ART

WELCOME TO THE VILLA VASSILIEFF

By Crash redaction

VILLA VASSILIEFF: AN ARTISTIC PROJECT BY BETONSALON

Situated in the former studio of Marie Vassilieff, the Villa Vassilieff – the new cultural institution of the City of Paris – is a site of encounters where artistic research and knowledge sharing converge. Indeed, it is the most prized new place in Montparnasse, a neighborhood that brought together artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Matisse.

Managed by Bétonsalon, a center of art and research and supported by the Pernod Ricard Group, which partners with the artistic house to organize the Pernod Ricard Fellowship, the Villa offers an annual grant to four artists selected by an artistic committee to encourage them in their artistic and professional approaches. Through the Villa Vassilieff, each of the winners receives the resources they need to carry out their projects and enrich their work: a residency allowing them to stay for three months within the Villa, while organizing exhibitions and events in order to make their work public, as well as access to a vast network of researchers, art professionals, and institutions like the Center Pompidou, a long-time partner of the Pernod Ricard group. By supporting a new generation of emerging artists, Villa Vassilieff returns to its origins as a site of mutual support in the art world. Indeed, at the start of the First World War, Marie Vassilieff did not hesitate to share her workshop by creating a canteen for local artists living under harsh conditions.

For the year 2017, the Villa has brought together four laureates from different geographic horizons, each with a different vision of art. The diversity of their experience with art and the cosmopolitan degree of their work make it possible to compile a new, more contemporary vision of the French capital’s cultural heritage. For these young artists, the historical dimension of art plays an overarching role in their attempt to grasp the contemporary period. Samit Das, an artist and art historian, witnessed the historical amnesia that took place to the detriment of the modernist era in his native India. Each of their projects transcends borders. While the former artist endeavors to investigate modern Indian art in resonance with Paris, focusing particularly on the many Indian artists who have remained in the capital, Ndidi Dike aims to transcribe a visual tribute and archive of the pre- and post-colonial policies of resource control that shaped the Democratic Republic of Congo under the reign of King Leopold II.

Located in the heart of Montparnasse, in an old building where the multitude of trees drowns out the noise of the city, Villa Vassilieff offers the soothing and pedagogical framework necessary to create art in complete freedom. Having witnessed just over a century of history, it embodies a cultural and social heritage sustained by the principles of transmission and intellectual exchange. As it has operated since 1911, the Villa is home to unexpected encounters and boasts a capacity to reconcile modernism and history by building on the past and present resources of the neighborhood, in a way that recalls the Bourdelle or Zadkine Museum, the Atelier des Beaux-Arts of the City of Paris, and the institutions associated with the Villa Vassilieff, such as the Center Pompidou and the Picasso Museum. It is these very strengths that make Villa Vassilieff such a unique place.

www.villavassilieff.net

Photos © Aurélien Mole

Written by Lisa Tomasi