The Frac (Fonds régional d’art contemporain) are French regional centres of contemporary art. The Frac for the Paca (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) region has just re-opened in a building which has been refurbished under the supervision of the architect Kengo Kuma. Amongst a boulevard of commercial buildings, he has used glass tiles set at non-square angles to establish the difference of the Frac building. From right below it looks like the building has jaws, ready to snaffle up anything offered to its clutches... Inside, lots of white and grey, which colours the visitors echo with most visitors wearing black or cream!
Additionally, the tiles change colour according to the weather: there’s a facade of a similar building that I see from my apartment and it provides an interesting architectural angle on the weather. There’s a balcony with an exceptional view of the Boulevard de Dunkerque and, apparently only accessible by stairs, a garret, presently showing pieces by the Marseille artist Richard Baquié. Also a library amongst whose collection I was intrigued to find a French version of a book of the work of the British photographer Martin Parr.
The inaugural exhibition is part of the Ulysses project, a journey through the Paca region, it involves forty partners from a wide variety of contemporary art venues, heritage sites and natural landscapes.
There is a wide variety of work on show from the archives of Frac-Paca, some self-explanatory but most of the more recent works have the explanations which have become a requirement of works that have gone down the conceptual path.