Offscreen, the nomadic Parisian art salon founded by former Paris Photo director Julien Frydman, returns for its fourth edition from October 21 to 26, 2025, running concurrently with Art Basel Paris. This year the event takes over La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, a stark church on the grounds of a historic hospital that once detained and studied women labeled “degenerate” or “insane.” The salon features 28 artists from 27 galleries, including a durational performance by Maria Stamenković Herranz, works by video pioneer David Haxton, and a guest-of-honor tribute to late video-sculpture artist Shigeko Kubota. Frydman insists Offscreen is not a “video art fair” but a medium-blurring salon designed to prioritize visitor experience over categorical labels.
Offscreen matters because it offers an alternative model to the commercial art fair circuit, emphasizing curatorial rigor, site-specificity, and emotional impact over transactional sales. By choosing historically charged venues—a former car garage last year, a church with a dark feminist history this year—Frydman challenges the sterile white-cube norm and forces a dialogue between art and architecture. The event’s growing loyal following and its parallel timing with Art Basel Paris signal a shift in how audiences and institutions engage with moving-image and multimedia work, while the involvement of major museums like the Centre Pompidou and ZKM for acquisitions underscores its institutional relevance.