Untitled - Art Dubai

SPECIAL REPORT
Staying on Course
Art Dubai's 7th edition saw 75 galleries from 30 countries participate.
How did the fair make an impact on the global art calendar? Bharti Lalwani finds out.
Art Dubai 2013 was mounted from the 20th
to the 23rd of March. Artists on show were
from North Africa, Middle East and South
Asia; the scale was intimate and there were
interesting works to discover alongside the
usual blockbuster booths. There was also the
occasional cliché such as New York-based
Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s three abstract
canvases, the Gates of Narcissus: Gilded
Reflection series, at Leila Heller Gallery.
Produced in 24 carat gold and made
especially for Art Dubai, the work belonged
to the same genre as Palestinian artist Laila
Shawa’s bejewelled assault rifle, Where Souls
Dwell.
As for the blockbuster booths, the night
before the fair, Tobias Sirti of Arndt Berlin
told me to look out for “the big red booth”.
He wasn’t kidding. A solo booth with
red floor and walls showcased sculptural
works of Wim Delvoye within the setting
of an early 19th century Aleppo salon
from Delvoye’s own collection. Not to be
outdone, first time participant Victoria
Miro also put on a spectacular solo show
by Yayoi Kusama, who turned 84 on the
22nd of March. India had a small but stellar
representation with only three galleries:
Exhibit 320 (Delhi), Experimenter
(Kolkata) and Tasveer (Bangalore). First
time participant Exhibit 320 presented a
solo booth with Sachin George Sebastian’s
paper works and an installation by Vibha
Galhotra at the curated exhibition, Sculpture
on the Beach. Galhotra’s work, Orbis Unum,
featured small, colourless flags of every
nation jutting out from rows of wooden
panels on a wall alongside earth-piles from
Italy (where the artist began the work),
India (where it was assembled) and Dubai
(where it was finally shown).
According to Exhibit 320 Director Rasika
Kajaria, “The only strategy that can be used
at any fair is to present strong works as this
enables collectors to gain an insight into
the artist’s practice, especially if they are
being introduced to it for the first time. We
met curators from important institutions in
Europe and America and also found that the
artworks we brought touched a whole new
collector base from the UAE and Turkey.”
Not deflecting from the ongoing violence
in the Middle East, Syrian artist Fadi
Yazigi’s Fork, Knife and Spoon, bronze
Wim Delvoye. Aleppo
Salon. Art Dubai 2013.
Courtesy of ARNDT
Berlin and the artist.
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SPECIAL REPORT
Yayoi Kusama. Installation at Victoria Miro
Gallery booth at Art Dubai 2013.
Courtesy Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc., Ota
Fine Arts, Tokyo and Victoria Miro, London.
© Yayoi Kusama.
sculptures exhibited at Atassi Gallery
(Damascus), revealed a dark mutation of
simple pleasures such as dining with family
while hearing gunfire and explosions. In the
cool glitz of Dubai it was hard to recall the
Arab Spring or think about the ongoing
massacre in Syria, but Canvas, a Dubaibased culture magazine, iterated how Atassi
and Ayyam galleries foresaw the strife and
shipped out their inventory of modern
and contemporary art outside Syria. The
gallerists were worried about the safety of
their artists, many of whom have relocated
to Dubai. Here was an example of a fair
that facilitated art which was socially and
politically engaging. Art Dubai also hosted
strong discussion forums amongst not just
art world personalities but also musicians
and cultural thinkers while a VIP program
granted visitors access to collectors’ homes.
This year’s Marker edition, a section of
the fair devoted to a particular region,
had Nigerian curator Bisi Silva selecting
five West African art spaces – Centre for
Contemporary Art (Lagos), Carpe Diem
(Ségou), Nubuke Foundation (Accra),
Raw Material Company (Dakar) and
Espace doual'art (Douala) – to expound
the theme of ‘cities in transition’. Although
not satisfying, Marker allowed these
fledgling initiatives to find new audiences
and collectors, facilitating conversations
between artists, curators and potential
collaborators.
Silva explained, “The experience has
made us all aware of having some kind of
presence at international art fairs and it
is hoped that by working collaboratively,
some of the galleries would try and come
back in future years. The focus and the
critical mass would not be the same, of
course, but the intention to continue and
build strong relationships with those who
are interested is there. Besides, some of the
galleries did well in terms of sales.”
Through a few conversations with some
Nigerian artists and curators, I found that
their concerns centred on enabling and
sustaining art practice and patronage within
Nigeria. How can one discuss collecting
art without addressing basic electricity
and water issues when talking about
conservation and storage? How can one
even discuss the ‘local art market’ when
the aforementioned infrastructure is not
in place? This discussion concluded with
the possibility of the art market existing
outside of the continent, perhaps in Dubai,
where the fair acts as a facilitator, educator
and all-round catalyst for a cultural forum
that addresses the absence of museums and
public institutions. This puts Art Dubai and
its Director, Antonia Carver, in a crucial
position to determine the shape of things
to come.
Steering in a New Direction
Art Basel Hong Kong debuted amid much fanfare. Bharti Lalwani asks whether
the revamped version measured up to the heightened expectations.
