«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

PARIS — In a globalised art market, what better place for a gallery than an airport? Thus reasoned US art mogul Larry Gagosian, who this week opens a cavernous new art space right inside Paris's main private air hub.

Designed by star French architect Jean Nouvel in a 1950s warehouse in Le Bourget north of Paris, Gagosian's new gallery, his 12th worldwide and second in Paris, opens Friday to coincide with the capital's FIAC contemporary art fair.

The German artist Anselm Kiefer -- who confesses a fascination for airplanes -- created a purpose-made installation for the white, hangar-like space: a sculpture of a golden wheat field inside a giant steel cage.

"It's going to be a place for travellers," Jean-Olivier Despres, co-director of Gagosian's Paris galleries, told AFP at a press preview Monday. "It's a new proposition, a new way of viewing art."

Gagosian is the second international gallery to move into the Paris suburbs this week, after the Austrian Thaddaeus Ropac unveiled a giant new space in nearby Pantin -- also, by quirky coincidence, with an inaugural show by Kiefer.

The US art mogul's main stated aim is to showcase monumental works too big to house in an inner city Paris or London location, with 1,650 square metres (17,750 square feet) of floor space, and volumes up to 15 metres high.

But it breaks new ground in other ways, as the first major gallery to be set up inside an airport's grounds.