On Friday, October 23, the Parisian art world spiraled into high drama over the early shutdown of Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais. Organizers had pulled the plug on the event two days early out of fear after calls for student demonstrations outside the venue began circulating online, sending gallerists scrambling to dismantle million-dollar installations and pack up gallery booths. Egged on by right-wing misinformation accounts and MAGA politicians hijacking the French protests to stoke fear and win the upcoming U.S. midterms, the online consensus quickly hardened around the idea that culture was under siege, and that the defining tragedy of the week was a canceled art fair and the shattered boutique windows of the weekend past.
When Luxury Windows Are Worth More Than Human Lives:
Why Paris Is Burning
In Conversation: