PARIS.- French and international collectors and professionals were particularly numerous on the opening day of FIAC : 15,455 guests attended the inauguration at the Grand Palais on Wednesday 19th October. In 2010, there were 14,053 at the Grand Palais, or an increase of 10% for the professional day this year.

FIAC welcomed numerous collectors from the four corners of the world: from across Europe, Switzerland, the United States, Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, the Middle East, South America, India, China and Indonesia among others.

Groups of collectors, foreign art-world professionals, friends of museums including the Guggenheim in New York, the Power Plant in Toronto, the Ludwig Musem in Cologne, the Wiels in Brussels, the MAMCO in Geneva, as well as many groups of French collectors gathered at FIAC this year.

FIAC 2011 was inaugurated at the Grand Palais by Frédéric Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture and Communication. Valérie Pécresse, French Budget Minister, Nathalie Kosciusko- Morizet, Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, Luc Châtel, Minister of National Education, and Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, also visited the fair, as well as other political figures including Martine Aubry, Jack Lang, Jean-Jack Queyranne, and Eric Woerth.

Several international artists attended FIAC, including: Daniel Buren, Wim Delvoye, Xavier Veilhan, Tatiana Trouvé, John M Armelder, Claude Levêque, Martin Parr, Dan Graham, Takashi Murakami, Niele Toroni, Lewis Baltz and Loris Gréaud, as well as several public figures such as Bono, John Malkovich, Natalia Vodianova, Kate Capshaw, Christopher Thompson, Danièle Thompson, Marc and Sarah Lavoine, Karl Lagerfeld, Carine Roitfeld, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Ali Badou, Patrick de Carolis, Pascal Elbé, Louise Bourgoin, Arthur, Jean Todt, and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

In the Nave of the Grand Palais
Pilar Albarracin at Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Daniel Buren at Kamel Mennour, Xavier Veilhan, Murakami and Wim Delvoye at Emmanuel Perrotin, Dan Flavin at David Zwirner, Mark Dion and his Dark museum at In Situ Fabienne Leclerc, Loris Gréaud at The Pace Gallery and at Yvon Lambert, major historical pieces by Viera da Silva, Nicolas de Staël at Jeanne Bucher / Jaeger Bucher, works of the Second Paris School at Applicat-Prazan, by Kirchner and Odilon Redon among others at Henze & Ketterer, Yayoi Kusama at Victoria Miro, Mathieu Mercier at Mehdi Chouakri, Dan Graham at Massimo Minini, Maurizio Cattelan and Philippe Parreno at Air de Paris, Penck, Jeff Koons at Jérôme de Noirmont, Simon Hantaï at Zlotowski, Robert Mangold at Elvira Gonzalez, Paolo Bronstein at Franco Noero, Jean-Luc Moulène at Pietro Sparta, and Rudolf Stingel and Sarah Lucas at Sadie Coles.

In the Upper Galleries
Bernard Piffaretti at Frank Elbaz, Florian Pugnaire and Vera Molnar at Torri, Yto Barrada and Khaled Jarrar at Polaris, Helen Marten at Johan König, Barbara Hammer at KOW, and Giraud and Siboni as well as Alina Szapocznikow at Loevenbruck.