The ACI has a very clear mandate to ensure that the funds supplied by Automobiles Citroën go to a single annual event selected by ACI delegates and the organisation is therefore not in a position to make any discretionary payments outside those parameters. In situations like these we can do no more than bring the matter to the attention of the Citroën world and recommend that individual clubs consider all the information available and then make their own decision as to whether they, as a club, wish to offer any support, financial or otherwise.

Further information concerning the two events in question can be found on their respective websites.

The ACI Board.

Dear friends of Citroën,

www.rossicontemporary.be

A message from our Argentinian ACI Delegate Ignacio Norberto Graciano has reached us which we are happy to forward to you. Super engagement for and with Citroen – far away from France!

Dear friends,

www.facebook.com

And for those who are thinking about attending such an event as well:

Ignacio Norberto Graciano has invited all interested parties to take part in the 2011 edition of this exciting opportunity, and so join with eg. a Traction Avant 7/11/15 (not roadster), Ami6, 2CV4 or 2CV6 until 1979 inclusive… Please contact Mr. Graciano directly for more details.

The event was coupled with the 150 years of the 15th district of Paris,and received a massive support from the major and his team.

An exhibition in front of the townhall, then a lunch and a parade with 83 Citroën cars took place on the Saturday, followed by a Concours d’Elégance in the Parc André Citroën, where stood previously the factory.

The jury included Henri Jacques Citroën, grandson of André, who came to the commemoration together with his wife, his 3 children, and his two brothers Bernard and Philippe.

The family was also represented by André de Saint Sauveur. Automobiles Citroën was represented by Denis Huille, the well known Manager of the Heritage. Xavier Duchemin, the Marketing Director of the Brand, attended the departure of the parade.

The 50 cars presented at the Concours, animated by Olivier de Serres, were absolutely fabulous, namely those from the pre war generation.

The jury, to which participated Didier Parjadis, the president of the ACI, attributed the first award to a superb 10 A roadster of 1933. Henri Jacques Citroën pronounce a nice speech in memory of his grand father: he has transmitted to ACI the text and given us the right to reproduce it – see below.

A dinner and a show followed at the Cabaret La Belle Epoque. On the 26th in the morning, there was a ceremony at the Montparnasse cemetery, on the grave of André Citroën, in presence of the family and some collectors, and of course Jean-François Soyez and Denis Huille. Both Automobiles Citroën and the ACI had sent a crown which was disposed on the grave. (see picture, the one of the ACI is in the right side).

Then participants were invited to have a lunch at the Citroën factory in Aulnay sous Bois and finally visited the Conservatoire under the lead of Denis Huille.

Finally, these two days were intense in emotion and allowed participants and public to see extraordinary cars and to enjoy a very high quality program; congratulations from the ACI to Jean-François Soyez for this initiative!

The speech of H.J.Citroën is attached as PDF here.

Photos to be published soon.

Gabriel Orozco was born 1962 in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. He studied at Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (Mexico City), and at Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid). He has participated in the Venice Biennale in 1993, 2003, and 2005, the Whitney Biennial in 1995 and 1997, as well as Documenta X (1997) and Documenta XI (2002).

During these months, an exhibition will tour through Europe, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Basel (18 April 2010 – 8 August 2010), Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (10 September 2010 – 11 Januar 2011) and Tate Modern, London (19 Januar – 25 April 2011). This exhibition will provide the opportunity for many of these to be seen for the first time from the MoMA New York and combine them with rich selections of work from Orozco’s vast body of smaller objects, paintings, and works on paper.

Some video documentary around Gabriel Orozco can be found here: www.truveo.com

And more pictures over here: yatzer.com

We thank our Dutch ACI colleague Hans Kloos for sharing the info about Gabriel Orozco with us. Share your pictures from the exhibition with us, please!

Many people know about the famous founder and genius André Citroën. But only a few realized that within 2010 now 75 years have passed that the world lost this outstanding man!

