It is barely 11 am, and already around thirty people are waiting in front of the Galleria Continua, on this Saturday, February 20.
Recently inaugurated by the famous street artist, JR, this 800m2 gallery-grocery store is the new cultural place everyone is talking about.
It must be said that its concept is explosive: part art gallery, part delicatessen, it invites visitors to leave with truffled pecorino or a sculpture by Anish Kapoor, olive oil or a drawing by Kiki Smith.
"There are no theaters, no cinemas, no museums, and there is a moment when Netflix is enough!", Sums up Joël, a student determined to face the line that continues to stretch out on the street du Temple, in the heart of the Marais, one of the districts of the capital with the most art galleries.
Among them, the Polka gallery, created in 2007 by the founders of the eponymous photography magazine, is currently showing works by Marc Riboud, a photographer known throughout the world for his photographs of Asia.
The exhibition "Chine (s)" unveils some forty images which take us, between 1957 and 2010, to cities bubbling with energy or to mysterious landscapes of misty mountains.
“We have the impression of traveling with the photographer, the shots are magnificent, it's a dream!” Enthuses Hélène, who came from the opening to quench her thirst for culture in peace.
"There are more people, confirms Sidonie Gaychet, deputy director of the gallery. But above all we see a different public, a public that is not used to coming to the gallery. Some are looking for the souvenir shop or ask if there is a charge for admission, we explain our job to them: to introduce artists who may one day end up in the collections of a museum ".
Weakened galleries
But more people in the galleries doesn't mean more sales.
At Polka, we recognize a 50% drop in turnover in 2020. A recent study commissioned by the Professional Committee of Art Galleries (CPGA) reveals that 78% of galleries saw their turnover fall. last year.
However, very few galleries have been forced to go out of business and the dreaded scenario of serial closings has yet to materialize.
"The current government aid allows the vast majority of galleries to stay afloat. It is when these will decrease, in 2021 and 2022, that everything will play out", warns Geraldine de Spéville, general delegate of the CPGA.
For galleries, the cascading cancellations of international fairs, such as Paris Photo, Art Basel or even FIAC, represent a huge shortfall.
These events, which usually bring together collectors from all over the world in the same place and at the same time, are almost essential for professionals in the sector.
"The resumption of fairs is an important issue, analyzes Géraldine de Spéville. We hope that it will coincide with a reopening of the borders and a possible circulation of foreign collectors. At the moment, galleries must share the same national clientele, it is starting to become complicated ".
>> To see: The painter David Hockney presents his Normandy in a Parisian gallery
To keep the link at bay with foreign collectors, galleries are trying to innovate.
This is how Polka has launched podcasts on its artists or even 3D virtual tours on its website.
“People appreciate it but it does not replace the fact of seeing the works in real life, nuance Sidonie Gaychet. There is a hedonistic pleasure to see works that one does not quite find with digital. Collectors like that 'we tell them the stories of the works, anecdotes about the artists. We can't have that particular connection right now. "
Towards a reopening of museums?
Encouraged by a stable health situation, calls for the reopening of art centers have multiplied in recent weeks.
The president of the Palais de Tokyo, Emma Lavigne, launched a petition which has collected 10,000 signatures to demand this reopening, promising "a welcome for our visitors in enhanced security conditions".
The slingshot also comes from several chosen ones.
In Issoudun, in Indre, the socialist mayor, André Laignel, decided on Friday to maintain the reopening of the Hospice Saint Roch museum for private visits, despite opposition from the courts.
This controversial initiative follows that of the RN mayor of Perpignan, Louis Alliot, who had also decreed the reopening of four municipal museums.
A decision there also suspended by administrative justice.
Other cities, such as Strasbourg or Beauvais, have proposed to the Ministry of Culture to set up "test visits" on the model of "test concerts" which will take place in March and April.
But for the moment, no information is filtering on a calendar.
Closed since October 30, museums and monuments "will be the first to be called upon to reopen," assured the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, on February 8.
A reopening conditioned by a "decrease" in the number of contaminations.
In the meantime, the works of David Hockney, Lucienne Bloch or even Christian Boltanski can be seen for free in Parisian galleries, the last refuges of a cultural world in disarray.
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