2025 Edition

GUEST OF HONOUR
Alekos Fassianos Museum & Estate

EXHIBITION
Alekos Fassianos Museum
The aesthetic universe of the Artist
« O vous, répétez le nom de ce peintre que j’aime tant à lire » (Louis Aragon)

THE ARTIST
Alekos Fassianos (25 October 1935 – 16 January 2022) was born in Athens. His father was a musician and his mother taught ancient Greek. He studied violin at the National Conservatory and painting under Yannis Moralis at the School of Fine Arts in Athens from 1956 to 1960. In 1960, he received a scholarship from the French government and went to Paris to study lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts. After completing his studies in Paris in 1963, Fassianos returned to Athens.
Together with architect Antonis Kepetzis and artists Vasilis Sperantzas and Nikos Stefanou, they moved into an old house in Kallithea, which was granted to them by the National Gallery of Athens. The so called “studio of Kallithea” was a vibrant workshop that shaped and pushed boundaries of the Athenian art scene and where artists and poets gathered. It was also there that Fassianos painted his first ‘smoking cyclist’. At the iconic Athenian café Brazilian where intellectuals gathered, he befriended poets such as Odysseas Elytis,
Miltos Sachtouris and Andreas Embirikos, with the encouragement of whom he created a series of ‘cyclists with windblown hair’.
In 1967, with the rise of the dictatorship of the Colonels in Greece, Fassianos moved permanently to Paris. Two years later, he was discovered by legendary art dealer Paul Facchetti. They began a vibrant collaboration, with Facchetti exhibiting Fassianos’ works alongside those of fellow Parisian artists Jean Paul Riopelle and Georges Mathieu. For Fassianos, the solo shows organized by Facchetti were critical to furthering his career as they marked the first comprehensive showcase of his artistic idiom. In the 70s, he was represented by Alexander Iolas Gallery, showing alongside Max Ernst, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Martial Raysse.
Fassianos’ works travelled from Malmö to Tokyo through Zurich, Berlin, Milan, and New York and in 1983, Blaise Gautier organized a monograph presentation of the artist’s work at Centre Pompidou as part of the periodical ‘Revue parlée’. In 1985, the Château de Chenonceau presented his first retrospective, followed by a series of gallery exhibitions around the world. In the late 1980s, the artist expressed his desire to remodel a building his family owned in the old center of Athens with the vision to house the Alekos Fassianos Museum. In close collaboration with architect and longtime friend, Kyriakos Krokos the space was altered, renovated and the project was completed in 1995. The building is of significant importance to the contemporary architectural map of Athens for its mastery in corrective intervention to an existing building and its intensive and precise crafting of surfaces. Aside from painting, Fassianos was a writer, poet, ceramist, designer, scenographer, and architect. He created the costumes and stage sets for numerous plays including Franz Kafka’s America and Euripides’ Helen at the National Theatre of Athens and, in 1980 he oversaw the scenography of No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre. Throughout his career,
Fassianos illustrated numerous editions for writers and poets such as Miltos Sachtouris, Odysseas Elytis, Constantin Cavafy, Yiannis Ritsos, Kostas Tachtsis, Louis Aragon, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jacques Lacarrière, Paul Valéry, Fernando Arrabal and Jean-Marie Drot, among others. He created limited edition publications with Bruno Roy, editor of Fata Morgana, and the publisher André Biren. Fassianos designed objects such as furniture, lights, door handles and homeware for his residences in Athens and Kea.
During his lifetime, Fassianos was awarded Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterand, and, in 2021, he received the highest award of Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture in France, Madame Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin.

THE ALEKOS FASSIANOS MUSEUM & ESTATE
The Alekos Fassianos Museum opened to the public in 2023.
The Alekos Fassianos Museum & Estate is housed in a building remodeled and designed by architect Kyriakos Krokos in close collaboration with Alekos Fassianos.
The building was completed in 1995.
The exhibition space aims to focus on the diverse artistic practice of Alekos Fassianos. Presenting works from 1956 to the end of his life, the exhibition introduces the viewer to Fassianos’ development as an artist. Showcasing works from the early years in Paris in the 1960s and his brief influence from abstract art to the inspiration he later draws from Byzantine art with the use of gold leaves and a darker color palette, a series of paintings of his widely celebrated maniera as well as collages and mixed media works. The exhibition pays tribute to his neighborhood, Agios Pavlos. The “Myth of his neighbourhood” unfolds through a series of works representing local life in the 40s, 50s and 60s in Athens. His childhood heroes merge with the heroes of Greek mythology, the profane and the sacred, creating thus, the eternal hero, the man. Aside from painting, the exhibition aims to present Fassianos’ polyhedric personality. Showcasing design pieces he created for his home and important archival material of his writings, iconography, scenography and costume designs he did for La cantatrice chauve by Ionesco, No exit by Jean-Paul Sartre and comedies by Aristophane among others. 
The Alekos Fassianos Museum is significant to the contemporary artistic map of Athens for it is one of the few museums in the world in which the complicity between artist and architect underpins a dialogue between the works and the space that houses them. 
The Alekos Fassianos Museum & Estate organizes exhibitions intra and extra muros, talks, social and educational programs for children and adults. Its goal is to share the artist’s legacy with the greek and international public.

