The appointments of Jerome Sans and Nicolas Bourriaud as heads of the Centre of Young Creation in the Paris Palace of Tokyo due to pen in january 2001 have simply confirm the emergence of a new generation of French art critics who have organised many exhibitions and published scores of important articles during the 1990's. Sans and Bourriaud, aged 39 and 33 respectively, have launched many artists and
expressed their views many times in several respected art magazines. They notably backed several artists from the school of the Magasin de Grenoble who studied under Jean Leccia and Jean-Luc Vilmouth such as Philippe Perrin, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Pierre Joseph, Bernard Joisten and such artists, as well as Felix Gonzales-Torres have been the main actors of numerous exhibitions organised by these art critics.
Nicolas Bourriaud notably ran the Documents art magazine in 1992 after discovering that the press in the field of art was in desperate state. This new generation of art critics has defended artists who have been investing themselves isn the domains of photography, video installations and daily life objects recuperated for artistic purposes so as to bring art closer to our existence.
Bourriaud thus forged his concept of relational aesthetics, defined in a book published in 1998, his theory being that objects of art should be judged in fact in the interhuman relation they figure, produce or suggest.
Bourriaud has worked in favour of an alliance between artists and between them and viewers. He and his likes have built up some sure experience in working with several institutions in France and have been pleading for some better collaboration with contemporary artists. As Sans summed up: "For me being a critic involves the organising of exhibitions".
Other art critics have even become art traders feeling that they had to defend works in as many possible ways. All the more many French art critics now also consider themselves as artists because of their close ties they have established with those they have been promoting. A new kind of relationship has therefore developed between artists and that new generation of art critics so as to bring creators closer to the public.
However Bourriaud and many others have been criticised by some of their counterparts who feel they have become too narcissic in their approach. Olivier Zahn, editor of the "Purple Prose" magazine said they had adopted a despicable dandy attitude in claiming to be artists themselves and in believing in the autonomy of art vis-à-vis the social environment by refusing anything that had a collective meaning.
Many artists have also expressed fears that Sans and Bourriaud would only work with those they have supported until now. Both critics have replied that the Tokyo Palace would certainly not become a fortress harbouring those they preferred.
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