PARIS PHOTO 2009
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From 19-22 November, Paris Photo, the world's leading fair for photography will feature 102 exhibitors who present a worldwide panorama of photographic expression from the 19th Century to the present day. The 2009 edition stands out for its geographical diversity and a sense of discovery: 23 countries, and this year's special focus provides an exceptional opportunity to discover the Arab and Iranian photography scene. 
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THE ESTUAIRE BIENNIAL, THE LOIRE
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Executed as a sequence of voyeuristic tableaux, 'La Sang d'un Poète', the title of this year's Estuaire Biennial, marks, as Cocteau desired, 'a descent into oneself, a way of using the mechanism of the dream without sleeping, a crooked candle, often mysteriously blown out, carried about in the night of the human body'. With works by David Altmejd, Ursula Mayer and Ulla von Brandenburg (pic).
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REBECCA GELDARD ON BORN IN THE STREETS AT THE FONDATION CARTIER, PARIS
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Fondation Cartier, hot on the heels of the Grand Palais's international tag-fest, unveils its summer blockbuster: 'Born in the Streets: Graffiti". Paris seems an entirely fitting city for an exhibition on the evolution and influence of graffiti writing, once the European centre of political protest - think of the poster imaging and poetic street sloganism that emerged out of the 1968 riots. 
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LEE BUL AT THADDEUS ROPAC, PARIS
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Lee Bul, widely acknowledged as one of the most eminent Korean artists of her generation, presents a new body of works on canvas and paper, which show a direct visual affiliation to her suspended architectural sculptures.
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ARAB AND IRANIAN SPOTLIGHT AT PARIS PHOTO 2009
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For its 13th edition, Paris Photo will focus on photographic work from the Arab countries and Iran in what is being billed as 'an unprecedented exploration of the practice in this part of the world'. This special section of the fair will be curated by Catherine David, who was responsible for Documenta X in Kassel in 1997 as well as numerous exhibitions and publications on Middle Eastern artistic expression. 
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PHILIPPE PARRENO AT THE POMPIDOU, PARIS
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For this retrospective at the Centre Pompidou Philippe Parreno, who gained much acclaim in 2006 for the film 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait', made with Douglas Gordon, has come up with a "journey through time," a re-reading of his own work by the artist himself that is articulated through three elements: the exhibition, the accompanying series of special events for young people, and the substantial catalogue.
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ROD MENGHAM VISITS ANSELM KIEFER'S STUDIO COMPLEX IN BARJAC, FRANCE
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The road to Barjac, the hilltop citadel where Kiefer has his living and working space, is long and serpentine if you approach it from Nimes. Nimes is the ideal starting-point for this journey, its antiquity making it an iconographical primer for many of Kiefer's preoccupations. Among its Roman remains, the amphitheatre in particular pays homage to a painter whose architectural spaces often remind us of the fatal legacy of the imperial idea, with its double dream of order and barbarism. But it is not this that makes me queasy so much as the lurching drive through the vineyards, in a business-class Mercedes piloted by an air-brushed lady chauffeur. I want to throw up, but am conscious that in this milieu, using a Mercedes as a vomitorium would brand me as distinctly vulgar, if not an absolute barbarian. 
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VICTOR MAN AT CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D'ART ET DU PAYSAGE, VASSIVIERE ISLAND
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"Painting for me is a daily routine that enables me to avoid falling into boredom and inactivity," Victor Man
This exhibition, his first solo show in France, presents work from the last two years by the Romanian artist whose paintings, sculptures and drawings raise questions about political and national identity, as well as reflecting on violence and man's condition of solitude.
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EDITOR'S PICK: TOP 10 SHOWS IN PARIS
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Paris pays homage this spring to Andy Warhol with two exhibitions on celebrity and television; there's also a retrospective for Alexander Calder; new works by younger artists Trine Lise Nedreaas (below), Alison Moffett and Hannah Collins; a group show of 17 artists from Iran; and a chance to see Sturtevant's 2006 film 'Blow Job'. 
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VOIDS AT THE POMPIDOU, PARIS
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The Pompidou is currently staging an exhibition of "empty exhibitions", from Yves Klein's 1958 show, 'Le Vide' (The Void) to Roman Ondak's 2006 show 'More Silent than Ever'. These exhibitions have been reassembled in 12 rooms at the Pompidou, each showing absolutely nothing.
