Basel, Switzerland, a small town bisected by the Rhine and tucked in along the border of Germany and France, is an unlikely home for the biggest art fair in the world. Aside from Pope Felix V?s Council of Basel, from 1431-49, a brief rebellion in 1831 and Dr. Albert Hoffmann?s accidental discovery of LSD in 1943, the city has, for the most part, been pretty quiet, historically speaking. Basel is now home to a few large pharmaceutical companies and businesses, and it should be noted that the city has the world?s oldest Museum of Art, founded in 1661.
Clocks, Chocolate… Basel
Ian Green and James Westcott
Basel for dummies
Basel, Switzerland, a small town bisected by the Rhine and tucked in along the border of Germany and France, is an unlikely home for the biggest art fair in the world. Aside from Pope Felix V?s Council of Basel, from 1431-49, a brief rebellion in 1831 and Dr. Albert Hoffmann?s accidental discovery of LSD in 1943, the city has, for the most part, been pretty quiet, historically speaking. Basel is now home to a few large pharmaceutical companies and businesses, and it should be noted that the city has the world?s oldest Museum of Art, founded in 1661.
Art Basel for dummies
Art Basel? it seems a bit like hosting the Olympics in Hoboken instead of New York. But the olympics of the art world it certainly is: between June 15 and 20, the 36th incarnation of Art Basel will feature 270 galleries (with 160 gallery booths, the Armory is exhausting enough) from about 30 countries, with works by 2,000 artists. Around 50,000 people will visit. However, unlike the Olympics, once you?ve made it in here, you can already consider yourself a winner. From the champagne pouring to the collectors and dealers networking on the "Professional Day," to the publicity generated by 1,600 journalists from 50 countries, the festival is an enormous celebration of art, and a self-celebration of the people in the art world. The fair proudly advertizes itself as "the mecca of the international art world," and, "the world?s largest temporary museum." This is certainly true but, perhaps just as important, is the fact that the show also calls itself, just as proudly, "the most important annual marketplace in the world." At least they?re honest. Basel is about a celebration of art, but it?s primarily about buying and selling.
Galleries paid $340 per square meter for exhibition space last year, and there were 870 applicants for the 270 spaces. Galleries were selected by the "Art Committee" (Victor Gisler, David Juda, Claes Nordenhake, Esther Schipper, Micheline Szwajcer and Gianfranco Verna) and a board of expert consultants (Florence Bonnefous, Toby Webster, Patrice Cotensin and Alain Paviot).
No surprises
The catalogue and website lists all of the participating galleries and works beforehand. Although the work is familiar?you probably saw it in New York, Miami, and London?the art displayed is undoubtedly the cr?me de la cr?me (and if you think this is elitist, that?s cool, you can go to one of the alternative art events in Basel, and the alternative alternative events). Unlike the Armory, there?s no rule at Basel about showing only new work by living artists. This might make for more stodginess; what it also does is provide more eclecticism, and a breather from the desperate need to be prophetic and relevant. Instead, simply everyone important will be shown, from the great masters of modern art through contemporary classics such as Warhol, Beuys and Christo, to the youngest generation of artists. Some of the biggest sales last year predictably went to Gagosian: Jeff Koons? "Celebration" series sculpture, Elephantsold for $2.4 million, and Jean-Michel Basquiat?s, Untitled One Eyed, sold for over $2 million.
A love-in
Patricia Piccinini?s Undivided, 2004, which will be shown by the Roselyn Oxley9 gallery from Sydney, is a story-book work of a sleeping child, curled up in the fetal position in bed. Spooning him from behind is a grotesque yet strangely peaceful creature, also fast asleep. Then we notice a teddy bear lying forlornly on the floor by the bed. Likewise, Art Basel?and all the other fairs too?represents the comfortable union of happy bedfellows dealers and collectors, or as some critics pejoratively label them, buyers. It might be a stretch, and rather sentimental too, to call the artists themselves the discarded teddy on the floor?they benefit from festivals and need them just like everyone else in the art world. Now that festivals exist, we simply can?t do without them.
A curatorial democracy?
