SU rrowatum ar liwalxePreliminaries and Thank U When the idea for The Art Fair Age came to me, | felt that I had come across something very substantial. I had the sense that the “fair” phenomenon had been addressed only in a superficial way—even by the people who have an interest in it. The majority of them are clearly and loudly against it; as for the rest, no one knows what they are thinking, although both groups actively participate in this rash “fairism.” ‘Art fairs, just like globalization, are neither good nor bad: they simply reflect the current state of the art (market). Being against art fairs, as Amanda Coulson points out in the preface, is akin to being against art and artists. Michele Robecchi, too, provides a clear perspective of what he sees as a bogus art fair/biennial debate, noting that the two are like “apples and oranges.” Everyone has a duty to their own contemporary time and society. In my capacity as a curator To criticize or to participate? involved with art fairs, I feel that my To copy or to create? duty is to contribute a theoretical Those are the questions. framework that will serve to analyze this art fair age with more depth and equanimity in this new spirit of capitalism. On the other hand, the surprising lack of such a book made the project even more attractive, as the first to market—Ries and Trout—sets the rules. ‘We live in the midst of Hughes's “Culture of Complaint” and Ridderstrale and Nordstrom’s “Karaoke Capitalism.” To criticize or to participate? To copy or to create? Those are the questions. It is crystal clear to me. The Art Fair Age is nothing more than a tale of the curator-gone-fairman. Idon’t want to flood these pages with an ocean of thank you notes, I'd just like to name that small group of people who have lived and “suffered” through the creation of this book, some of them almost on a daily basis. In the first place, my wife Ana, who I have deprived of many hours of family time and whose commentaries have helped to make the book juicier. In the second place, I would like to mention the endless08 2 39 Contents Is There Just Too Much Art? 59.3. The Advent of Expanded Amanda Coulson Painting Multiple Inclusion Diagram Let Me Entertain You: The (MID) Never-Ending Debate Techno-Referentiality around Art Fairs and The New Spirit of Painting Biennials and the Multiple Relation Michele Robecchi Diagram (MRD) Introduction 71 4. Chambres des Too Many Art Fairs? Collectionneurs New Players Homo Collecticus, Karaoke A Tout Not So Grandliose) and Interpassivity Collector's Motivation 1. The Art Fait as Urban Pyramid Entertainment Center (UEC) The 10 Rules of Collecting Quality of Experience Good and Bad Shopping -81_ 5. Fun, Funds and Funky Positioning and Exoticism Branding Small Is Beautiful Pareto’s Portfolio and Seneca’s Boat 2, The Curated Art Fair and (City) Branding and Brand Art the Art Fair Curator Guide to Finding a Good Curators (on the) Move: Advisor From Infomediator to Guerrilla Curator 93. Epilogue New Faitism A Brief Note on Theme The Curator’s Wall and Parks, Art Fair Architecture Relational Curating and Chill Outs 10 Guidelines for a Curated The Art Fair We Want: Art Fair Scenario 20202 Ca Introduction 1 feel confused, I would like to think that this state of doubt is the true reflection of the “new spirit of capitalism” so accurately described by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello.’ The capitalist sys- tem—or to be more exact, neo-capitalism—still maintains that complex and contradictory spirit that accompanied its advent back in the sixteenth century when it emerged as a dominant form and became the only mode of social organization of the economy. Fast-forward half a millennium and in spite of other competi- tors, capitalism is still a contradictory phenomenon that has the capacity to limit and reinforce itself at the same time. On one hand, “the demand of unlimited accumulation of capital by means of formally peaceful ways” still remains valid; on the other hand, there is “the ideology which justifies a compromise with capital- ism.” And this justifying ideology, capable of (re)generating the devotion that the capitalist process requires, constitutes the new spirit of capitalism. Many times the downfall of capitalism has been announced, and just as many times the “death” of painting. Even though such theories have been derived separately, I can see a certain correlation that is more than logical, From the moment a paint- ing becomes merchandise subject to trading in the market— “market” being understood as the public place where one sells, buys or exchanges goods and services—it contributes to the cre- ation of a set of thoughts that are the true reflection of the eco- nomic practices, social ideals and religious rituals of its particu- lar historical period. “This was an age [c. late 1500s],” writes Elizabeth Alice Honig, “when commerce overflowed the bound- aries of the marketplace and penetrated all aspects of life: the market, and its pictorial representation, were crucial grounds for 1 Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, E/ nuevo espiritu del captalismo, 2002, Ediciones Akal, Madrid. English version: The New Spirit Of Capitalism, 2006, ‘rans. Gregory Elliott, Verso, New York and London. 