Ai Weiwei has been released from prison on bail!

Art Basel 42: Extraordinary Quality, Strong Results and New Attendance Record

Visitors are wearing masks showing the portrait of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the international art show Art 42 Basel, in Basel, Switzerland. AP Photo/Keystone, Georgios Kefalas.

BASEL.- The 42nd edition of Art Basel closed on Sunday, June 19, 2011. This year, the annual reunion of the international artworld attracted more than 65,000 artists, collectors, curators, and art lovers from around the globe, a new record for attendance. The participating galleries, art lovers, and art journalists were unanimous in pronouncing this a superb year for the show in terms of quality. Collectors from all over the globe rewarded the excellent material and booth presentations with strong sales throughout the week across all levels of the market. A great many artists attended the event, among them John Baldessari, Pierre Bismuth, Daniel Buren, Maurizio Cattelan, Janet Cardiff, Jimmie Durham, Liam Gillick, Joan Jonas, Vera Lutter, Goshka Macuga, Sarah Morris, Mai-Thu Perret, Tobias Rehberger, Allen Ruppersberg, Anri Sala, Thomas Schütte, Tino Sehgal, Yinka Shonibare and Cathy Wilkes. And over 50 museum groups, representing almost all the world’s major museums visited Art 42 Basel, as did major private collectors from North and South America, all of Europe and every emerging market of the artworld. At Art 42 Basel, more than 300 galleries from 35 countries exhibited works by over 2,500 artists. Many stands featured thematic exhibitions and one-person shows, and many galleries presented large installations and sculptures. Paintings, works on paper, and photography continued to be strongly represented. The overwhelming majority of exhibitors reported excellent results and made valuable new contacts for the future of their program. Discussing their experience at Art 42 Basel, many gallerists offered positive reports, such as these: Lucy Mitchell-Innes, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York 'This continues to be by far the best international fair in the world. I found the quality to be stronger this year. Galleries really seemed to be trying to make thoughtful presentations of their program and aesthetics. The attendance for this year's show seems much broader, and we have experienced sales to buyers from all over the globe.' Iwan Wirth, Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, London, New York 'This year has been exceptional, with a tremendous response to the works on show, especially Paul McCarthy, leading up to our major show in both the London and New York galleries this November. The buying has been intelligent, vibrant and inspired. This may well be our best Art Basel ever.' David Zwirner, Gallery David Zwirner, New York 'Collector confidence was definitely back this year, and there was a lot of positive energy all around. In addition to seeing our dedicated clients from Europe, we were excited to see that a number of the new collectors we met during recent travels to Asia also made their way to Basel. And we were especially grateful that our presentations at Art Unlimited for Jason Rhoades and Fred Sandback were so enthusiastically received.' Alex Logsdail, Lisson Gallery. London 'The fair this year has been a great success in terms of both volume of sales and the diversity of artists that we have sold. By the end of the first day there were only five works left unsold on the stand. People seem to have enormous confidence in the future of both established and emerging artists, which is highly encouraging. Over all, another great year in Basel.' Friedrich Petzel, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York 'Art 42 Basel has again been proven to our most successful fair. This year, more contacts and sales were made to newer collections and institutions. Art Basel is constantly improving, as the audience is changing.' Ciléne Andréhn, Andréhn-Sciptjenko, Stockholm 'The opening day was very intense. The solo show of Matts Leiderstam’s works, well-known by many but new to others, has received extremely positive feedback from collectors and curators alike resulting in sales to Europe, Asia and the US.' Nils Staerk, Staerk Gallery, Copenhagen 'We had an excellent opening, with sales to both public and private collectors. The piece 'I Copy Therefore I Am' by Superflex was a huge magnet to the booth, and two out of three editions sold to private collectors, in Europe and Latin America.' Alison Jacques, Alison Jacques Gallery, London 'Our solo presentation of Lygia Clark has been an unqualified success. Art Basel is the perfect context to show and promote this work. It has been extremely gratifying to see top level