Galleries? displays in booths change from day to day as buyers snatch up pieces. There?s little room for curating as we know it. Each booth is a store front. Prepare to get shoppers? fatigue. Does the makeshift shopping mall set-up violate the precious art work? We could look upon it as a constantly self-renewing exhibition curated only by the ruthlessly honest and egalitarian hand of commerce: Sell, remove, replace, repeat. No pretentions of taste here, or hand-wringing about the vagaries of context. It?s a leveling of a kind, but is it the kind wished for by all those critiques of elitist curatorial practices in museums and galleries?
Think outside the booth
"Art Unlimited" takes place in a special 12,000 square meter area of Hall 1 for projects and performances that can?t be contained in a booth. This blurs the lines between art fair and art festival: while many of these works won?t be ?and can?t be?sold directly, they will certainly add value to the prints and sculptures in the booths next door. Marina Abramovic, Doug Aitken, and Walter de Maria are among the 72 artists producing performances, installations and outsize video projections there. This hall is curated like a museum exhibition, by a group called Show Management.
There must be alternatives
With "Art Unlimited" and the huge public art projects outside the exhibition hall in the Messeplatz (Paul McCarthy had one of his big inflatables there last year), the alternatives are already encoded into Art Basel itself, in a way. But for galleries too young or too poor to participate, there are of course other forums outside of the main event?this has become a tradition, almost a clich� of art fairs. No one is excluded, really.
Everyone can bask in reflected glory, or in the thrill of (sanctioned) rebellion. Chief among these parallel events is LISTE: The Young Art Fair. The festival is now ten years old, but takes steps to avoid becoming an institution in itself: artists are allowed to participate only three or four times, and they are usually under 40 years old. But commerce and art happily commingle at LISTE just as they do at Basel, and it?s a training ground for the big arena: one-third of the 170 gallerie who participated at LISTE in the last ten years have gone on to pitch their tent at Art Basel. Everyone wants in, and who can blame them?
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The Chorus
Basel is contemporary art’s most influential trade fair ? Newsweek, New York
Basel Art Fair maintains its international leadership ? International Herald Tribune
Olympics of Art World ? New York Times
A Modern Art Mecca ? Wall Street Journal
…Art Basel, the non plus ultra of fairs ? The New York Observer
Billed as the biggest and best contemporary art fair in the world ? Financial Times, London
Europe’s most prestigious 20th-century art fair ? Wall Street Journal Europe
…firmly established as the leading event in the crowded field of modern and contemporary art fair ? The ARTnewspaper, New York
Art in Basel is the foremost fair for modern and contemporary art ? Art Now Gallery Guide, Clinton/NJ
… annual gathering place for many of contemporary and modern art’s heaviest hitters ? Art & Antiques, New York
La plus belle foire du Monde ? Le Monde, Paris
Num�ro un mondial des foires ? Le Figaro, Paris
Des collectioneurs du monde entier, des oeuvres de qualit� mus�e: le barom�tre rev� pour connaitre l’�tat du march� ? Les Echos, Paris
…le plus grand mus�e temporaire ? Journal de Gen?ve
Kunst in ihrer besten Art – Unangefochten: Die Art in Basel ? Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurt
Weltweit wichtigste Messe f�r moderne und zeitgenssische Kunst ? Neue Z�rcher Zeitung, Z�rich
… nach wie vor wichtigste Marktveranstaltung f�r die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts ? Finanz und Wirtschaft, Z�rich)
… die weltbeste Kunstmesse ? Focus Magazin, M�nchen
…die wichtigste Messe f�r die Kunst unseres Jahrhunderts ? S�ddeutsche Zeitung, M�nchen
Als w�r’s ein Moderne-Museum ? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Mostra leader per l’arte del XX secolo ? Il Sole 24 Ore, Milano
…la pi? importante mostra-mercato del mondo ? Milano Finanza
Il pi? bel museo a termine del mondo ? Vogue
Sin lugar a dudas, la feria principal ? El Mundo, Madrid
…la mas importante y profesional del mundo ? La Vanguardia, Barcelona
…el centro de todos los intercambios artisticos de Japan, USA y Europa ? El Mundo, Madrid
Las �ltimas corrientes artisticas ? El Pais
Baselm�ssen tar ut sv�ngarna rej�lt ? Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm
