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Paris Internationale Expands to Milan, Testing New Ground

The Parisian export tested Milan’s appetite for expansion, drawing new audiences while raising questions about scale and sustainability.

In Milan, miart’s multi-decade existence was joined this year by a new compatriot, Paris Internationale Milano, which brings the French experimental fair into an Italian setting. It marks the first time the fair has staged an event outside of  France. Hosted at Palazzo Galbani, a 1950s modernist building on Via Fabio Filzi that was quite literally under construction (the drilling was not a sound piece), the fair sits just a short walk from Centrale station. 

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Strategically timed, it overlaps with Milan Art Week and Milan Design Week, attracting collectors from both spheres. Its VIP opening day was the day after miart’s. Running from April 18 to 21, the fair is free to attend with registration, as has always been the case in France.

Paris Internationale Milano gathers a selection of 34 international galleries and three non-profit spaces, including long-standing participants in the French edition alongside first-time exhibitors. Its inaugural edition preserved not only the spirit of the original but also codified its signature pillars: an unexpected venue, an adaptable mise-en-scène, a brut/déconstruit aesthetic, an assemblage of interesting galleries and a general cool-kid vibe. The spatial design was overseen by the Swiss architecture studio Christ & Gantenbein, which has been working with Paris Internationale since 2022; they collaborated with Milan-based designers NM3. Each gallery had freestanding walls, designed for reuse in future editions, and spread across four floors connected by two, unfortunately unreliable, elevators.

The Milanese fair so convincingly replicated the atmosphere of the French one that: “I’m still a little bit confused if we........

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