So, here we are: why are we here? Frieze and Fiac are behind us (abc berlin is…actually, no, no-one even cares about that). Contemporary Istanbul is opening, as is Artissima in Turin. Next week comes Shanghai’s ART021 and West Bund (oh, and the Shanghai Biennale, curated this year by Raqs Media Collective), and also Art Taipei. There is a lot going on, and the publicity hooters have already started their work for Art Basel Miami Beach. Pause. How did we get here? Two weeks ago I was in Paris. Fiac was fantabulously-fizzo-amazing. We knew it would be, and it was. Not everyone gets to go to the ball though, and this is where the rôle of the subsidiary art fair is so important. It can be a step up, if it all works. Or it can be a step down—possibly off a cliff. At Basel, Liste is a good subsidiary fair. And the others are just that: others. In Miami, NADA has the buzz but the other 999.5 art fairs are just a bad joke (who would inflict such pain upon themselves??!!). In Paris there have been numerous subs, but I want to concentrate on two newcomers, both of which have come up with something new; and they are making serious plays to being serious subs.
ASIA NOW
Paris, more than any other Western city, has welcomed art from East Asia, and particularly China. From the Centre Pompidou to Palais de Tokyo (supported now by Adrian Cheng’s K11 Foundation), to the Fondation Cartier and Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris has fêted and bought the art of China for a long time. More major galleries in Paris show and have shown works by artists from East Asia than any other country besides China itself. So Asia Now, an art fair in Paris devoted to the art of East Asia, seems to make sense. But art fairs are tricky things at the best of times—always an unstable cocktail of location, presentation, connections, and buzz. And sales, of course. Independent from New York thought it would try to eat Art Brussels’ lunch this year, even banning its exhibitors from also showing at Art Brussels. Independent had LOTS of “buzz”. It was COOL. But. It did not SELL.
Asia Now, in its second edition, is more understated. It included non-profit art spaces (SA SA BASSAC from Phnom Penh) and everything was handled smoothly from start to finish—it worked hard to bring collectors to the fair. These are strange times in Paris, though. There is still great uncertainty following the terrorist attacks earlier in the year and that has clearly affected visiting collectors, at least in their minds. From conversations with gallerists and collectors, it does not seem to be the case that the art “bubble”—whatever that may be—has burst, rather that in more uncertain times, economically and politically, people stay with the establishment, and that means Fiac. It is not fair, but it is how it is, and you still have to pay for your booth, whether you’re in the Grand Palais or at 9 avenue Hoche. And no, not enough collectors visited. Not quite. And then there was the art.
Asia Now this year was less easy to reach from Fiac than last year’s. Walkable still, but only with some determination. The location was a grand old house at 9 avenue Hoche. Generally there was plenty of space for exhibitors and it was easy to navigate. The catalogue, unlike so many art fair books, was actually useful, and its contents relatively substantial.
The big problem, though, was the mixed quality of the art. There were galleries that make a great effort and presented great works. Tang Contemporary’s Zhao Zhao installation stood out, as did Magician Space and Yeo Workshop. But too many did not, especially from South East Asia. Are these teething problems? We will see next year. As a rule of thumb, an art fair has 3 years to establish itself, fail or sail.
Now let’s look at Paris Internationale, also in its second edition.
PARIS INTERNATIONALE
I had a lot of fun here. There was a lot of good, sometimes really good, art, and it was shown with panache and frequently with humor, ribald, and whimsy. The entrance fee was your email address. The cafe was fun and affordable and unpretentious—quite an achievement, given its location.
Paris Internationale’s second outing was held at 51 Avenue d’Iéna, a hôtel particulier, built in 1897 in grande style but now a little shabby, but no less extraordinary. It was once the Paris residence of Calouste Gulbenkian, British businessman of Armenian origin, who made a lot of money from oil and also collected art (and left a lot of funds to charitable foundations). 61 galleries and others from 21 countries showed their stuff in over 3,000 meters of faded opulence. There was definitely buzz. It was definitely cool. And there were enough smiling gallerists to attest to know that sales had been won and more were percolating.
There was only one gallery from China, BANK from Shanghai, with a strikingly colorful solo video and photographic presentation by Olivier Herring (a red herring?). Other notable artists were Judith Hopf at Deborah Schamoni from Munich (I cannot wait to see more), a Flo Kasearu video and installation at Temnikova & Kasela of a piece of her house-roof converted into a “paper plane”, Louise Lawler’s sculptures at Tanya Leighton (better than those at Metro Pictures at Fiac) and Jason Matthew Lee at Galerie Crèvecour, which was just plain funny, and finally a young artist from Ireland, Maggie Madden at mother’s tankstation.
So will both succeed? In the current climate that would be unlikely, but I want them both to succeed, and thrive. Asia Now and Paris Internationale have utterly different approaches, but both also show that it is possible to still have a serious art fair with purpose (even when you’re having fun) and for it to be independent, without being Independent. The trouble is how to balance the economics—you can only exclude galleries a,b, and c when you know you will get galleries x,y, and z, and renting a hôtel particulier is pricey, even if it is only for a week.
