Léna Gayaud, Recodier (2023), SISSI Club.
Every year, the Swab Barcelona selection committee, along with Joaquín Diez-Cascón, the fair’s director and founder, and Carolina Diez-Cascón, the art director, evaluate the proposals of the participants in the General Program and award the prize for the best booth. This award recognizes the creativity, innovation, coherence, and visual impact of the proposals, highlighting the gallery that offers a distinctive artistic perspective and granting them a free space for the next edition of the fair.
The committee is comprised of Omar López-Chahoud, director of UNTITLED; Jérôme Pantalacci, founder and art director of ART-O-RAMA; Isa Natalia Castilla, co-founder of Feria Material in Mexico City; Domenico de Chirico, independent curator; and Jose Luís Lorenzo, collector from the Tate Modern in London. The committee also includes Marie Elena Angulo, president of Oolite Arts and patron of Contemporary Art Society in London; Pedro Jaile, art collector; Jesper Stieler, member of the Danish Collecting Society and founder of Stieler & Company; and Laura Peh, collector, founder of Cinnamon Art Publishing.
In the latest edition, Sissi Club Gallery won the award with a solo show by artist Lena Gayaud. This year, we have the pleasure of welcoming them back to Swab Barcelona.
Directors: Elise Poitevin and Anne Vimeux
We are delighted to have awarded you this prize. What do you believe these initiatives contribute to art fairs? Are there enough of such initiatives? In your opinion, how do they assist or enhance the prospects of emerging galleries like yours?
We are extremely honored to have received this award, and from such an exceptional jury. We feel that this type of award is particularly valuable in the context of a fair, because it allows us to look at fairs beyond the simple prism of sales. Fairs are also spaces for presenting and discovering new practices, and confronting them with new audiences. For some of the artists we represent, this may be their first time at a fair. As well as providing an opportunity to meet and talk, this type of award allows them to showcase the quality of their work independently of sales, which is vital for the health of an artistic production.
Regarding the history of Sissi Club and its establishment in Marseille, how did the concept for the gallery originate, and what has its journey been like since its inception?
We met during our research master’s degree in Art History at university and decided to initiate an exhibition project after graduating in 2017. We conceived a group exhibition that led to the opening of our exhibition space in 2019. So we created a project space, but the idea of founding a gallery was always there, because we were already making sales and wanted to take part in fairs. And the following year, we took part in Paris Internationale and the Salon de Normandy by the Community in Paris. Our decision to fully embrace the gallery format was influenced by our acquaintance with artists such as Inès Di Folco Jemni, Camille Bernard and Léna Gayaud, (whose work we presented last year at SWAB). Supporting their practice and their careers gradually led us to recognize that we were doing the work of a gallery owner. Little by little, we began to feel that we had a legitimate role to play and that we should try our wings out with them.
What trends in the current art landscape do you find particularly captivating at the moment?
At the moment we’re really taken with the work of Angélique Aubrit & Ludovic Beillard, represented by Valeria Cetraro, and Jessy Razafimandimby by Sans Titre. Beyond a form of multidisciplinarity, these are versatile artists whose works switch from one medium to another, and whose installations question the creation of environments and rethink forms of domesticity. Their practices are a great source of inspiration for us in thinking about how to set works in space.
How does Sissi Club engage with other international spaces and galleries? Could you highlight any notable collaborations?
Collaboration has always been a key issue for us. Even before we set up the gallery, we wanted to create a network of European project spaces, notably with Jonathan Vidal, the brilliant artist who ran Zabriskie Point in Geneva, and with Macklin Kowal, founder of Sub Rosa Space, a venue dedicated solely to performance art in Athens. When we opened the gallery, it was clear to us that we wanted to maintain this collaborative dynamic.
We feel very close to the Deli Gallery (NYC/Mexico City) and Nicoletti (London). We really appreciate their programme and share their vision of the presentation of practices at contemporary art fairs. We’re preparing some great projects with each gallery, but they’re still confidential at the moment.
What advice do you wish you had received when you first started Sissi Club that you would now offer to a gallery in its early stages?
Don’t be afraid to stay true to yourself and stand up for what you believe in, whether politically or aesthetically, because you’ll attract the right people.
Could you define SWAB in one word?
Welcoming 🙂