Longtime gallerist Chantal Crousel is highly regarded for her strong representation of a diverse group of artists. This year at FIAC she’ll show new works in dialogue, in the hopes of shedding fresh or unexpected light on the meaning and unique qualities of each. Crousel spoke with Whitewaller about the gallery’s new Haegue Yang exhibition this fall, and an Oscar Tuazon show at the Place Vendôme that is on the horizon.
WHITEWALLER: Can you tell us a bit about your show with Haegue Yang, which is open this fall?
Oscar Tuazon.Sketch for FIAC Hors-les-murs, Place Vendôme, 2017.
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.
CHANTAL CROUSEL: In Haegue Yang’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, opening on October 14, the artist evokes the center of seemingly contradictory and yet essential and constructive tensions that make us grow in our individual, cultural, social environments, and not least during our confrontations with cultures of unfamiliar yet surrounding origins. The new two- and three-dimensional works are inspired by Haegue Yang’s personal questioning of what rules us daily, and what we aspire to.
WW: This year, you’ll be presenting an in situ project by the American artist Oscar Tuazon in the Place Vendôme, which addresses the environmental issue of water shortage—a well-known problem in Paris. Can you tell us a bit about this project?
Oscar Tuazon.Sketch for FIAC Hors-les-murs, Place Vendôme, 2017.
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.
CC: Oscar Tuazon, an American artist from Seattle, has been invited to create a new project for the Place Vendôme. In response to that historically and culturally loaded place and prestigious meeting site, Oscar intends to make us reflect on the invisible but present aspects of a city.
WW: The gallery regularly presents exhibitions that touch upon social, political, environmental, and economic conflicts. What is most important to you to communicate right now? Are there any artists with upcoming shows of note regarding this?
Chantal Crousel
CC: We are convinced that artists—since very early on in art history worldwide—are the revelators of the evolution of knowledge, consciousness, craftsmanship and therefore also creating new expressions of beauty. The artists represented by the gallery all correspond to these criteria. Through all of them we learn about our world, our society, nature, and our nature. They keep us growing—with love, and our eyes wide open.
WW: During the busy fair week, what are you looking forward to?
CC: During the busy fair week, I am looking forward to meeting and having exchanges with people who share with us a love of Paris as a lively melting pot of culture in the broadest sense—French and foreign—and who share the curiosity to discover and adhere to new and strong expressions of being alive: through exhibitions at the many museums and institutions of contemporary as well as ancient art and science, but also the lively scene of very young galleries, of music, of gastronomy and festive places to get together and enjoy being alive together.
