Interview with Eléa Allaghen and Emeric Foiny about the auction that funds the winner of the Juvenars-IESA Prize.
The Juvenars-IESA Prize is awarded each year by IESA arts&culture to a young artist under 30 who is not represented by a gallery. The amount of this endowment comes from donations, acquired and sold at auction by the Bachelor 1 - Art Expertise and Trade students, who had to set up the entire process of choosing the works and run the auction. The proceeds of the sale go to the winner of the Juvenars-IESA Prize; this year the artist Bowen ZHAO won in April:
What program are you following at IESA arts&culture?
Eléa: I am currently in the Bachelor in Art Expertise and Trade, paintings and graphic arts track.
Emeric: I am in the first year of the Bachelor in Art Expertise and Trade.
- Why did you decide to join IESA arts&culture?
Eléa: I decided to join IESA arts&culture because it allowed me to continue my studies in a work-study format from the second year. Having worked for 3 and a half years, it seemed essential not to lose this link with the working world.
Emeric: I decided to join IESA because this school lets us get to grips with our future careers thanks to a professionalizing curriculum. We have classes exclusively with industry professionals (appraisers, art historians, lecturers…), which allows us an up-to-date dialogue on the job and cultural markets. Besides the privileged relationship between teacher and student, we have the unique opportunity to complete internships and projects to gain professional experience and build a contact book as early as possible, all while being supported by our professors.
- Can you briefly tell us the purpose of this auction?
Eléa: The purpose of this sale is to support young creation but also to share our knowledge and skills in developing a full-scale project.
Emeric: The purpose of this auction is to raise funds for and finance the Juvenars IESA prize. As a reminder, the Juvenars IESA prize aims to reward a young artist (under thirty) in the contemporary art world, in any medium. The grant obtained allows the artist to carry out their professional projects. This sum, combined with the solo show organized by the school and the presentation of a work at a contemporary art fair, is a real and essential springboard for a young artist to launch their career in the art market.
- How did you organize yourselves to set up this event?
Eléa: We have been working on it for many months, but it is true that from the very first joint classes we formed a small, solid group by dividing up the tasks (searching for donations, contacting auction houses, writing the catalog…). Most of us were in internships and the pace was rather difficult to manage because of last-minute changes, but we got there with a lot of perseverance and the will to see this project through.
Emeric: Regarding the auction, we organized ourselves around several tasks. First, we circulated our call for donations on social media and at cultural fairs (rather rare because of the health situation) in order to communicate about our project. Individually, we personally contacted artists we like and followed on social media or in our circle. This privileged contact proved fruitful, since, made aware of the purpose of the auction, these donors felt concerned by the situation of young artists. After collecting the works, we set about researching them and then gathering them in an online catalog. Putting the catalog together was a laborious step during which we helped each other to achieve a harmonious and aesthetic result. Finally, we distributed our catalog as widely as possible and promoted our auction in order to reach as many buyers as possible. Maître Metayer very kindly agreed to run the sale on June 30, 2021, traveling to IESA arts&culture. The students present at this event took turns organizing the sale exhibition, presenting the objects, communicating about them, listing the buyers and organizing follow-up and shipping, helped by Victoria Blochet, a student in Bachelor 2 COM, interning with our professor Maud Prangey. This project allowed us to put many skills into practice in a complicated health context: managing communication, making contact, handling the setup of a sale….
- What struck you in your first steps in the art market world?
Eléa: The cultural richness of my classmates, and the importance of each person’s role in the careers that will be ours.
Emeric: Of course, the health situation affected us heavily: communication via social media proved essential and above all motivation had to be constantly stimulated! Many barriers rose up in front of us because of this context, but despite everything, we are proud to have overcome them and to have carried out this project, which is our first professionalizing experience in our curriculum.