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YVES SAINT LAURENT SALE BREAKS THE WORLD RECORD FOR A PRIVATE COLLECTION SOLD AT AUCTION
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The much anticipated sale of the art collection owned by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé has broken the world record for a private collection at auction, bringing in over 300 million euros. The sale took place at the stunningly transformed Grand Palais in Paris - when Bergé arrived at the Palais he said, 'It's magic just like a film by D.W. Griffiths'. The highlight of the three-day auction was the evening sale at which seven new world records were set for artists selling at auction, but records were also set for the 19th-century artist Gericault and for Eileen Gray whose Art Deco chair sold for over 21.9 million euros.
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ARTISTS FROM IRAN AT THADDEUS ROPAC, PARIS
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Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has announced an upcoming exhibition of works by 15 Iranian-born artists, some of whom are working abroad and some living in Tehran. 'Raad o Bargh' (literally meaning "thunder and lightning") presents an overview of the rich practices, expressed across different media in a poetic, pop, political, humorous or satirical manner, and shows the broad range of work being made by Iranian artists today. The show opens on 19 February. 
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DAMIAN ORTEGA AT THE CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS
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Damián Ortega, one of the most prominent Latin American artists, has created an installation at the Pompidou that operates as a camera obscura. At the entrance is a wall drawing of molecular structures, while in the central space 6000 coloured modules are suspended from the ceiling. The installation is viewed through a lens so that visitors can experience the process of perception that links eye to brain. 
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KANU AGRAWAL ON BHARTI KHER AT EMMANUEL PERROTIN, PARIS
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Bharti Kher creates fantastic fables populated by animals awash in a great primal wave of semen-shaped bindis, pantheons of female human-ape hybrids, and spectral hosts in dainty domestic settings gone awry. With the wit and irreverence of a prankster and a mad scientist, she brings a camp sensibility to her fables which unfold against the backdrop of a technological and ecological dystopia where machines, humans, animals, and nature are out of joint. 
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SHIRANA SHAHBAZI AT MUSEUM BOIJMANS, ROTTERDAM, THE CENTRE CULTUREL SUISSE, PARIS AND THE HAMMER MUSEUM, LA
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In her preoccupation with crossing different visual forms and mediums, the still life dominates the work of Iranian artist Shirana Shahbazi. From the very beginning of her life as an artist, Shahbazi has devoted much of her work to expanding the boundaries of photography by using photographic motifs in other media, such as painting, graphic prints, or objects such as carpets. Her photographs of still lifes, based partly on works by the Old Masters, can be seen in both Paris and Rotterdam until January 2009 and at the Hammer Museum in LA until April 2009.
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LAST CHANCE - ERIK STEFFENSEN: STALKER AT GALERIE SUSAN NIELSEN, PARIS
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The Danish photographer Erik Steffensen has been immersing himself into the strange and dense universe of Andrei Tarkovsky's film 'Stalker', and it is this slow, intense film which is the inspiration behind his current exhibition. Steffensen's photographs explore the relation the porous relation between film and photography and the act of looking itself. 
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'TRANCES' AT MUSEE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN ROCHECHOUART
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'Trances' presents four dance-related works by Rineke Dijkstra, Douglas Gordon, Joachim Koester and Mathias Poledna, all selected from the permanent collections of the Musee d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, France.
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'ARCHAEOLOGY OF LONGING' AT KADIST ART FOUNDATION, PARIS
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'Archaeology of Longing (Archéologie de la Chine)» includes artwork by Alejandro Cesarco, Luca Frei, Emma Hedditch, Bethan Huws, Fabio Kacero, Rober Racine, Kay Rosen, Katerina Šedá, Joe Scanlan and Lisa Tan; artifacts and objects on loan by several contributors, including Tania Bruguera and Archives Erik Satie; and exhibition furniture designed by Tomás Alonso. And tonight, Lars Svendsen will give a lecture on his 'Philosophy of Boredom' at Kadist Art Foundation.
