In the early 80s, the creation of a FRAC in each region of France contributed to the cultural decentralization of contemporary art away from the capital and major French urban centers, and to the support of contemporary creation. The FRAC Alsace is part of this movement.
A REGIONAL PUBLIC COLLECTION
Like other FRACs in France, FRAC Alsace’s mission is to build up a public collection of contemporary art in the region, by acquiring works of art destined to be shown to a variety of audiences on a regional, national and international scale.
With over 1,000 works dating from 1956 to the present day, representing nearly 650 artists, the FRAC Alsace collection encompasses practices as diverse as painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation, and takes a look at the regional, national and cross-border scene, as part of a dynamic of openness. It is built around thematic axes such as territory, landscape, the body, narrative and language, and more recently on the idea of Nature(s), revealing ontological, societal and political questions. With no geographical limitations in the choice of works, FRAC Alsace aims to establish links between established and emerging artists, and to offer a wide range of viewpoints to discover. Particular attention is paid today to works that are more suitable for distribution.
The acquisition policy is defined by the FRAC Alsace’s artistic and cultural project, and steered by the management. These works are either proposed by a Technical Purchasing Committee, or come from spontaneous proposals.
Each year, the technical committee meets to make proposals for the acquisition of works that are representative of current artistic approaches, and to support creation and artists. As a result, some twenty new works are added to the collection every year. The collection constitutes a national heritage and cannot be sold or transferred; it is inalienable and non-transferable.
Works by internationally renowned artists such as Aurélie Nemours, Mario Merz, Panamarenko, Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Henri Michaux and Cy Twombly have now become museum-quality. Acquired at an opportune moment in the careers and reputations of these artists, they testify not only to the interest of this collection today, but also to the forward-looking nature of the FRAC’s Technical Purchasing Committee.
The collection continues to grow, with the acquisition of works by both French and foreign artists whose names now count in the contemporary art scene (Clément Cogitore, Miriam Cahn, Didier Marcel, Françoise Petrovitch, Hélène Delprat, Marie Voignier, Julius von Bismarck, RYBN).