MENART Fair Returns to Paris Asking 'Where Is Home?'

Thirty-four galleries, 18 countries and one big question

Paris Art Week is almost here, and alongside the giants at the Grand Palais, one fair is entirely about our region. MENART Fair, which describes itself as the only fair in Europe dedicated to the art scenes of the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas, returns for its seventh edition from 23 to 25 October 2026 at Galerie Joseph in the Marais. This year, it asks a question that will resonate with so many of us: Where Is Home?

For anyone less familiar with it, MENART was founded by Laure d'Hauteville, who also founded the Beirut Art Fair in 2010. Its first edition took place in May 2021 at the Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house in Paris, with 22 galleries from 13 countries. Since then, it has been to Brussels, with an edition at the Boghossian Foundation's Villa Empain in February 2023, and has moved around Paris, from the Palais d'Iéna in 2023 to Galerie Joseph. Last year it moved to October to coincide with Art Basel Paris, and according to Selections, it welcomed more than 7,000 visitors, with 90% of galleries making sales.

This year's edition brings together 34 galleries from 18 countries, showing more than 100 artists, 45% of whom are women. Encouragingly, the line-up stretches well beyond the usual art hubs. Beirut is out in force, with Artists of Beirut, Kalim Bechara Art Gallery, Maya Art Space, M|S Gallery, No Chef in the Kitchen and Galerie Tanit, while Dubai sends Amal Rakibi Gallery, Firetti Contemporary and Nasij, and Abu Dhabi sends K Gallery and Artbooth Gallery. There are galleries from Cairo, Damascus, Tehran, Istanbul and Paris, too, as well as Turab Art Project from Ramallah, Archivart from Tunis, The Artinerary from Amman, Stal Gallery from Muscat, Beit Eskender from Tripoli in Libya and Dara Art Gallery from Khartoum.

The theme, Where Is Home?, explores home, belonging, memory, language, identity and territory, and it is easy to see it in the works the fair has shared so far. Sudanese artist Adlan Yousif's Between Exiles IV (2025), shown by Dara Art Gallery, is made from welded scrap metal, while Abdul Rahman Katanani's Girl Swinging (2024), shown by Turab Art Project, is made from corrugated metal, a material the Palestinian artist has long used to evoke the refugee camps of Lebanon. Also on view are Hamid Torkashvand's IS series (2026) in cement and metal with Tehran's 2A Gallery, Ashraf El Zamzami's Rêverie (2025) with Cairo's Safarkhan Art Gallery and Amor Ghedamsi's Tilka akwan taskunuk (2025) with Archivart.

According to Arab News, Palestinian-Canadian artist Samar Hejazi, who is based in Dubai, has a solo booth with Nasij, including her thread installation Maw6ini (2018), while Norway's Quartum Galleri is showing Qatari artist Ebtisam Al-Saffar and Kuwait-born Palestinian artist Dalia Ali.

Perhaps the most significant part of this year's fair is its Project Room, which is dedicated to Algeria. Curated by Wassyla Tamzali, founder of Les Ateliers Sauvages in Algiers, it presents "an Algeria in motion" through 12 artists: Fouad Bouatba, Naïm Boukir, Rima Djahnine, Mounir Gouri, Sérine Hamami, Abdelmohcene Hamel, Houssem Harrak, Rima Rezaiguia, Hakim Rezaoui, Achraf Saadi, Fella Tamzali and Sofiane Zouggar. Works include Harrak's L'homme face à la mer (2025) and Gouri's Routes Cousues (2017). Algeria's contemporary scene rarely gets this kind of platform in Europe, so this is one not to miss.

What's more, there is a lively talks programme in the Project Room. On 23 October, Tamzali joins Léna Kemiche, Seloua Luste Boulbina and Samir Toumi for La Fabrique de l'Art, a conversation on contemporary art in Algeria, while on 24 October two English-language talks ask "The Arab museum boom: Are we building structures or audiences?" and look at "Arab Art Yesterday, Arab Art Today". We have our own thoughts on that first question, so we'll certainly be listening.

There is also a new prize. The Coup de Cœur Boucheron, which continues the fair's partnership with the jeweller that began in 2024, will be awarded to an artist from the MENA region on the evening of 22 October.

So, what can we take away from this? At a time when so many artists from our region are living and working far from where they were born, a fair built around the question of home feels especially poignant. With galleries from Khartoum, Tripoli and Ramallah sitting alongside those from Dubai and Paris, MENART remains one of the few places where the full breadth of our region's art can be seen under one roof. We can't wait to see it.

MENART Fair takes place at Galerie Joseph, 116 rue de Turenne, Paris, from 23 to 25 October 2026, with a preview on 22 October. Tickets cost €16 (€11 reduced).

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