collectors and, importantly, key international curators and museum directors responding so enthusiastically to the work.' Ola Gustafsson, Elastic Gallery, Stockholm 'Taking the step from Liste and selling out the booth in the first hour of the preview – then recieving positive feedback from the most prominent museums, collectors and curators is what Art Basel can deliver like no other fair.' Jörg Maass, Kunsthandel Maass, Berlin 'We are thrilled about the show and recorded a strong demand for works by Otto Dix, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Lyonel Feininger from Europe and the United States. If the quality is right, the exchange rate doesn't matter.' Art Unlimited spotlighted 62 ambitious works and once again drew a huge audience. Many of the exhibited pieces were created especially for Art 42 Basel. Highlights included major works by legendary artists Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Dan Flavin, Mona Hatoum, Anish Kapoor, Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Schütte, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Cerith Wyn Evans, joined by pieces from younger and emerging stars such as Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Jacob Kassay, Robert Kusmirowski, Mark Leckey and Sarah Morris. With its 27 single-artist projects from young galleries and artists from around the globe, this year’s Art Statements had very strong presentations. The two Baloise Art Prizes of CHF 30,000 per artist were awarded to Alejandro Cesarco and Ben Rivers. The Baloise Group will also acquire works by both artists and once again donate them to the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the MUMOK Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation in Vienna. The second edition of the Art Feature sector was of extraordinary quality and showed a vibrant mix of carefully curated exhibitions. The sector evolved very well, featuring solo shows by artists Giorgio Morandi, Lygia Clark, Alighiero Boetti, Jimmie Durham and Rirkrit Tiravanija among others. Many art lovers crossed the Rhine to experience Art Parcours, where site-specific artworks and performances by the artists Ai Weiwei, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Anne Chu, Federico Herrero, Chris Johanson, Joan Jonas, Kris Martin, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and Gabriel Sierra transformed a variety of locations throughout the historic St. Alban Tal of Basel, including fishing houses along the river, a large cargo ship, sections of the old city wall, the St. Alban church, an old water reservoir, as well as various public sites throughout the area. This array of high-caliber pieces was curated by San Francisco-based curator Jens Hoffmann, Director of the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco. A true Highlight of the week was the Art Parcours Night, which featured Chris Johanson's band 'Sun Foot' and was attended by 1700 people. The Art Basel Conversations series again brought together prominent members of the international art scene, including Allen Ruppersberg, Chris Dercon, Martin Roth, Nancy Spector, Tariq Al Jaidah, Dana Farouki, Abdullah Al Turki, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Luc Deleu, Anri Sala, Stephen Willats, Momoyo Kaijima, Julieta Aranda, Stefan Kalmár, Marta Kuzma and Anton Vidokle. Additionally, a daily program of artist conversations, book signings, and discussion forums took place in the Art Salon forum every afternoon, offering a total of 28 presentations. Once again the Art Film program featured outstanding films, screened at the Stadtkino Basel. Curator Marc Glöde's thematic program presented short films by artists while film connoisseur This Brunner selected "A Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog. Other highlights were the Swiss premiere of Lawrence Weiner's film 'Dirty Eyes' (2010) and the European premiere of 'Hallucinations/Paradise' by Sam Samore. On the weekend of June 16 to June 19, 2011, Art 42 Basel celebrated the Art Basel Weekend, highlighting special activities (solo shows, performances, book signings etc.) at the booths of 28 participating galleries. The museums and institutions in Basel also featured special events such as guided tours, performances and talks. Shortly before the show, our visitors could download the Art Basel Smartphone app. Using your iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or other smartphone, you can still explore Art 42 Basel's galleries, artists and exhibition sectors. The app's interactive 3D-map allows you to virtually navigate through the halls, access information and images of artworks that our galleries brought to the show, organize them as favourites, and forward them to your friends and colleagues.

