La Fab. — About — Slash Paris

La Fab. opened its doors to the public on February 2, on Place Jean-Michel Basquiat in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. Bringing together under one roof agnès b.’s collection, la galerie du jour, la librairie du jour and the headquarters of fonds de dotation agnès b., La Fab. is a venue open and accessible to all in a rapidly changing neighborhood, a new Paris!

“La Fab… As in La Fabrica? The Factory?
Whatever else, it is fabulous, fascinating, far-reaching. It facilitates understanding, fashions passion and progress; it fastens onto the sensitivity and intelligence of those watching, listening, feeling; and favors surprises.
The boldness of artists has forever moved me. Caravaggio, truly one of the boldest, has always dazzled me, and I realize now that I am attracted to all forms of boldness in art.
Boldness is not bravery. It is entirely different. Boldness is daring without being sure, while being oneself. I like doubt even if I have faith. If you have no doubt, if you are too sure something won’t work, you are facing a wall of convictions that crushes you.
What matters to me is the power of a piece of work—its beauty not its ’value.’ That’s why I like to uncover young artists who are full of doubts and hope. They are often shy, unaccustomed to being liked. I encountered lots of wonderful people. It’s a long list, stretching back to the 1980s, when I first began to appreciate photography.”

agnès b.

The collection of more than 5,000 works—photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and films—which agnès has assembled in her lifetime, will provide the raw material for around three exhibitions a year at La Fab.

In the first show, agnès presents more than 150 works by 90 artists, mostly her contemporaries and often friends. agnès took full control of the selection and staging of the exhibition, which she has devoted to the notion of “boldness,” with the definition of “bold” in Diderot and d’Alambert’s Encyclopédie of 1766 as a particular inspiration.

BOLD, adj. (Gram.): epithet describing confidence of the soul, which presents as simple those enterprises that stun ordinary men and give them pause. The difference between temerity and boldness consists in the relationship that exists between the difficulty of the action and the resources of the person undertaking it. From which it follows that a given individual demonstrates boldness only in a context where another person would earn the description temerarious. Unfortunately, however, judgment is made on the attempt and the individual through the event alone; often there is only blame where there should be praise, and praise where there should be blame. How many undertakings have depended, for a good or bad outcome, on a circumstance that was impossible to predict!

The word bold has a great number of different meanings, in both literal and figurative senses: a speech can be bold, an action is bold, a building is bold when the intricateness and solidity of its construction does not seem proportional to its height and expanse; draughtsmen, painters or artists are bold when they show no fear of the difficulties of their art, and appear to overcome them without effort.

On the first floor, la galerie du jour showcases works by several artists, most of whom also feature in agnès’ collection, as well as several items of furniture. Operating on the principle of a house where everything is for sale, the exhibition will constantly evolve.

Finally, la librairie du jour bookstore will present a selection of works either published or supported by fonds de dotation agnès b., as well as books from like-minded publishing houses.

Curator: agnès b.

Featuring:

Alice Anderson
Kenneth Anger
Anonymous
Roger Ballen & Asger Carlsen
Henry Banger Benvenuti
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean Baudrillard
Adrien Beau
Madeleine Berkhemer
Jean-Baptiste Bruant
Biefer/Zgraggen
Jean-Charles Blais
Jonathan Borofsky
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré
Thibaut Bouedjoro
Louise Bourgeois
Jared Buckhiester
Alexander Calder
Roman Cieslewicz
Jean Claracq
Claude Closky
Serge Comte
Gregory Corso
Johan Creten
André De Dienes
Suzanne Doppelt
William Eggleston
Tracey Emin
Simon English
Walker Evans
Bruno Gadenne
Cyprien Gaillard
Gilbert & George
John Giorno
Nan Goldin
Douglas Gordon
Antoine le Grand
Rafaël Gray
Loïc le Groumellec
Martin Gusinde
Simon Hantaï
Keith Haring
Ronnie Hertz
Steve Hiett
Damien Hirst
Dennis Hopper
Louis Jammes
Pierre Klossowski
Douglas Kolk
Harmony Korine
Germaine Krull
Tseng Kwong-Chi
Vincent Laval
Mathilde Lestiboudois
Claude Lévêque
Helen Levitt
David Mach
Gérad Malanga
Robert Malaval
Robert Mapplethorpe
Dmitry Markov
Ariane Michel
Boris Mikhaïlov
NASA
Jean-Michel Othoniel
Martin Parr
Anders Petersen
Raymond Pettibon
Renzo Piano
Richard Prince
Hervé Priou
Man Ray
Antonio Recalcati
Hugues Reip
Pierre René-Worms
Marcia Resnick
Les Frères Ripoulin
Christian Rose
Michael Sayles
Flip Schulke
Jim Shaw
Malick Sidibé
Roman Signer
Claire Tabouret
Agnès Troublé
André Villers
Massimo Vitali
Andy Warhol
Wowe
Xatrec
Gérard Zlotykamien