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STEVE PULIMOOD'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN PARIS
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All eyes will be on Paris this weekend to see how sales go at FIAC after the Frieze freeze. Also not to miss this month - new work by Turner Prizewinner Steve McQueen, a huge exhibition in honour of Dennis Hopper, a show of young artists' work curated by Pierre Bismuth, a new film by American artist Carter and a series of new sculptures by Francois Curlet (below). 
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LAST CHANCE: 'YOU ARE MY MIRROR' AT FRAC, LORRAINE
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'The bright tomorrows that never came', part of the 'You are my mirror' programme of cultural exchange between Lithuania and France, references Lithuania's recent social and political history to broach the question of heritage, transmission, memory, commemoration, utopia-and, evidently between the lines, that of monumentality and anti-monumentality - through the encounter and dialogue between two artists representing different generations: Deimantas Narkevicius and Gintaras Didziapetris.
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SAUL LEITER AT CAMERA OBSCURA, PARIS
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The son of a renowned rabbi, Saul Leiter was intended to follow in his footsteps but decided, to the despair of his father, to become a painter, and, in 1946, established himself in New York where he continues to live. His friendship with Eugene Smith and the discovery of the works of Henry Cartier-Bresson led him to photography. In 1948, he started to take experimental colour photographs in the streets of New York, thirty years before recognised masters of colour photographer such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. But Leiter's photographs were never shown - until 2005. This exhibition presents a selection of 50 of these pictures. 
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JEREMY DELLER: CARTE BLANCHE AT THE PALAIS DE TOKYO, PARIS
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Every year the Palais de Tokyo gives an artist carte blanche to take over the entire gallery, to create not just an exhibition but a complete programme of events. This year the Paris gallery has given its carte blanche slot to British artist Jeremy Deller. Deller, who won the Turner Prize in 2004, has devised an ingenius experience that takes us from the British Industrial Revolution to the contemporary digital revolution, taking in along the way art, music, talks, concerts, previously unpublished photographs, films, audiotapes, glam-rock singers, English wrestlers, and the Happy Mondays. This extravaganza of a show opens 26 September. 
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STEVE PULIMOOD'S TOP SUMMER SHOWS IN PARIS
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Not to be missed this summer - a retrospective of photographs by Miroslav Tichy at the Pompidou, a group show of up-and-coming Indian artists, an exhibition by the winner of the 2007 Marcel Duchamp prize, Tatiana Trouve, and a solo show by Virginie Yassef which confronts the high and low of the built environment (below). 
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LES RENCONTRES ARLES: THE DISCOVERY AWARD
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Rencontres d'Arles opens today under the guest curatorship of the French designer Christian Lacroix. One of the most popular elements of the festival, since their inauguration in 2002, is the Rencontres d'Arles Awards, which have introduced to the world all sorts of new photography talents. This year 15 photographers from different countries and different photographic fields have been nominated. We preview the work of the nominees in advance of the announcement of the winner of the Discovery Award in September. 
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PATTI SMITH AT THE FONDATION CARTIER, PARIS
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The Fondation Cartier is hosting a major solo exhibition of the visual work of American artist and performer Patti Smith. Drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007, it strives to provide an insight into her lyrical, spiritual and poetic universe. Her expressive voice serves to magnify the installations created specifically for the exhibition: a synthesis of photographs, drawings and films. 
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GIANNI MOTTI AT LA CRIEE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, RENNES
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Gianni Motti's works take the form of one-off operations, most often outside the art world. The results are artistic propositions having to do with simple but radical acts, or exhibitions enabling the introduction of "spanner in the works" visual elements that modify or disturb the functioning of an art institution and, by extension, the public's pereception of the works on show. From acting out his own death in July 1989 to claiming responsibility for the California earthquake of 1992, Motti reveals a genius for subversion and appropriation of everyday events. 
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ECHO WANTED AT GALERIE KARSTEN GREVE, PARIS
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"EChO wanted" is a group exhibition on the theme of the environment, showcasing work by artists who are intimately preoccupied with themes of pollution and the degradation of our environment. Many of the artists will be exhibiting for the first time in France and at the Karsten Greve Gallery, including Saatchi Online artist Claire Morgan (below). 