Pomalama art and design squad opens on Saturday June 17 on Mokotowska 65 str.

BMW replaces Audi as VIP Shuttles during Art Basel 42

pic. by Homa Nasab

Art Basel 42: a week of highlights

Art Basel 42: a week of highlights This time, the 42nd edition of Art Basel is going to be based in Basel, Switzerland and will last from June 15th through June 19th, 2011. Being the leading yearly art fair, Art Basel represents the seasonal gathering of the global art scene, taking place right in the heart of the city of Basel, which has now played the role of artistic hub for a long time...

Published on Monday, June 13th, 2011 Art Basel was born in 1970 and established by a group of local gallerists. Since then the fair has comfortably positioned itself as the most prominent annual global art show. The eminence and variety of the art pieces recurrently shown grasp the attention of over 60,000 people including artists, gallerists, collectors, curators, museum directors, and art lovers. Art 42 Basel displays every type of artistic expression: paintings, sculptures, photography, editions, installations, performances, drawings and video art. Reasonably priced works by promising artists are on sale, along with excellent works of art worth millions. The galleries exhibiting their works are over 300, chosen by the Art Basel Committee, an international board of judges made up of notorious gallerists, from more than 1,000 applicants. They come from 35 different countries spread over the six continents of the globe. What more could one ask for? Yet again, 99% of the most important international galleries will be present at the show. Diverse and new exhibitors enhance this edition’s tough list of habitual applicants. Emerging for the first time in Art Galleries are: Concept (Paris), Bortolami (New York), Blondeau (Geneva), Cabinet (London), Isabella Bortolozzi (Berlin), gb agency (Paris), Joanna Kamm (Berlin), Holland-Hibbert (London), Regina (Moscow), Standard (Oslo), Vintage (Budapest) and Sfeir-Semler (Beirut). After a short break, Moeller Fine Art (New York) and Szwajcer (Antwerp) rejoin Art Basel’s exhibitors in the Art Galleries sector. The multiples specialists in Art Edition are joined by Three Star Books (Paris). The art pieces displayed have the signature of more than 2.500 artists belonging to this current generation as well as the previous one. Basel is an excellent location for art talent scouting, so much so that there’s a section especially created for this reason: Art Statements highlights 26 stands from uprising international galleries each respectively representing their top emerging artist. From 1999, the Baloise Group has honored its yearly Baloise Art Prize to two exceptional Art Statements' projects. This year, the prize is worth CHF 30,000 for each artist. Moreover Baloise Group will purchase artworks by the prize-winning artists and thus make a contribution to the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien. Besides, those galleries present in the show, additional number of 50 impressive art pieces within the Art Unlimited division will be displayed. The exhibition theory linked with Art Unlimited has once again been structured in cooperation with Geneva curator Simon Lamunière. The fair is spread out all over Basel, thanks to the site-specific schemes and accomplishments present in the Art Parcours segment, which this year will renovate a number of structures all through the neighbourhood of St. Alban. At the same time, the major cultural institutions of town, them being museum institutions, will show dazzling exhibitions dedicated to artists such as Richard Serra, Constantin Brancusi, Konrad Witz, Quaytman, Francis Alÿs, R.H. and Henrik Olesen. Following a greatly celebrated first appearance last year, Art Feature concentrates on accurate curatorial exhibitions. In fact a number of 20 gallery projects – characterized by artistic discussions, outstanding art material will be staged every morning (June 15 to June 19), and solo exhibitions - will be introduced on both floors of Hall 2, next to the Art Galleries division. Going back to discussions, Art Basel Conversations will be going on every morning during the week, assembling together principal components of the worldwide art scene. The Premiere of the Art Basel Conversations focuses on a celebrated artists. Additional themes comprise: ‘Public/Private: How Will Museums Be Able to Collect,’ 'Collector Focus: Patronage and Politics,' ‘The Future of Artistic Practice: The Artist as Urbanist,’ and 'What is Alternative – Alternative to What?' Moreover, a widespread day-by-day list of artist talks, book signings, and more will be the highlights of the Art Salon forum every day. Art Basel hosts a number of films both created by and regarding artists. The Art Filmsection is curated by Berlin film academic Marc Glöde (Berlin) and This Brunner, the Zürich collector with an extensive power in the global film scene. Marc Glöde's program introduces films by artists which are separated into four collections on diverse subjects. curated by eleonora galasso 42 Art Basel June 15th to 19th, 2011 Hall 1+2 Messeplatz, 4005 Basel, Switzerland Opening Hours: Wednesday 15th to Sunday 19th from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Info: www.artbasel.com

by: www.exibart.com

Rebecca Elfast exhibition pening photorep. 13.06.2011

photographer: Oleg Burdzenia

ART BASEL 42, VIP Day. Previews.