The first edition of Art Basel Hong Kong
was on view from the 22nd to the 26th of
May with a line-up of 245 galleries from
across the globe, over half of which were
from the South Asian and Asia-Pacific
region. The usual big name galleries were
present but Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner
and Iwan Wirth were conspicuous by their
absence. With the Hong Kong Fair timed
so close to its parent event, it was clear
that most of the top-tier galleries were
saving their best for Basel in June. Scott
Stover, President, Global Art Development
and Founding Executive Director, Centre
Pompidou Foundation, mused over the
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timing of the fair, “The same galleries are
virtually guaranteed a significant share of
their yearly turnover in Basel, which makes
it impossible for them to show the best
work available, saving them instead for the
main act. Nevertheless, the sheer increase
in the quality and number of galleries, the
number of attendees from the East and
the West, the major international galleries
opening in Hong Kong and the number
of art events outside the fair’s grounds are
evidence of its importance as far as the
global art calendar is concerned.”
Swiss collector Uli Sigg, Russian Maria
Baibakova, Indonesian patron Oei Hong
Djien and new heavyweight on the block,
Jakarta-based Budi Tek were in attendance.
However, the most influential collectors –
including India’s Lekha Poddar, Rajshree
Pathy and Kiran Nadar – were also saving
themselves for Basel and Venice, leaving
many to wonder if the fair had been better
off as Art HK after all.
Having said that, Basel clearly brought
tremendous prestige to one of Asia’s
most established art fairs; the Swiss
demonstrated their clockwork efficiency
and experience in managing the event
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SPECIAL REPORT
which sprawled across two convention
centre floors. The split levels and perhaps
the harsh UV-light made one wonder
which floor had the most underwhelming
art on display. Punctuating the simple
layout were large-scale interventions
constituting the Encounters section,
curated by Yuko Hasegawa. Fresh from her
recent stint curating the Sharjah Biennale,
Hasegawa’s selection of established artists
failed to elicit awe. Jitish Kallat’s fauxbamboo resin scaffolding, Circa (2011),
first seen in his experimental and rather
memorable show at the Bhau Daji Lad
Mumbai City Museum, a pale variant of
which was seen at Chemould Prescott
Road’s booth at the India Art Fair this year,
made an incongruous appearance on the
HK fair ground, courtesy Arndt Gallery
(Berlin/Singapore) which also hosted the
launch of a publication titled Jitish Kallat:
Circa. Meanwhile, this critic wondered how
many more variations of the scaffolding
were going to appear at future fairs.
Speaking of variations, there was Subodh
Gupta as well. Recall the menacing yet
spectacular boat he made for the Kochi
Biennale – What does the vessel contain, that
the river does not (2012); a tame version
tilted unthreateningly at Hauser & Wirth
in London, while a smaller replica of sorts
swung almost vertically in the crowded
Arario Gallery (Seoul) booth at the fair,
looking lost at sea.
Promising to offer intellectual shelter
from the marketplace was the Basel Salon.
Art HK in its previous editions offered
quality talks and programming, so Basel
ought to have trumped expectations. But
sanctimonious topics such as ‘Who Needs
Critics?’ and Intelligence Squared Asia’s
ticketed debate, ‘The Market Is the Best
Judge of Art’s Quality’ (during Art Stage
Singapore 2013, IQ2 debated ‘Art schools
are bad at making good artists’, which
took place in an art school) insulted the
audience’s intelligence and brought down
the level of criticism.
Singapore-based critic and curator Iola
Lenzi, who curated a non-commercial
exhibition, Subjective Truth: Contemporary
Art from Thailand, at Hong Kong’s 10
Chancery Lane Gallery, said, “It is rather
sad that events indigenous to Asia are
valued more highly if endorsed by a
European brand. On the education front,
the talks were disappointingly predictable.
If anything, I expected the Basel brand
to bring a higher level of critical analysis
to what in the end is still a problematic
confrontation between art and the
supermarket format. Fairs in Asia often fill
an institutional vacuum so fair organisers,
aware of this, have a responsibility to the
public to provide a platform for criticism
rather than just acting as propagandist
mouthpieces for the industry.”
Indian galleries like Volte, Exhibit 320,
Chemould Prescott Road, Project 88,
Delhi Art Gallery, The Guild, Vadehra
Art Gallery, Sakshi Gallery and Seven Art
Limited established the banner for young
emerging and established Indian artists.
Critic Girish Shahane curated a solo booth
with Manish Nai’s sculptural work for
Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke.
This once consistently fine fair, helmed
by the universally well-regarded Magnus
Renfrew, however, is in danger of losing
its edge. Does it mean that the best art
will continue to be put up on display for
a European audience? Will the artworks
travel to Asia? After all, the educated, welltravelled Asian collector is a discerning one.
Art Dubai proved that you did not
need a long list of galleries showing a
Eurocentric oeuvre in order to succeed
commercially. By keeping a regional focus,
art fairs can become successful in the long
term by facilitating a neutral ground for
international galleries, artists, collectors,
curators and critics to exchange ideas
and spur the development of art in new
emerging markets.
Xu Zhen. Play. Genuine and
artificial leather, BDSM
accessories, foam, metal,
wood, ropes. 545 cms ×
300 cms × 330 cms. 2013.
Installation at Art Basel
Hong Kong, 2013.
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