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STEVE PULIMOOD'S TOP 10 PARIS SHOWS
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On in Paris this month are solo shows by Sam Durant, Alkis Boutlis, David Renggli (below), Valerie Belin, Alec Soth, Lothar Hempel and Kader Attia. 
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ALEC SOTH AT THE JEU DE PAUME, PARIS
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The title for Alec Soth's show at the Jeu de Paume - "The Space Between Us" - refers to his idea of the portrait: "If the photograph represents something, it's the space between me and the subject." The exhibition features a selection of works from three of his best-known series: "Sleeping by the Mississippi", "Niagara", and "Dog Days, Bogotá". 
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ERWIN OLAF AT GALERIE MAGDA DANYSZ C/O FLATLAND GALLERY, PARIS
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In his portrait photographs Amsterdam-based artist Erwin Olaf plays games with the idea of cold reality versus cruel artifice. His recent imagery is based on American aristocracy in the early 1960s. It blends journalistic details with staged emotions. In Grief, Olaf's latest series, solitary figures brood in tearful silence, capturing that precise moment when innocence, hope and joy were all lost. Nothing is as it seems and in Erwin's recreated world, nothing is real. 
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STEVE PULIMOOD'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN PARIS
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Highlights in Paris through April are a new installation by Gregor Schneider, Loris Greaud's monumental show at the Palais de Tokyo, more typological photographs by Candida Hofer, Olivier Sévère's mundane objects made out of unlikely materials, Olivier Babin's On Kawara-esque exploration of time, anthropomorphic sculptures by Wilfrid Almendra and Xavier Veilhan's menagerie of animals (below). 
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FRANCES STARK AT FRAC BOURGOGNE, FRANCE
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The West Coast-born American artist, Frances Stark, is currently having her first retrospective in France at FRAC Bourgogne. On until 12 January 2008, the exhibition, entitled 'The Fall of Frances Stark' in reference to the eponymous band, illustrates her approach as an artist since 1993, and brings together over 50 works, including paintings, collages and videos, and the artist's own writings and letters. 
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SUBODH GUPTA AT FABIENNE LECLERC, PARIS
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For his first solo show in France, Subodh Gupta presents a series of bronze and aluminium sculptures and a video installation. A growing star of the Indian art market, Gupta's sculptures, created in everyday materials, such as aluminium, reflect the layered culture of India and the impact of globalisation on traditional ways of living, particularly in the rural India in which Gupta grew up. 
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MARC-CAMILLE CHAIMOWICZ, DELME, FRANCE
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One of Barry Schwabsky's recommended summer shows on Saatchi Online's magazine is this spirited exhibition by Marc-Camille Chaimowicz. In a kind of ongoing quest for beauty, photographs, paintings, video, furniture and objects return from one Chaimowicz show to the next and come into play in indoor scenes in which presences - cut flowers, a clock movement, birds - disturb the stability of sets, to create an illusory form of life. 
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DISCOVERIES AT RENCONTRES D'ARLES, FRANCE
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Each year the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival presents a selection of photographers nominated for the Discovery Award which is given to a photographer or an artist making use of photography whose work has recently been - or deserves to be - discovered on the international scene. Prize money for the award is 25,000 euros, and this year's winner is Laura Henno, whose work we show here along with the other 14 nominees. 
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CHATEAU PLANET, MAGNAC LAVAL, FRANCE
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Galerie Planet, the cutting edge contemporary art gallery that opened in Magnac Laval last November, is currently showing work by some of the leading artists of the Limousin and Centre regions of France.
Five painters, one sculptor and two photographers are in the exhibition which James Anderson, a partner in the gallery, says is "our first opportunity to exhibit local work, and the quality of what we will be showing is very high - at least as good as one would find in galleries in Paris and London." 
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PROJECT PLANET: JAMES ANDERSON TAKES CONTEMPORARY BRITISH ART TO A FRENCH HAMLET
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In December 2006 James Anderson (below) opened a gallery showing contemporary British art in a tiny Hamlet in France. Homesick for his old stomping ground in London's Soho he also built a replica of the Colony Room, the preferred drinking establishment of artists such as Francis Bacon. Anderson will follow this new venture with a chateau devoted to exhibitions, residencies for students and established artists, which will open later this year, and, hopefully, a fully fledged annual arts festival. Laura K Jones reports. 
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