Rebecca Elfast exhibition opening. Tonight 19.00

Rebecca Elfast

About

Born 1982 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Architect, artist, illustrator. Am interested in marrying the closely related fields of architecture, illustration and art. Communication through images, that's what it's all about!

I paint mostly watercolours, I am intrigued and challenged by the unpredictability of the medium. I always feel there is something new to learn, a perfect painting waiting around the corner.

I also work in digital media, draw a lot by hand and do some oil painting and acrylic.

Education

2002-2008 Architecture, Chalmers, Gothenburg.
-classes in figure drawing
-class in egg tempera painting
2007 Watercolour class for Lena Amstrand, Styrs, Gothenburg.
2008 Watercolour class for Hasse Karlsson, Gerlesborgsskolan.
2008 Watercolour class for Lars Holm, Gerlesborgsskolan.
2009 Exhibition Galleri Backlund, Gothenburg

Biały Kamień Contemporary & Milanovo kindly invites:

Duration 13.06.2011 - 13.07.2011

Location	MILANOVO Restaurant Pizzeria Cafe Kostki Potockiego 24 G / przy Pałacu Wilanowskim, 02-958 Wilanów, Warsaw, Poland

Reccomended to attend: Le Sacre du Printemps. Premiere 11.06.2011

ŚWIĘTO WIOSNY

Igor Strawiński / Wacław Niżyński, Emanuel Gat, Maurice Béjart

Wieczór baletowy w trzech częściach
Premiera tej inscenizacji: 11 czerwca 2011
Muzyka: Igor Strawiński
Dyrygent: Łukasz Borowicz

1. Święto wiosny
Choreografia: Wacław Niżyński
Rekonstrukcja i realizacja: Millicent Hodson
Scenografia i kostiumy: Nikołaj Roerich / Kenneth Archer
Światła: Stanisław Zięba

2. Święto wiosny
Choreografia: Emanuel Gat
Realizacja: Mia Alon, Roy Assaf, Michael Löhr
Światła i kostiumy: Emanuel Gat
Nadzór techniczny: Samson Milcent

3. Święto wiosny
Choreografia: Maurice Béjart
Realizacja: Tony Fabre, Kyra Kharkevitch, Domenico Levré
Dekoracje i kostiumy: Pierre Caille
Światła: Dominique Roman / Stanisław Zięba

Polski Balet Narodowy, Orkiestra Opery Narodowej

obsada:

WACŁAW NIŻYŃSKI
Tańczą
Wybrana - Magdalena Ciechowicz
oraz
Joanna Drabik, Nathalie Fernandez, Tehelet Har Yam, Anna Hop, Karolina Jupowicz, Ana Kipshidze, Dominika Krysztoforska, Iwona Kurowska, Anna Lorenc, Ewa Nowak, Agnieszka Pietyra, Karolina Sapun, Margarita Simonova; Sergey Basalaev, Robert Gabdullin, Adam Kozal, Carlos Martín Pérez, Egor Menshikov, Sergey Popov, Sebastian Solecki, Oskar Świtała, Łukasz Tużnik, Vladimir Yaroshenko, Jarosław Zaniewicz

EMANUEL GAT
Tańczą
Marta Fiedler, Aleksandra Liashenko, Izabela Szylińska; Robert Bondara, Kurusz Wojeński

MAURICE BÉJART
Tańczą
Wybraniec - Maksim Wojtiul
Wybranka - Anna Lorenc
Przywódcy - Adam Kozal, Wojciech Ślęzak
Dwaj młodzi mężczyźni - Paweł Koncewoj, Egor Menshikov
Cztery młode kobiety - Agnieszka Pietyra, Karolina Sapun, Margarita Simonova, Maria Żuk

