Lydie Marchi can go on forever about the artists she represents. From the most demanding critic to the passing onlooker, she gets attention. Part of a generation of independent curators, seasoned in the public and private sectors, the young art historian first worked with Jean-Louis Prat at the Fondation Maeght in Vence, then with Michel Bépoix at the regional council’s art gallery in Aix-en-Provence. In 2007 she opened her own gallery, which is not contained within four walls, but progressively hosted in a number of locations, including a storefront in Aix, in an apartment or in a living room in Miami.

Contemporary Art Nomads

 

Lydie Marchi set up the Saffir gallery according to the Anglo-Saxon model of the traveling gallery, for projects that can’t sit still!

By Sarah Carrière-Chardon - October 3, 2011

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Cabanon Design
32 rue Saint Jacques 13006 Marseille

Lab-L
20 Bd Leccia 13003 Marseille

The space must fill the needs of the project, and not the other way round! Based in the mezzanine of Cabanon Design since 2009, “this deliberately small residency is a multidisciplinary experimental space with no less than 8 to 12 exhibitions per year, which each time aim to be genuine curatorial projects.” This fall, as part of the Art-O-Rama art fair, Lydie decided to give carte blanche to two collectors surrounding a scenography by Thoma Ryse. The exhibition “Nathalie and Alexandre Callay Present the World Theater” plays with the renewal of the portrait and with the commissioner’s identity. “Thoma Ryse worked from

photos to create a portrait of the two collectors, which he completed with the help of a questionnaire. He shows Nathalie as a saint and Alexandre under the influence of Marcel Duchamp. Via the gallery, you can request your own portrait produced according to this process.” The closing party for the exhibition on October 15 promises to be a turning point for the Saffir gallery since it will mark the end of a two year program within this micro laboratory space. The following month, the gallery will embark on a set of new explorations as it inaugurates, on November 3, the group show “Let’s Play With Sensuality” with Lab-L and Nun at the Boulevard Leccia studios in Marseille. “A play of hands, a play of scoundrels!

But what to say about the exchange of looks? The expression that gets lost, the look that excites or questions, which stares or which hides. And what about our expression facing works by Michou Strauch or Alain Brunet, which I chose to put face to face in an exchange of looks, theirs, which recount a sensual story…” Lydie Marchi hits the road again with new narratives; and this time takes us with her!

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