MENART FAIR 2025: Ode to Softness
Menart Fair returns for its 6th edition between October 25-27, 2025 with a theme on ‘the ode to softness’, a daring and poetic approach that defines this distinctive art fair.
Returning to Paris from October 25 to 27, 2025, the MENART Fair marks its sixth edition as Europe’s only art fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Held at Galerie Joseph, in the heart of the Marais, the fair will feature over 40 galleries from 18 countries and more than 100 artists of 16 nationalities, offering a sweeping panorama of the region’s dynamic creative landscape.
This year’s edition, titled “Ode to Softness,” takes on particular resonance in today’s fractured world. Against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, the fair embraces softness not as fragility, but as a profound act of resistance. As founder and director Laure d’Hauteville explains, in a world driven by spectacle and immediacy, softness is “a critical stance and an ethical position”—a quiet force that restores dialogue, empathy, and hope. The works on view embody this ethos, revealing tenderness as a form of strength and a language of resilience.
MENART Fair 2025 brings together established and emerging voices from across the MENA region. The artistic selection spans painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, exploring how softness can emerge from complexity. Lebanese artists are particularly well represented, with Serge Najjar’s minimalist photography transforming Beirut’s architecture into geometric poetry, Louma Rabah’s expressive abstractions celebrating nature’s vitality, and Khaled Takreti’s pop-infused portraits transmuting pain into color and light.
From Iran, artists such as Elham Pourkhani and Parastou Forouhar reimagine Persian visual heritage through contemporary narratives, using traditional forms as poetic refuges. Syrian artists including Fadi Yazigi and Marwan Kassab-Bachi reveal vulnerability and humor amid turmoil, while Palestinian master Nabil Anani paints a utopian vision of his homeland, transforming memory into a sanctuary of beauty. Tunisian artist Meriem Bouderbala crafts ethereal bodies from sand and rust, demonstrating that softness and strength are intertwined.
Beyond the main exhibition, MENART Fair continues its commitment to discovery with the “Revealing” sector, launched in 2024, which spotlights emerging and rediscovered talents. This year, no/mad utopia Gallery (Lebanon) presents Johanne Allard’s delicate embroideries reflecting on war’s psychological traces, while Blue Avenue (Serbia) introduces the surrealist work of Oussamah Ghandour.
The fair also highlights underrepresented countries in the global art scene, welcoming newcomers such as Dara Art Gallery (Sudan) and Forat Gallery (Bahrain), reinforcing its dedication to inclusivity and gender equity—over half the artists presented this year are women.
Alongside the exhibitions, the Menart Friends Association, founded in 2024, enriches the program with talks, performances, and curated exhibitions, including “Slow and Steady Wears,” a showcase of contemporary Tunisian photography curated by Victoria Jonathan. These initiatives extend the fair’s reach beyond the marketplace, fostering cultural dialogue between the MENA region, France, and Europe.
MENART Fair stands today as a bridge between cultures, a platform where softness becomes a manifesto—a way of seeing and feeling the world anew. While the event is an art fair, it invites visitors in for an intimate journey and provides a unique opportunity to learn more about art from this region, through free guided visits and onsite docents who are available for any questions.
MENART Fair will be on view at Galerie Joseph, 116 rue de Turenne, between October 25-27, 2025.
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