Rewolucyjne dzieło muzyczne Igora Strawińskiego – balet Święto wiosny w trzech różnych, słynnych wersjach choreograficznych. Awangardowy charakter muzyki i pierwszej choreografii legendarnego polskiego artysty Wacława Niżyńskiego (Balety Rosyjskie Siergieja Diagilewa, 1913) znacznie wyprzedziły swoją epokę i miały kapitalny wpływ na rozwój muzyki i baletu XX wieku. Powstało potem bardzo wiele wizji scenicznych Święta wiosny z najgłośniejszą choreografią Maurice'a Béjarta (Balet XX Wieku, 1959), powstają wciąż nowe. Wielkim wydarzeniem okazała się także rekonstrukcja pierwotnej choreografii Wacława Niżyńskiego dokonana przez amerykańską artystkę Millicent Hodson we współpracy scenograficznej z brytyjskim historykiem sztuki Kennethem Archerem (1987). Dzięki nim świat odkrył na nowo Niżyńskiego jako prekursora nowoczesnej choreografii. Krzysztof Pastor postanowił zaproponować w Teatrze Wielkim wieczór bez precedensu w skali światowej – Święto wiosny Strawińskiego w trzech różnych wersjach scenicznych: Wacława Niżyńskiego, Maurice'a Béjarta i współczesnego choreografa izraelsko-francuskiego Emanuela Gata z 2004 roku. Będzie to niezwykłe przedsięwzięcie artystyczne Polskiego Baletu Narodowego u progu stulecia najsłynniejszego tytułu baletowego XX wieku. [pch]

„W 1913 roku Święto wiosny było gwałtownym, pełnym młodzieńczego impetu wyznaniem wiary. Nie przypadkiem nazwano je Nowym Testamentem muzyki; dla ówczesnego pokolenia było to objawienie, wstrząsające, oślepiające swoim blaskiem. (...) Skandaliczną awanturę, jaka wybuchła na sali podczas premiery Święta wiosny, wywołała nie tylko muzyka, która z brutalną siłą rzuciła wyzwanie gustom epoki. Wyzwaniem była również tematyka: pogańskie wierzenia i obrządki, przedstawione z całą surowością i okrucieństwem, wydawały się zbyt barbarzyńskie i obrażały subtelny smak widzów, uformowany na delikatnych niedomówieniach impresjonizmu i symbolizmu. (…) Wyzwanie stanowiła również choreografia (…) z jej rytmicznymi, ostrymi ruchami, jakby wyciosanymi z kamienia – taniec ociężały, ze stopami zwróconymi do wewnątrz, który później spopularyzują rytmy afrykańskie. Ale wówczas jeszcze było za wcześnie, aby ta choreografia mogła zostać właściwie doceniona”. (Ludwik Erhardt Balety Igora Strawińskiego]

http://www.teatrwielki.pl/
Projekt plakatu: Adam Żebrowski

pre Art Basel 42 weekend preview started in BK Contemporary

Projektowanie w działaniu/Design in action. Event opening 9.06.2011

Ulica Mokotowska zmieni się w niezwykły szlak dzięki polskim i niemieckim projektantom. W salonach fryzjerskich, sklepach spożywczych, w kawiarniach, instytucjach, prywatnych firmach i butikach mody, a także bezpośrednio na ulicy przedstawią oni swoje projekty – przedmioty finezyjne i zgrzebne, zaskakujące, inspirujące i niebanalne.

W tych tymczasowych pop-up shopach odwiedzający napotkają różne oblicza sztuki projektowania – przykłady współczesnego dizajnu dźwięków, światła i... zapachów. Natomiast to, czym i w jaki sposób w ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu lat faktycznie urządzaliśmy warszawskie i berlińskie mieszkania, pokaże wystawa fotografii prezentująca zdjęcia z prywatnych polskich i niemieckich archiwów.

Dzięki niej zajrzymy w najbliższe, intymne otoczenie człowieka, w świat, w którym królują przedmioty codziennego użytku. Wszystko to będzie punktem wyjścia do licznych warsztatów, dyskusji panelowych, pokazów filmów i imprez, w czasie których artyści, naukowcy, dziennikarze i odwiedzający będą mogli wspólnie zastanowić się, jak urządzamy naszą prywatną rzeczywistość. Mokotowska wprawia projektowanie w ruch!

