Celebration of Golnaz Afraz’s monumental painting, International Campus in Paris, House of Francophone Students

To mark the 150th anniversary of the International Law Association, the Villa Seurat Foundation for Contemporary Art has presented the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris with a large-scale oil and acrylic on canvas (4.85 x 2.50 m) created by Iranian painter Golnaz Afraz, winner of the 2015 Saatchi Art Competition in Los Angeles. This work was chosen from 152 entries by the Villa Seurat Foundation jury, made up of N’Goné Fall, Thierry Forien, Juliette Frescaline, Martin Kiefer and Sophie Nordmann.

The theme of the call for entries was: “the work should take into consideration peace between peoples, diversity, universalism and humanist values”.

Entitled Un rêve d’humanité, the work has been on permanent display in the entrance hall of the Maison des étudiants de la francophonie since June 2023. The vernissage was held on 8 November in the presence of Jean-Marc Sauvé, President of the Fondation nationale Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, Catherine Kessedjian, President of the Fondation Villa Seurat pour l’Art contemporain, Béatrice Salmon, Director of the Centre national des arts plastiques, Franck Latty, President of the French Branch of the International Law Association and Golnaz Afraz, creator of the work, in the presence of several directors of the CIUP, with a large and friendly audience.

This brings to a close a project that has lasted more than two years.

The next call for projects will be published in 2024.