Time to remember, time to reflect: On 25-26 September 2010, the French “Automobile Club André Citroen” (www.club-a-citroen.fr) will celebrate a weekend related to this anniversary.

Since it is also the 150th anniversary of the famous 15th arrondissement, the Saturday will start off with an exhibition at the mayor’s place, a corso and Concours d’Elegance at Javel resp. Parc Andre Citroen will be held. Sunday 26th September will go on with a corso tour across Paris to the tomb of Andre Citroen at “cimetière Montparnasse” and to honor Mr. Citroen’s life, followed by a visit of the Conservatoire at Aulnay-Sous-Bois.

Inscriptions for participation are possible via the forms attached, resp via. the club website, or by email to acac@club-a-citroen.fr.

There are limited seats for a VIP part of this event – more details in the inscription form – and any applications must be filed before 15th August 2010.

The forms (please note that there is still a typo, it is 25-26 not 26-27 September of course):

Carl who has been one of the “grandfathers” of the Amicale Citroen Internationale and actively supporting the international movement long time before the official foundation of the organisation, has been active also in various roles eg. as treasurer of Citroen clubs in France and Sweden. Most of us know him also as a member of the organisation of the famous “EuroCitro” gatherings in Le Mans, and many ACI Delegates have met him at our last AGM in January 2010 and in earlier years resp. on the Citroen club stands at Retromobile.

His activities, contributions and active involvements in the formal establishment of ACI have been honored in 2004 with his appointment as one of the ACI Honorary Members.

We certainly will miss a passionate and dedicated “Citroeniste du Coeur” and we are sure that he will be part of our memories for years to come.

In deep sorrow

The ACI Board.

Many Citroën and Panhard Clubs and their members responded to the invitation of the organisers and came in large numbers with their precious collectors cars. More than 16OO classic Citroën and Panhard cars of all types came from far and near in Europe. Tractions, ID’s, DS’s and 2CV’s in all shapes and colors, SM’s, CX’s and many other Citroën vehicles filled the large parking spaces during the two days. A special section was reserved for the most beautiful examples of Rear Wheel Drive cars.

Alongside, the 6000+ visitors could admire the latest models of the brand, especially the trendy DS3, the new C3 and C5.

During Sunday’s program the many visitors and guests where able to watch exciting performances on the racing track by a number of famous Citroën rallye drivers. They showed their skills with demonstrations of older DS and SM rallye cars, as well with a ZX Rallye 1993 and the Xsara WRC 2003 which were kindly loaned by the Conservatoire Citroën, Paris. Many amateur drivers in their collectors cars where also allowed to race around the track during special sessions.

But the Zolder meeting had further attractions to offer, including a Concours d’Elégance, a parcours 4×4 with C-Crosser, a DS3 slalom, karting plus many PlayStations and WRC simulators. Collectors had the opportunity to buy spare parts and scale model from the dealers who exhibited along with some well known Belgian and Dutch restoration companies.

This ACI Event of the Year 2010, quite different from other large international meetings of the brand, offered visitors not only racing action on the track, but also a multiple selection of entertainment and attractions for young and old.

The organising team has to be heartily congratulated for having successfully managed and staged such a popular and successful event.

Selected pictures taken by Didier Parjadis:

The German association of all Citroën car clubs, the “Citroën-Strasse”, will be prominently visible again in Hall 9.1 on their 400 sq.m. booth, this year focusing on some great highlights of the famous brand:

• 40 Jahre Citroën SM / Citroën GS:
  

  Salon de l'Auto 1970

  this anniversary exhibition will display 5-6 cars and focus on the most important highlights of the very prestigious SM “Grand Tourisme” Coupé as well as on the little big brother, the GS middle class model. The clubs provide an interesting retrospective: we will show a stunning GS cutaway engine and gearbox, some interior details, historic videos from publications and the Citroen archives and of course many details from those years.

  Furthermore, as the GS has been elected as the “European Car Of The Year 1971″, we will have a “GS Drapeau” on show.

