It only took a few weeks for the most important French fair for contemporary art, which had existed for almost fifty years and had its usual October fair location in the prestigious Grand Palais since 2006, to be canceled by a new tender.

In the global ranking of contemporary art fairs, the Foire International d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) came third behind Art Basel and London's Frieze.

At the end of January it was decided that the mighty Art Basel would take over the slot in the Grand Palais with a new fair.

The displacement is now followed by a concentration of personnel at the top and the emphatic slogan that they will not give way: The defeated Dutch-British exhibition company RX joins forces and makes Florence Bourgeois the new director of the FIAC.

She follows Jennifer Flay, who has been head of the art fair since 2003 and is now taking "a break", as RX announced - probably also to counter speculation that Flay could switch to the Swiss fair company MCH, which is behind Art Basel.

Bourgeois, in turn, became head of Paris Photo, also hosted by RX, in 2015, which was able to maintain its position in the Grand Palais.

Now she is to preside over both fairs.

The spread of the Basel art show, which already has branches in Miami and Hong Kong, highlights the attractiveness of the location: Accelerated by Brexit, Paris has developed into the European art market metropolis.

At the same time, the trade fair operator of the FIAC showed signs of weakness.

Last fall, RX France implemented a far-reaching social plan due to heavy losses and merged departments of both trade fairs.

Now followed the personal union at the top.

Crucial questions remain open

The ousting of the FIAC from the Grand Palais was made possible by Chris Dercon, who vacated the post of director of the Berlin Volksbühne in 2018 after serious conflicts.

Since then, Dercon has headed the state cultural institution “Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais” (Rmn-GP) in Paris.

It is well known that the Belgian does not always tackle things with kid gloves and likes to think globally.

When in November a competitor who remained publicly unnamed expressed an interest in the FIAC exhibition site, there were sufficient reasons for him to initiate an award procedure and to advertise the photo fair in November in addition to the art fair in October.

At the same time, this presented an opportunity for the financially troubled Rmn-GP to increase the usage fee in the Grand Palais - and the current provisional "Grand Palais Émphémère".

RX France was awarded the contract to continue Paris Photo last week, with a space fee increased to €7.3m for a seven-year contract.

The new art fair in place of the FIAC, which has now fallen to MCH, will cost 10.3 million euros for the same period.

The fact that it will not be called "Art Basel Paris" is one of the basic conditions: the capital of the Grande Nation cannot be neglected.

A name has not yet been decided.

Crucial questions also remain unanswered, such as the artistic orientation or the status that the French art scene will have in the future.

Looking for your own identity

Those mainly affected by the tender, the galleries, were not involved in the process.

Few voices have defended FIAC, even when criticism has been raised for Chris Dercon's authoritarian approach.

The accusation that the French scene is not given enough space has been made against the FIAC for years.

However, the question arises as to whether the increased costs will be passed on to the stand fees under the new trade fair management.

Although art fairs are marketplaces, they are also places where culture is negotiated, where the artistic movements of the future are shaped and young artists get a chance to be discovered.

Whoever you're talking to these days: The new Paris fair under the aegis of Art Basel, which is as demanding as it is experienced, seems to be supported by the galleries, even if no names have been mentioned so far, neither for the artistic direction nor for the selection committee.

Art Basel agrees to develop its own identity for the new art event with a team based in Paris.

Meanwhile, Florence Bourgeois, the new head of FIAC and Paris Photo, tells Les Echos newspaper: FIAC will not die.

She was unable to announce anything more specific about the future, organization and direction of the beleaguered event, which in 2021 brought together more than 170 galleries from 26 countries.