In early September the streets around the Saint Germain des Prés and Beaux Arts quarters of Paris will once again be thronged with tribal art enthusiasts.
It is time for the annual Parcours des Mondes, the city’s longstanding gallery-based, cross-continental celebration of ethnographic art from Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Asia.
New this year to the Parcours will be Showcase, which gives six new younger dealers the opportunity to show a selection of their stock in two dedicated exhibition spaces.
Overall, more than 50 participants take part in this edition, from September 5-10 – the usual mix of resident dealers with shops in the area and guests from elsewhere in France, Europe and beyond who take space in other local galleries to show their exhibits.
The vast majority focus on tribal artefacts but additionally there are two antiquities specialists and five dealers in Asian art.
On a theme
Themed exhibitions and selections of new acquisitions combine to offer plenty of choice, from African masks and statues to Polynesian shields and Pre-Columbian pottery.
Among this year’s themed shows is Adventure and Erudition at the resident Galerie Meyer Oceanic and Eskino Art. It will focus on the theme of exploration and the history of collecting, examining how European enthusiasts for the unknown acquired artefacts from other civilisations and how they were absorbed into European culture.
The Art of Aboriginal Australia and the Papuans of the Torres Straits will be on show at resident dealer Voyageurs & Curieux while The Ancient Art of Siberia, focusing on Shamanist artworks, will be the object of an exhibition by the Grusenmeyer & Woliner Gallery from Brussels.
Masks featuring abstract, realistic, zoomorphic and a range of other types and styles will be the themed exhibition at Abla & Alain Lecomte’s Gallery while the Franck Marcelin Gallery will have two themed shows, one devoted to Eskimo and Polynesian objects and the other to around 30 works from Papua New Guinea.
Pictured here is a taste of what the exhibitors will be offering.
More information can be found at parcours-des-mondes.com