2.Ibid,, p.35. 3. Ibid, p-4l 5Painting and market tMeology have barily changed since he burgeoning ofcaptaiom in early modern Ant bakin ra Roberto Coromina, Untied, 2002, on abet, 65x81 cm, testing how the new ideas could be made to fit ing . reasonable patterns of belief and behavior at Seay Sil, nowadays neo-capitalism tres new ideas at progress and its promoters, the Mater, impresatios and this ¢ agers, wil find a conceptualization tht is loser ope with) the moral pillars of society. In that sense, he gn not changed much since the Middle Ages if we anja ofthe coopman of tide: “In tems of medieval conan, ing, this petreis based on the ce ‘poi of pron ing to which as many goods as possibl le must be attracted ing towns for the benefit of consumers; in terms of sacl tug based on a view of society founded on natural lavs tha included mutual aid and bros erly love and excluded person initiative and acquisitiveness” With his play De Coopman' the Dutch writer and humanist Dirck Volckertszoon Coorhet appeals in 1580—just like many other voices from that period— to the “social responsbilty’ of the economic exchange. From there to the current concept of “corporate social responsibil ity” (CSR) there is, with the help of a bit of imagination, only a tiny step. Art flows between experience, branding and emotion, cm ing all of those in a market where the fair, from the ancient ae of the word jaarmarkt or annual trade fais, is its iconic metsPhO Pythagoras, too, reminded us that this world is “a fair ee ee aspired with all their physical ability to achieve glory and Bae were attracted by gain and desire to buy and sell.”” Much ‘ ner, 178 4 lizabeth Alice Honig, Painting and the Market in Early Moder Ante? peal Press, New Haven, p. 3-4. 67 cent &.De Coopman. Aanwysende d'oprechtse conste om Christelyk ende met :: Ssclchen moede int winnen ende verixen coophandel te dryven od wih Bal Cabins The Honest Art of Practicing Trade in a Christian Manner rage Whether Gaining or Losing). " {Quoted by Mares Talus Cicero in Tasclon Disattions, book V through 11, card, & From Marx, Renan, Ricardo, Lukics, Benjamin, Fischer to Debord 30 Bordieu, Rifkin et al i chapters7same way as the capitalist system, culture, and especially art, have known how to reconcile critical or even contradictory elements: the transmutation of the work of art as a symbolic product into merchandise with the same “romantic” demands of authenticity, disinterest, sublimity or humanization. All of the above gives us an idea of the complexity and enthusi- asm that cause a debate where, according to the conventional analysis schemes, the market prospers and art degenerates, It’s once again the dialectic mercantilization vs. autonomy of art.* In my opinion, there is hardly any sense in judging the present with the ideals of the past. 0‘The neo-capitalist society is currently in a stage of transforma tion and is entering into a state of restlessness while searching foy arguments and encouragement that will help it sustain its claims of legitimacy as well as enable it to create followers. Being a subjecy of this interconnected society, I assume the requirement of flex. bility and mobility; I adopt different identities—curator / broker / advisor / artistic director/ facilitator / communicator—accordi to projects; I search for common objectives; I network, blurri the lines between professional relationships and personal friend. ships and between work time and leisure time as a consequence of my personal and professional self-realization.’ After all, we all have to come face to face, at some moment, with the enthusiastic accu- ssations originating from the moral high ground of att.and knowledge in a rapid and inexpensive manner between cities and people. Right here we have precisely one of the problems of the art market: its inefficiency, opacity and imperfection. At this point it is impossible to place the dilemma in continuist or rupturist terms. The market is there, and each time there are more and newer players who compete in it. It would be like blaming global- ization for the world’s problems. Globalization, just like the market, is neither good nor bad; it simply becomes what we make of it." But at least we can aspire to reveal its mechanisms. Finally, here the competition shows itself to be not sufficiently gifted with regulatory power, and the Smithian metaphor” seems doomed towards the “invisible hand of the collector.” The imperfection of the market function causes disconcerting, ‘not