Organizatorzy: Ambasada Niemiec w Warszawie, Fundacja Nowej Kultury Bęc Zmiana, Goethe-Institut

Partnerzy: Designerdeutsch, Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii, Towarzystwo Inicjatyw Twórczych „ę”, Create Berlin, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie und Gestaltung Berlin, designkritik.dk

Projekt jest realizowany dzięki dofinansowaniu ze środków m.st. Warszawy (www.warszawa2016.pl)

Projekt zrealizowany dzięki dotacji Fundacji Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej

9. – 19. 06. 2011 ul.Mokotowska, Warsaw design-exhibition between Poland & Germany

	-------------------------------------------- curators Polska: Katarzyna Białousz - Goethe Institut Warszawa Hanna Rydlewska - Exklusiv Agata Michalak - Aktivist -------------------------------------------- curators Deutschland: Michael Okraj - DESIGNERDEUTSCH

Exhibition opening. Odpusty i cudowne widzenia. Julia Curylo 1.07.2011 - 27.07.2011

W Polsce, kraju silnie katolickim, religia leży w sferze nietykalności, pozostaje tematem tabu, doktryną totalną kreującą jedyny prawidłowy obraz rzeczy. W malarstwie Curyło pojawiają się obiekty kultu religijnego - figurki świętych, które artystka kupuje w sklepach z dewocjonaliami. Ze szczegółami oddaje tendencyjne i pozbawione wyrazu twarze, jaskrawe kolory, charakterystyczne gesty. Julia Curyło, wychowanka szkoły katolickiej, wykorzystuje w swoich pracach znajomość świata i praktyk katolików. Artystka odwołuje się do wizualnej sfery wiary - przedstawień odpustnych, jarmarcznych i dewocyjnych, obnażając jej banalne i populistyczne oblicze prowadzące do uprzedmiotowienia a wręcz ideologizacji religii. Skupiając się na symbolu, można zapomnieć o istocie wiary. U Curyło materializują to dmuchane zwierzęta, przedmioty sztuczne, ulotne i podatne na przebicie.

Odpust w teologii katolickiej oznacza odpuszczenie przez Boga win, darowanie kary. Uzyskuje się go poprzez spełnienie wymaganych warunków i wykonanie odpowiednich czynności. Odpusty u Curyło to ślepe posłuszeństwo obrządkom i czynnościom, stronie formalnej, a nie duchowej, każdej religii. Służą otrzymaniu rozgrzeszenia i często stanowią jedynie powierzchowną stronę wiary.

Cudowne widzenia nawiązują do etosu cudowności związanego z wiarą katolicką – widzeń i ekstaz, które pogłębiają para-fizyczny związek człowieka z Bogiem. Ta fizyczność znajduje ujście pod postacią produkowanych na masową skalę dewocjonaliów, które każdy może dotknąć, kupić i postawić w swoim domu.

Tytuł wystawy „Odpusty i cudowne widzenia” jest podsumowaniem wątków obecnych w twórczości Curyło prezentowanej w toruńskiej galerii. Na wystawie zebrano 9 orazów wielkoformatowych oraz obiekty będące dla artystki inspiracją podczas ich powstawania. Dopełnieniem jest film nakręcony w Warszawie w marcu 2010 roku dokumentujący usunięcie z przestrzeni publicznej jednej z prac artystki.

Julia Curyło analizuje kontrasty i absurdy społeczne poprzez stosunek człowieka XXI wieku do wiary, mistyki i religii. Problem skomercjalizowania wiary, kwestia istnienia popkultury w religii, blichtr kolorowych i pociągających obiektów a także estetyka kiczu towarzysząca wierze katolickiej – to kwestie, które w szczególności ją interesują. Korzenie jej twórczości odnajdziemy głównie w surrealizmie i neo-pop.

Galeria Sztuki Wozownia
Ul. Św. Ducha 6
Toruń

Kuratorka: Ewa Sułek

The Venice Effect

Visitors to Tracey Emin's installation at the British pavilion in 2007

Curators of the Biennale have always played down its impact on the art market, but the two go hand-in-hand

By Olav Velthuis Web only
Published online 3 Jun 11 (Features)

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/

When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, one of its main goals was to establish a new market for contemporary art. A sales office assisted artists in finding clients and selling their work, a service for which it charged 10% commission. The office was successful: by the end of the first edition, more than half of the works exhibited had been sold. The organisers earned so much in commissions that they were able to donate a handsome amount of cash to charity.

