Stylist and clothes designer agnès b. has supported art (especially cinema) and collected it for a long time now. She even opened her own Parisian art gallery back in 1984, first on rue du Jour, and later on rue Quincampoix next to the Pompidou Centre in 1998.

In February 2020, agnès b. opened a new cultural space on the Left Bank, not very far from our hotels – La Fab., a place to show selected works from the personal collection she has amassed over the years, as well as a new (third) home for her Galerie du Jour. Think of it as a sort of private modern art museum open to the public and spread over 1.000m².

We went down to see what the new space is like, and were not surprised to learn that its address is place Jean-Michel Basquiat!

There’s a new neighbourhood slowly emerging in Paris behind mainline train station Gare d’Austerlitz. It started with the new National Library many years ago, and every year since then, the railway lines have been gradually covered over and built upon. New modern buildings have sprung up, new streets and new squares. What was once lost land filled with train tracks is now unrecognisable, a whole new area of gleaming buildings, shops, apartments and (a little) culture.

It is here that agnès b. has chosen to place La Fab., the building to showcase her collection of modern art, and have the headquarters of the Tara Ocean Foundation that she founded in 2003, the first French NGO dedicated to protecting the ocean to be officially recognised by the government.

The part of the building used as an exhibition space is fairly spacious, and above all one of the rare cultural spaces in this new neighbourhood (together with the nearby Quai de la Photo). As this new part of town is still evolving, the Fondation is something of an oddity and still surround by huge office buildings, and pubs called “Au Bureau” (At The Office). 😲🤦🏼‍♂️

Your experience will probably be different depending on the theme of the current exhibition, and the day of our visit it was entitled le langage du corps (Body Language). Unsurprisingly, this included many, many photos of people in various states of dress and undress (to be fair, the title meant that almost anything could be relevant), with works from around sixty artists from various eras, from Nan Goldin and Niki de Saint Phalle to Tracey Emin and Larry Clark.

Some people might find certain images shocking (surely part of the role of art?), and it would have been useful for some context or explanations to have been added. Nevertheless, the presentation is sobre, varied and (of course) high quality.

After the two floors of the main exhibition, steps lead you down to the Galerie du Jour, one large room for temporary exhibitions that remain in place for around five weeks.

Here, the choice of artists and works is deliberately more avant-garde, and it’s possible that only hardcore modern art fans will find true enjoyment here. The rest of us will be left rather perplexed, even if the experience will certainly be very different depending on the choice of artists.

Also, it should be noted that as an separate space, entrance to the Galerie du Jour is free for everybody.

And the visit ends back on the ground floor with the smallish but well-stocked book shop. If you like contemporary art, you’ll almost certainly find something you love here (we did!)

So, in a neighbourhood worth exploring, La Fab. by agnès b. is a cultural spot well worth visiting (especially as entrance only costs 7€).

Don’t forget to buy your limited edition artist t-shirt at the agnès b. store on the corner when you leave!

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La Fab. by agnès b. (here) is open from Wednesday to Saturday, from 11am-7pm, and Sunday from 2-7pm

Admission: 7€ / 4€

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