During the opening ceremony of the 7th edition of BEIRUT ART FAIR, Lebanese minister of Culture, H.E. Mr. Raymond Araygi, presented to Laure d'Hauteville, fair founder and director, and Pascal Odille, artistic director, "an Honorific Distinction by the Lebanese ministry of Culture", in the presence of minister of Tourism H.E. Mr. Michel Pharaon and French ambassador H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Bonne.
This honorific distinction recognizes Laure d'Hauteville's many contributions to the international expansion of Lebanese culture over the course of 25 years, and in particular her leading role in BEIRUT ART FAIR, a contemporary art fair held this year under the joint patronage of the Lebanese ministers of Culture and Tourism.
Laure d'Hauteville is French by nationality but Lebanese at heart, and since settling in there in 1991, the country has become her adopted homeland. It was in Lebanon in the years 1998-2005 that she first created and directed ARTSUD, an international contemporary art salon whose success allowed the creation of parallel editions in Dubai (2000-2002), Paris (2002), Moscow (2002, 2003) and Las Vegas (2004).
During a temporary return to Paris in 2005, Laure d'Hauteville collaborated with the team of Art Paris, with whom she launched the first two editions of Art Paris Abu Dhabi-known today as Abu Dhabi Art Fair-in 2007 and 2008.
The 2010s marked a turning point in Laure d'Hauteville's projects and confirmed her commitment to Lebanon. She decided to specialize in the contemporary art of the ME.NA.SA region (Middle East, North Africa, South & South East Asia). And she chose Beirut as the site of a new, international fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art: BEIRUT ART FAIR, an event that leading reference site ArtPrice has called one of the most important fairs in the entire ME.NA.SA region. The evolution of BEIRUT ART FAIR has subsequently been the subject of ever greater recognition from professionals (galleries, artists, and institutional actors), collectors and art lovers, and the national and international press, helping to put Lebanon at the forefront of the international cultural and artistic scene.
Pascal Odille has served as Artistic Director of BEIRUT ART FAIR since its first edition in 2010. An accredited Expert in Modern and Contemporary Art at the C.N.E.S (Chambre Nationale des Experts Spécialisés), he also consults with various public institutions in the Middle East and regularly publishes analyses of the ME.NA.SA art market in various media.
Pascal Odille has worked for several auction houses in France, including Artcurial in Paris. He specializes in "large inventories"; these have included his handling of the collection of Pierre Restany, for which he was executor.
A teacher at several institutions both in France and abroad, Pascal Odille created the first Master's degree dedicated to the study of the art market at the EAC (Paris). An independent curator, he has worked on many exhibitions in France, Lebanon and the USA, and operates as an advisor to private collectors in Europe, Lebanon and the Gulf countries.