Sales remained an intrinsic part of the biennale until 1968, when leftist students and intellectuals sought to occupy the Giardini’s exhibition grounds as part of their widespread revolt against bourgeois culture. They vilified the biennale as a playground of the rich that promoted the commodification of culture. During their occasionally violent clashes with the police, students carried posters with slogans like “Biennale of capitalists, we’ll burn your pavilions!” and “No to the biennale of the bosses.” Their protests did not go unnoticed, for the biennale’s board decided to dismantle the sales office. Commerce was now taboo in the Giardini. While many of the achievements of 1968 have since been discarded, the biennale’s ban on sales remained. Its commissioners and curators have time and again framed the exhibition as a locus for experiment rather than commerce, elaborating on the fundamental differences between the institution and the art fair, and downplaying its impact on the market. For instance, when Daniel Birnbaum, director of the 2009 edition, revealed the list of artists he had invited to the Arsenale, the president of the biennale, Paolo Baratta, emphasised that the director’s job is “not to give the latest quotation on the market for contemp-orary art”.

But if past attempts to ban commerce from the biennale have been serious, they have also been in vain. For instance, in 2007, London’s White Cube gallery had sold the majority of the works by Tracey Emin in the British pavilion (seen on p21) before the biennale had even opened officially. In the same year, the French super-collector François Pinault snapped up a series of paintings by Sigmar Polke in the Padiglione Italia, much to the dismay of some museum directors, who, as Pinault put it mischievously in a recent interview with the Financial Times, arrived “un peu après”.

No matter how hard its curators have tried to deny it, the biennale’s impact on the art market is notable: showing in Venice speeds up sales, gets artistic careers going, cranks up price levels and helps artists land a dealer ranked higher in the market’s hierarchy. While business may be conducted in a more circumspect way than at an art fair or in a commercial gallery, and money may not be changing hands in the Arsenale or the Giardini, the market is never asleep. During the biennale’s opening days, dealers such as Berlin- and London-based Sprüth Magers, with five artists in Venice this year, or Zurich-based Eva Presenhuber (seven artists in this year’s edition), will be gauging how deep the interest is in specific works on display, calculating the best way to “place” pieces in the hands of trusted collectors or schmoozing with museum curators. To exploit the Venice Effect, numerous others exhibiting at the biennale, among them, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla (Lisson Gallery) and Barbara Visser (Annet Gelink Gallery), will have works for sale at Art Basel, the world’s most important modern and contemporary art fair, which opens its doors only a week later (15-19 June, pp15-18). Their dealers’ credo: “See it in Venice, buy it in Basel.”

So what causes the Venice Effect? The easy answer is that showing in Venice is widely perceived as a signal of artistic quality, lending legitimacy to an artist’s oeuvre and therefore contributing to shaping collectors’ tastes (read: their willingness to pay for art). In this respect, Venice is, of course, far from unique. Dozens of other biennials around the world, such as Documenta in Kassel, but also museums and art critics, as well as influential market players such as Pinault or Charles Saatchi and dealers such as Larry Gagosian or Hauser & Wirth, send out signals of their own. It would therefore be easy to overstate the biennale’s power to make or break artistic careers. The days of 1964, when Venice awarded the top prize to Robert Rauschenberg, and by doing so imported Pop Art into the canon of art history, are long gone. Leafing through past catalogues, the dominant impression is not of the scores of artists whose careers, like that of Pierre Huyghe in 2001, were launched at the biennale, but of all the artists who have been almost forgotten since.

Nevertheless, compared with those of other institutions, the signals sent out by the biennale have a relatively strong effect on the market because of their pure, fresh, independent and highly visible character.

Paradox 1: Purity produces market power

In the contemporary art market, economic value can only be established if it is backed up by artistic value: a growing body of research shows that the reputation of an artist (the sum of all the solo and group shows in museums, monographs published, acquisitions of works by institutional collections, etc.) is one of the best predictors of price levels. The late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu accounted for this correlation: the type of capital around which the art world revolves is not economic or financial, but symbolic. Possessing symbolic capital means having the power to “consecrate” works of art. It is accumulated by curators, critics and all the other brokers of taste who populate the art world. They do so by demonstrating their independence from the market, by ignoring commerce, by showing an autonomous interest in art, in experimentation rather than mundane monetary matters. But once such symbolic capital has been accumulated, it can be converted into economic capital: the stronger the artistic reputation, the stronger the sales and the higher the prices. Thus the paradox is that the curator’s resistance to commerce and Venice’s official status as a non-selling event, is exactly what makes its quality signals influential in the art market.

