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November 5-8, 2009, Paris, France
Organisers: Ateliers d’Art de France
http://www.patrimoineculturel.com The 15th International Heritage Show took place at the beginning of November 2009 in the prestigious setting of the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. The event brought together 250 international exhibitors (from France, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherland, Portugal, Russia and Spain) and around 20 000 visitors. This year, the International Show was for the first time organized by Ateliers d’Art de France1, which acquired the event in the spring of 2009. Each year, the show is focused on a new theme involving thus new exhibitors and visitors, new media and promotional input. This year’s topic was “The Heritage of Religions”. Embracing the topic, the exhibitors displayed their achievements in this area and offered their know-how demonstrations to the visitors. Beside conservator-restorers, artists or craftsmen, the salon also hosted: suppliers of materials and products for movable or immovable assets or museum materials and equipment; decision-makers and project managers (architects, entrepreneurs, trade organisations), training and education centres, universities or institutes; players in the New Technologies and suppliers of advanced materials (scientists, research centres, laboratories); publishers; local authorities, institutions and associations. The participants were gathered under the same goals in order to promote quality craftsmanship and expertise, to set up and develop meetings between conservators, craftsmen or artists and potential clients, and to present the various strategies regarding the spiritual and cultural heritage preservation and management. To have a real perception of the complexity of the salon, only the fields covered by exhibitors displaying a conservation-restoration activity, were varying from stained-glass windows, iron joinery, organs, old clock and bell mechanisms to ceramic and glass objects, furniture, textiles, leather, sculpture, frames, wall paintings and decorations and easel paintings. Almost anything one can connect with Religious Heritage in general! For the orientation of the public throughout the salon spaces, depending on interest and also to ease the contacts exchange, the organizers provided a useful catalog with the participants’ profile and contact details. Walking into the fair, the visitors were first received by informational stands of institutions, associations or local authorities showing their past or current projects throughout images, movies or short presentations on this year’s theme. That was the perfect place for visitors or participants to make contacts for future partnerships in all kind of cultural related areas, or to get updated with the new strategies of cultural interest. Further on, the visitors were arriving in the section dedicated to publishers on art and culture, from printed magazines and online publications to specialized bookshops. Nearby, Art Schools, Institutes or Universities were presenting their offers and giving all the demanded details to students interested in courses and degrees in art and heritage conservation.
Photos 1-3 by Anca Nicolaescu. Photo 4 and 6 by Serban Bonciocat. Photo 5 by Mihaela Dumitru.
Visitors were able to see component fragments of organ pipes or even big brass bells, beautiful trompe l’oeil of marble and wood patterns, mosaic and frescoes fragments, religious furniture, jewels and so on, done with extraordinary craftsmanship. The religious heritage preservation is, actually, the best example where knowledge of old traditional techniques is very important for best conservation and restoration achievements. Therefore, this mixture of arts, old crafts and restoration presented at the fair was a good opportunity for meeting masters who keep the tradition alive and are willing to share details of their work with those interested. Another interesting aspect of the event was the organization of discussion panels and seminars with the participation of international experts and specialists who informed the fair-going public about topical subjects related to the theme of the year, and debated heritage problems.The issues brought into discussion covered a wide thematic range such as: causes and consequences of the religious heritage destruction and degradation in history; the future of Europe’s religious heritage; religious patrimony and contemporary art or subjects regarding the advanced technologies in heritage conservation, to mention only few of them. It is difficult to encompass in a short review the complexity of this event with an immense area of interest and exhibitors. For five days I constantly went to Louvre’s Carrousel, willing to see and discuss with as many exhibitors as possible, but at the end I still had the feeling that I might have overlooked some stands. It was a huge concentration of interesting aspects of everything connected with the fair’s subject – the Religious Heritage.
The next edition, the 16th International Heritage Show, is already announced for 4-7 November 2010, focusing this time on “The Mediterranean Heritage”. I'm certain that it is definitely worth visiting it.
About the author
Anca Nicolaescu
Conservator-restorer
Contact: anca.nicolaescu@e-conservationline.com Anca Nicolaescu (BA, MA) is a conservator of wall paintings, having coordinated various on-site conservation projects from Romania. Her work experience also includes international participa-tion at conservation projects and seminars in UK, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Japan and India. She is one of the co-founders of Restauro Art Grup conser-vation company and of e-conservation magazine, where she presently works as an editor.
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