to say farfetched, situations. In the nineteenth century an | artist’ life was deemed “authentic” mainly if it was not compart other words, if he managed to unite all facets of ‘same existence to orientate it towards the realization of a ork of art and the singularity of its creator.” In the twenty-first ‘many of the role players in the art world live compart- "ship. when the time comes to create a future projet. |The actual uistable situation . of the artist reminds me of the of the artist as Ecce is not so incredible if we remem- positions of Ecce 1530 and 1575 le in Aertsen’s 1550-1552), activity at the sameMian. ing on the arts as a final point of investment. New players and new emerging economies—India, China, Rus- sia and the Middle East—are in search of a new diversification for their portfolios: pension funds, hedge funds," revolving funds as well as private investors. Another type of investor such as US based Vornado Realty threatens the market by “collecting att fairs.”” Its trade fairs division—Merchandise Mart Properties Inc-—bought Art Chicago in 2006 and The Armory Show and the VOLTA show in 2007. But not everything is about investment. Innovative initiatives like the Artist Pension Trust (APT) are highly welcome. “APT's primary focus,” states Bijan Khezri, “is to build one of the world’s ‘most important contemporary art collections for the benefit of the Participating artists, and to provide those artists with a unique and global platform to foster their careers.” A glocal curatorial com- 2»mittee consisting of a number of important independent curators provides the necessary independence to identify and nominate the artists. In a 10-20 year period the selected artist will engage with the program by investing 20 artworks that are representative of his career, At the end the artist will benefit not only from his perfor- mance, but from of all the APT members. At this point, we shouldn’t forget that economics and its theo- ries and forecast models are “probabilistic” and not “determinis- tic.” For many economists art constitutes a random chance, a _ “black hole” of an unknown matter in the induction-deduction- contrast process. A Tour Not So Grand(iose) Malcolm Gladwell tells in his interesting book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” the anecdote of the fake kouros in _ perfect condition, which the art dealer Gianfranco Becchina had offered to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. It was a perfect - seeing it. One of them, Arthur Houghton, an ex- Museum in New York, explains that ed his mind on seeing the kouros was the first word that immedi- eing Documenta 12, the inster was “mediocre.” aS C ling via e- of the VOLTA of Artof his town.” So he considered important, as Furnesvik continues, “the participation of international artists and their presence in the ‘opening in order to emphasize the international dialogue and the city as its meeting place.” “International dialogue” and “meeting place,” how current those words sound despite being said more than a century ago! Aren't the biennials the ones who are“ could even place there the et are birth of modern “city market- actually competing with the art fairs? oP iar rtitike the bien. nials offer great expectations about the number of visitors and other macro-economic dimensions. In the last few decades the number of biennials has increased, and especially so in the badly named periphery, from Africa, Australia to Asia, Latin America and even Europe: the Asian-Pacific Triennial (Brisbane); the now gone Africus Biennale; the Biennial of the End of the World, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; the Valencia Biennial... ‘Aren’t the biennials the ones who are actually competing with the art fairs? I say this because almost everything displayed in Documenta and Venice is sold beforehand or is being sold in route." Either way, with its meager budget the Venice Biennale pase a re on sie big aliens pela collectors, which ae and in1, The Art Fair as Urban Entertainment Center (UEC) Aceerrmerecsree In the current neo-capitalist system, the art fair has assumed the pea status of Urban Entertainment Center (UEC). Logically, I am para- Din & GeoFuels, phrasing and extrapolating the concept given that there is no single eae aes widely accepted definition of the term. It is considered that it was CouncsyGaleis ADN, the Walt Disney Company that first gave birth to the concept when Barone it rejuvenated the decayed Times Square area in New York by means of restoring the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street. In that way Times Square was reborn in 1997, and the Disney Store served to attract other businesses to the area—Planet Hollywood, Madame Tussauds—focusing on family and tourist leisure. As the American geographer and urban planner John S. Ben- der points out in his meticulous work “An