Pawel Althamer on creating a new Bohème

The Pompidou Centre in Paris has dedicated an exhibition to Polish artist Pawel Althamer, featuring additional work by eleven young french artists.Talking to Dorota Jarecka, Althamer criticises the star cult in art: "There is a star model in art today. There are great artists who owe their fame to galleries and whose work is exhibited by large museums. And then there are the lesser-known artists who want to get close to them. The milieu knows nothing of integration; it only encourages juxtaposition, loneliness and competition. My project takes up the phenomenon of the Bohème, which no longer exists. I'm not trying to create a group of snobs who walk around Paris wearing black hats and form an exclusive enclave, but a group of friends who know each other well and help each other. We know about this tradition from the impressionists and the Bohème of Picasso's times. This was once a lively tradition in France but it doesn't exist any more."

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