With a degree in physics and chemistry safely in his pocket, Marc Sautereau decided to enter the world of work and joined Unic Technologies, one of the leading players in industrial reprographics, at the age of 22. Eight years later he was managing the firm's general services, but every evening he would put his professional problems to one side and lose himself in his collection of books designed by contemporary artists (all one thousand of them!).

In 2000, he took the plunge and, with money hard to come by, created a virtual bookstore specializing in the contemporary plastic arts (video, painting, sculpture and architecture) of the last thirty years. "I wanted to be involved in promoting art books," he explains. But although his virtual approach attracted an international clientele from the outset, French book lovers longed to see, touch, and appreciate these beautiful books, feeling the weight of them in their own hands.

In 2002 Marc Sautereau finally unearthed some superb premises in avenue Matignon in Paris, the road for art galleries, "a stone's throw from Christie's and Sotheby's at the heart of a district where a cultural revival is in full swing." Since September, the spacious, welcoming Bookstorming bookstore has stocked some 16,000 works, including 4,000 titles that are out of print, publications from art centres and French and European museums, and publishers' and artists' exhibition catalogues. He is planning a series of book signings, debates and discussions. Marc Sautereau will manage his comprehensive offering, which is unique in France, entirely by electronic means (stocking and restocking). He intends to communicate with his customers via a regular newsletter, and to entrust the visual identity of a place that is both a sales outlet and an innovative cultural centre to "exciting living artists". A long-held dream…

Achievements since winning the grant
Having opened two bookstores in Paris as well as a virtual store on the Internet, Bookstorming is continuing to grow, with two further bookstores specializing in contemporary art opening at the end of 2005. The first is located in the Val-de-Marne Museum of Contemporary Art in Vitry-sur-Seine (known as the MAC/VAL, this is the first museum of contemporary art in the Paris suburbs) and the other in the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux.
VILLA ARSON is being shown at BOOKSTORMING from the 20th October 2007 until the 20th January 2008
An exhibition of a selection of publications from the Villa Arson national centre for contemporary art in Nice, dating from 1986 to the present.