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BEIRUT ART FAIR 2016 | Laure d’Hauteville and Pascal Odille honored by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture
15September

BEIRUT ART FAIR 2016 | Laure d’Hauteville and Pascal Odille honored by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture

During the opening ceremony of the 7th edition of BEIRUT ART FAIR, the Lebanese Minister of Culture, His Excellency Raymond Araygi, presented Laure d'Hauteville, founder and director of the fair, and Pascal Odille, Artistic Director, with the Daraa, “an honorific distinction granted by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture.”

 

This recompense recognizes Ms. d’Hauteville’s many contributions to the international flowering of Lebanese culture over the course of 25 years, and in particular her leading role in BEIRUT ART FAIR, a contemporary art fair held under the joint patronage of the Lebanese Ministries of Culture and Tourism, represented respectively by His Excellency Raymond Araygi and His Excellency Mr. Michel Pharaon.

 

Ms. d’Hauteville is French by nationality but Lebanese at heart, and since settling in there in 1991, the country has become her adopted homeland. It was in Lebanon in the years 1998-2005 that she first created and directed ARTSUD, an international contemporary art salon whose success allowed the creation of parallel editions in Dubai (2000-2002), Paris (2002), Moscow (2002, 2003) and Las Vegas (2004).

 

During a temporary return to Paris in 2005, Ms. d’Hauteville collaborated with the team of Art Paris, with whom she launched the first two editions of Art Paris Abu Dhabi—known today as Abu Dhabi Art Fair—in 2007 and 2008.

 

The 2010s marked a turning point in Ms. d’Hauteville’s projects and confirmed her commitment to Lebanon. She decided to specialize in the contemporary art of the ME.NA.SA region (Middle East, North Africa, South & South East Asia). And she chose Beirut as the site of a new, international fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art: BEIRUT ART FAIR, an event that leading reference site ArtPrice has called one of the most important fairs in the entire ME.NA.SA region. The evolution of BEIRUT ART FAIR has subsequently been the subject of ever greater recognition from professionals (galleries, artists, institutional actors), collectors and art lovers, and the national and international press, helping to put Lebanon at the forefront of the international cultural and artistic scene.

 

Pascal Odille has served as Artistic Director of BEIRUT ART FAIR since its first edition in 2010. An accredited Expert in Modern and Contemporary Art at the C.N.E.S (Chambre Nationale des Experts Spécialisés), he also consults with various public institutions in the Middle East and regularly publishes analyses of the ME.NA.SA art market in various media.

 

Mr. Odille has worked for several auction houses in France, including Artcurial in Paris. He specializes in “large inventories”; these have included his handling of the collection of Pierre Restany, for which he was executor.

 

A teacher at several institutions both in France and abroad, Mr. Odille created the first Master’s degree dedicated to the study of the art market at the EAC (Paris). An independent curator, he has worked on many exhibitions in France, Lebanon and the USA, and operates as an advisor to private collectors in Europe, Lebanon and the Gulf countries.

 

The 7th edition of BEIRUT ART FAIR takes place at BIEL (Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center) from 16 to 18 September. 23,000 visitors are expected.