Examination of the Use of Urban Entertainment Centers as a Catalyst for Downtown Revitalization,”' UECs are created with the goal of recovering and revitalizing an impoverished and derelict downtown area, where property contractors, municipal government and, even "more importantly, companies specializing in the entertainment industry—such as Disney World, MCA Universal Studios or jount’s King’s Dominion—all join forces to intervene. the act of shopping is confounded with the advent of a and. peeaningesent experience in the midst of a spectacular, nally vibrant architecture, a symbol as well as a cl af new spirit of capitalism. h “it” architects of the “Atchitainment” re the creation of commercial projects that and theatrical entertainment with fs the Californian Jon Adams Jerde.again. Failing to do so denigrates the offering. Rather than an experience that remains the same between visits, people would rather try a new one where they don’t know quite what to expect and are sure to be pleasantly surprised.”* According to this theory, society has entered an era where experience has become the most prized economic offering. If agricultural society offered goods, industrial society offered man- ufactured products and post-industrial society offered services, then the current society offers experiences, And pethaps a small comparison of the modern experience society with the post- industrial one will eliminate any doubt: where once there were services, today there are experiences; where once there were deliveries, today there are stagings; where once there were intan- gible services, today there are memorable experiences; while there used to be customers, now there are guests; and what were once benefits have become sensations. We pay for experiencing or accessing a product—as Jeremy Rifkin clearly points out in The Age of Access—and not so much for the product itself: Prada sells a lifestyle; a dinner in a restau- rant becomes a success when, beside the food, it’s the ambience that remains in our minds over time. Andy Warhol once said, “New York restaurants do not sell their food, they sell their atmosphere.”’And what about BMW, when they seduce us with questions like “Do you like driving?” or Viceroy with “It’s not what you have, but who you are!” Different authors insist in different ways on this supposedly oneiric and emotional quality of modern society and capitalism. There are various types and levels of experiences. The art fair as a concept represents par excellence the paradigm of that experi- ence economy: a center where a limited offer of artworks on sale allows, unlike biennials and museums, one to transcend the mere category of “spectator” in order to become a “role-player” through research, bargaining and (though not necessarily) buying awork of art. Art fairs will exist not only for the quality of art displayed but also for the quality of “experience” offered. So, despite having been designed explicitly as a trade fair, ARCO converted, right from the start in 1982 and within its own historical context—40 years of dictatorship and disconnection from contemporary art—into a media spectacle that extended much further than the 6, ].B. Pine II and J.H. Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage, 1999, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, p. 95. 7. Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warbol, 1975, Penguin Books, London, p. 159. eo)limits of a conventional trade fair. ARCO thus becan forcing ov her f eh setter, forcing over time other fairs such as Art Basel tg 0 lo ew ping from El Paés (Sunday, February 16, 1997) “Thee Te well Reseed: the gentlemen with expensive shoes and the la high fashion clothes; but the shadows under their eyes gives the exhaustion ctused by an overloaded program: perforant? parties, museums, art fairs, conferences and after-hours, he they begin all over again.” Back then Miguel Mora wrote whe appears to be a perfect description of the “event” into which a fairs have transformed, regardless of whether we ate talking about Frieze, Art Basel, the Armory Show or CIRCA PR. Sam Keller affirmed, just before he left perhaps his greatest achiew ment, the fact that “Art Basel has developed as an event which combines commercial and cultural goals. We don't even use the term ‘fair’ anymore to describe Art Basel; we call it an art ‘show! which is more appropriate,”* OF course Sam Keller did a gret job, but we should honor history, in this case ARCO's histor Now we only need to change the word “show” for “experience and we are there, ‘The Grand Tour experience was disappointing, and this pas edition of Art Basel wasn’t the best, including Art Statements, aside from the magnificent installation by Carlos Garaicoa and the intelligent Art Fair Proposals by Peter Liversidge.’ Howevet in the parallel fairs there were interesting things. same. Have a look at this more than ten-year-old n. Good Shopping and Bad Shopping. On the first pages of this book I quoted the simile of “the world a5 a fair,” referring to Pythagoras, also quoted by Cicero in his Tusculan Disputations, according to whom some men aspired “® glory,” while others were attracted by “the gain and need 0 D0 5, antabuse and sell.” “There were a few,” the quote continues, “who We wxiidornelba 8 above all those things, they observed with desire the nature Ga eee things; those sere called the wisdom zealots or philosophers: thst Saf dqsoe rr Ger hcfrecamen wes wo be a spec nts een tor without acquiring anything for himself.” ‘ie 9%, 298, ec teers, faith Bet centuey BC, bad already anticipared with bit wnbin nin. 250% from ihe “Rneto 8. Sam Keller interviewed by Cristina Ruiz and Melanie Getis in The Art amb Seven” Newspaper/Art Basel Miami Beach Daly Editon, December 3, 2007, P. erehrme rte cadclpr sigs wncng ccc proporda wo rin a duty-free shop i rer Oxere,Por RD stand of his gallery—Ingleby Gallery—from the Art Stat ats booth, Also to invite from the tatement me a used as logo for the local Basel tourism office to set up a small stand inside the booth so that peor ConAPROO. aware ofthe other delights Basel has o offer. 10, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, book V, chapters 7 through 1 a abe corrupted by the o1 t giastic delight in shopping, in plunging into this living world of ideas of happiness.”® In the midst of alienation and general neurosis, art shopping as a sophisticated version of fun shopping aspires to become a revolutionary doc- trine: a hedonist performative behavior turned into a transgres- sive act, exercised with self-realizing enthusiasm, inside the liber- ating space of an art fair. From the Marxian “merchandise fetishism” we jump to the “object fetishism” of the art shopper or collector of the (upper) middle class or bourgeoisie. In the end, among some people, there is a principle of solidar- ity: the misery of those who can’t access the desired products is connected to the happiness of those who can, It is necessary to share the same world. So we have respectively the ordinary man who loves art, the art critic and the independent curator on the _ one hand, and the art advisor, the director or chief curator and the collector on the other. The former are mere spectators, while ‘the latter are the great participators; the former have access to the rt but the latter have access to the VIP lounge; and among + elite there are those who have access to the VIP UBS and NetJets, and those who come in their own Here we can catch a glimpse of what Canadians er expressed in The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture d airlines, BAA strategic director Nick -ago that “the businesses which want must contribute to the would make the experience Mr. Ziebland is on the rightThis is a hostile takeover.”* In a doubtful third place I would put the Armory Show, and behind it is a long list of medium art fairs. It is commonly accepted that Art Basel is “the mother of all art fairs,” and it will continue to be so given that the big collectors will find themselves obliged to “sign up.” If one doesn't belong to the cream of the crop, it's good to turn to Montesquieu and his De l'Esprit des Lois (1748) in order to be advised that “the nature of the geographical terrain and climate are one of the most pow- erful causes of cultural differentiation.” As I mentioned earlier, exoticism is inherent and cannot be bought. That's why fairs like Basel Miami, MACO in Mexico City, CIRCA PR in San Juan, Art Dubai’ and the new Shanghai Contemporary sum up in their artistic offering the “myth of the exotic nature,”” which entirely invades the experience economy, just like the colonists in the seventeenth century (though without religious intent in this case), to which collectors and other mem- bers of the art world come with a poorly concealed delight. The rapid and unstoppable ascendance of Basel Miami” can be understood in this context for the “quality” of experience that it | offers: celebrated during a very appropriate time with a climate equally pleasant; in a deliciously deco-kitsch beach setting; with visits to collectors’ houses and non-stop parties. The same can be " renga ae Con esporaty hich will bank oo interest in things Chinese,very practical, and you don’t enjoy them either. The small fairs— hosting 40 to 60 galleries—allow for the application of the two Schumacherian rules that “people should be truly people” and that “the number of relationships formed among people should be big,” The second aspect of the solution is economics. A large num- ber of galleries mean a large number of works that in turn requires more collectors; a small number of exhibitors mean ler sales pressure. On the other hand, large art fairs make it DE Serie falc mandgrenene vo at the adler or boosting sales.