion Weeks, but shhh, it's a surprise (laughs)
Cécile Verdier, a word to conclude?
CV: I can't wait to discover the scenography and the pieces on display. It’s a carte blanche, so the liberty to surprise is meaningful: it will be the best testimony of Christie's Paris' will to be a pole of creativity and exchange on the effervescent Parisian art scene.