EXHIBITION
Alekos Fassianos Museum
The aesthetic universe of the Artist
« O vous, répétez le nom de ce peintre que j’aime tant à lire » (Louis Aragon)

On the occasion of the Alekos Fassianos Museum & Estate participation in the Salon du Livre rare et des arts graphiques 2025, the museum will present an exhibition shedding light to the multifaceted personality of Alekos Fassianos as an artist, a writer, a poet, an iconographer and how his aesthetic universe has inspired writers, poets and thinkers. The exhibition will bring together original editions, letters, photography and other archival material- rarely or never shown in public, hightlighting the relationship of Fassianos with important 20 th century writers, poets and editors in France and how these relations nurtured and developed an aesthetic philosophy in Paris from the ‘70s onwards. The exhibition will be set in a finely curated setting with his design pieces and artworks by the artist.

Alekos Fassianos Museum
15 Neofytou Metaxa Str.
10439 Athens
Greece
contact@alekosfassianos.gr

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THE PARIS SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLERS (BOUQUINISTES) CULTURAL ASSOCIATION
D5

The first bouquinistes appeared around 1550, on either side of the Sainte Chapelle. Known as « colporteurs » (peddlers) because of the wicker basket « au col porté » containing their wares, a dozen or so of them offered second-hand printed books to notables and all those who frequented the nearby Palais de Justice. With the multiplication of printed works, a market for the resale of second-hand books was created and developed, ecological recycling before its time…

Unlike their counterparts who traveled all over France, Parisian peddlers were sedentary and active in this new market. With the completion of the Pont Neuf, they became firmly established in the heart of the city, and were henceforth known as estaleurs, « pauvres libraires qui, n’ayant pas les moyens de tenir boutique ni de vendre des livres neufs, estaloyent de vieux livres usés, frippés sur le pont Neuf et en ses abords » (Richelet), until « Bouquiniste » appeared in Trévoux’s dictionary in 1752. The principle of the popular open-air bookshop we know today had been established. The number of Bouquinistes grew with the years and the development of the river banks until the end of the 19th century, when their number reached around 220. Today there are some 230 of them, perpetuating this unique bookshop, the most famous and democratic in the world!

For the 2025 edition of the Salon International du Livre Rare, we have chosen to introduce you to Antoine Paris, bookseller and artist opposite the Samaritaine since 2022. Through his work as an artist, he strives to bridge the gap between established modern artists and young, little-known contemporary talents. He has exhibited in Paris, London, Berlin, Boston, Montreal…
Supported by the Devos gallery, Agnès B, the Arts Factory gallery and Un regard Moderne, among others, his publications, to which artists such as Robert Combas, Olivia Clavel and Stéphane Blanquet contribute, are distributed at the Centre Pompidou, the BnF, the Palais de Tokyo, the Fondation Vuitton, etc…

Come and see for yourself!

Bouquinistophilically yours,

Jérôme Callais 
President, Association culturelle des bouquinistes de Paris

bouquinistesdesquaisdeparis@gmail.com

Drawings by Antoine Paris, original works in Indian ink
© Antoine Paris

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Sunday 15 June, 3.30 pm
Conversation with Robert Combas and Antoine Paris (mezzanine above the bar)

Followed by a book signing in the rest area (D4-D6)

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DISCOVERING ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS

Everything you always wanted to know about antiquarian books but were afraid to ask.
The Fair is open to both experienced bibliophiles and novice enthusiasts, and a stand offering an introduction to bibliophily will be open to visitors throughout the event. SLAM booksellers will be on hand to answer any questions new collectors may have, to help them make their first purchase and to share their expertise and passion. The books on offer in this area are carefully selected by the exhibitors for their interest and low price.

Booth B1