• “Citroën — sportlich unterwegs”:
  

  Rallye Citroen-Strasse 2010

  

  Poster Rallye Monte Carlo 1959, Citroën DS

  This slogan will be heading the rest of the models being presented, from the very first years to the latest vintage car models. The clubs present a Rallys DS, CX, Panhard with GS-Engine, XM à la “Tour de France”, a 1966 2CV AZAM “Wintersport” and Traction Avant etc.

• VIP guests:
  

  Robert Opron, Bureau des Etudes

  

  Robert Opron

  Mr. Robert Opron, the great Citroën designer and stylist eg. of the new 1967 DS headlights, the SM, GS and CX at the weekend; we are proud to have received his confirmation to our invitation to the show. Certainly one if not *the* highlight to meet one of the brains behind the style and creativity of Automobiles Citroën! Mr. Opron will give some insights into his works as some of the original 3D models he has been working on, will be presented on the stand as well – a “first time” within Germany!

  Of course, also ACI Delegates and others are invited to visit us.

• Memorabilia:
  

  Citroen-Strasse Rotwein 2010

  Of course, as one of the takeaways for this year we have created a dedicated red wine, “serie limitée” for the anniversary resp. the visitors of “Citroën-Strasse” next to the individual club offerings…

The major German Citroën car clubs representing ca. 12.000 club members, will be showing off their portfolio:

Citroen-Strasse 2009: 75 Jahre Traction Avant

Andre Citroën-Club (ACC), Citroën-Veteranen-Club e.V. (CVC), DS-Club Deutschland e.V. (DSCD), Citroën-Club Rhein-Ruhr e.V. (CCRR), Citroën CX-Club Deutschland e.V. (CCXC), Citroën SM-Club Deutschland e.V., Panhard Club Deutschland e.V., Traction Avant IG (TAVIG), XM-IG etc. …

Additionally, expect to meet the ACI as well as the organizers of this year’s “ACI Event Of The Year”, Citroënstory Belgien which will inform about the big event 2 weeks after the Technoclassica fair takes place.

For the Germany clubs, Saturday 10-Apr-2010 is also the day to have the national ACI meeting.

Our partner: the “Automobiles Citroën” booth

The stand of “Citroen-Strasse” will be complemented by another very exciting presentation of the German subsidiary of Automobiles Citroën, Citroën Deutschland GmbH, which will present on their booth in Hall 4 a stunning selection of cars from the Conservatoire and also from the French government:

• The “Citroën SM Présidentielle”, one of the 2 original cars from the Paris Elysée governmental palace, will be shown. A first time ever that this exciting prestigious convertible is now on a show in Germany!
• The “GS Energetique” a famous and unique design made by the French artist Jean-Pierre Lihou in 1976, will be presented from the Conservatoire,
• The “M 35″, Citroën’s very rare ambition to commercialize the Wankel engine, will complement the presentation of the 3 newcomers from 1970 which jointly will be celebrated.
• The “creative technology” (Citroën’s brand claim) of the famous history of the past will be reflected by a presentation of the latest Citroën DS3, bridging the gap from the history to the present.

So please be warm welcome!

On behalf of the clubs,

///Stephan Joest
“Citroën-Strasse” Project Leader,
ACI national Delegate Germany.

more details:
www.amicale-citroen.de

Additional fairground info, travel, trip, accomodation, entry tickets etc.: Messe Essen / SIHA, www.siha.de

Fairground map:

Between 16th and 18th of April 2010, the biggest vintage car fair in this country takes place – inside the National Railway Museum. Certainly worth a look: enjoying both cars and trains at one location!

And of course get into contact with the Citroën Automobile Club Hungary (CACH) who is presenting the many activities of the Citroën community. This year the CACH focus is of course on the 40th anniversary of Citroën SM and the GS, and they also presenting Citroën Sport.

They will also give a stunning 2CV show on the open air ground next to the venue.

For more details, have a look at http://www.otexpo.hu/

Great news – thanks, Roland!