The importance of purity is illustrated by Ireland’s contribution to this year’s edition. When the country announced the name of the commissioner for its pavilion, Emily-Jane Kirwan, and the artist exhibiting there, Corban Walker, it stirred up controversy. Kirwan is a director at New York’s Pace gallery, one of the world’s most established art dealers, which represents Walker. In The Art Newspaper, a veteran biennale curator who wished to remain anonymous called it “a terrible decision” to put an entire pavilion in the hands of an art dealer and her protégé, arguing that “certain lines must not be crossed, certain categories must not be confused or conflated, and ethical standards must be strictly applied”.

Paradox 2: The fresher the signal, the stronger its impact

While in the past, inclusion in the Venice Biennale would crown the end of an artist’s career, now it often marks its beginning. To show their independence from the market and their ability to spot new talent, the biennale’s directors and curators have increasingly focused on young artists who are not yet household names. In this competition to send out fresh quality signals, which has hotted up due to the worldwide proliferation of biennials, curators are now engaging in a reverse generational race. The press release of the list of artists invited by Bice Curiger emphasised that 32 were born after 1975.

The paradox is that the more virginal these young artists’ curricula are, the stronger the Venice Effect will be for them. Referred to by the late American sociologist Robert Merton as the Matthew Effect (“the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” according to the gospel of St Matthew), their participation prompts many more curators and collectors to pay attention to their work. For the few older artists in Curiger’s “Illuminations” exhibition, such as James Turrell or Elaine Sturtevant, Venice will be just one more line on their CVs. Likewise, the market for Christopher Wool is unlikely to change much due to Curiger’s invitation: his 1990 canvas Blue Fool was sold at Christie’s New York last year for $5m (with buyer’s premium), making him the most expensive artist included this year. But they are the exceptions to the rule. The market for most of the artists selected by Curiger are nowhere close to established. And while the commissioners of the national pavilions tend to invite artists who are better known, of all the participants this year, only one out of five has ever achieved an auction price of more than $25,000. Half of them have never been sold at auction. Anya Titova, the second youngest artist to participate in the biennale, does not even have a dealer representing her.

Paradox 3: Independence financed by the dealers’ money

Curators have another instrument to demonstrate their independence vis-à-vis the market: focusing on artists who make work that is hard to sell, such as installations or videos. In the past couple of decades, these non-commodities have slowly crowded out the commodities at the biennale. But paradoxically this has done little to decouple Venice from the market. One reason is that powerful dealers are interested in representing artists who create non-commodifiable art for similar reasons to curators: it allows them to prove that they not only want to make a quick buck from selling smart paintings and photographs or from trading on the secondary market. In other words, representing these artists produces symbolic capital for these dealers.

An important practical reason why the focus on non-commodities has failed to decouple Venice from the market is that the biennale itself lacks the funds to produce, ship and install these large-scale works. Therefore the financial involvement of dealers is indispensable. Here the decision to stop selling in 1968 has taken its revenge, because it resulted in a steep drop in revenue for the biennale. The same hand that pushed the sales commissioner out pulled the art dealers in.

Paradox 4: Visibility because of proximity to the biennale

The Venice Effect not only depends on the purity, freshness and independence of its signals, but also on their high visibility. The 2009 edition attracted more than 375,000 visitors. In itself, this number is hardly staggering if one takes into account that the biennale lasts for almost six months. In the same year, solo shows of Pipilotti Rist at the Museum of Modern Art or Cai Guo-Qiang at the New York Guggenheim museum attracted more visitors. But in terms of the audience’s composition, the biennale is hard to beat: functioning as the art world’s equivalent of Cannes, which on the side of its film festival hosts the main international platform for the movie business, the entire industry convenes in Venice.

Obviously Venice’s importance to the art industry is related to its attractive location and to its status as the oldest biennale which has served as a (counter) model for the dozens of other biennials established in the last couple of decades. But another reason is its proximity – both in time and place – to the centre of the international contemporary art market: Art Basel, which opens only a week after Venice (the two usually follow each other) and attracts a largely similar crowd of art professionals.

The structural position of Venice and Basel in the global art world overlaps in several respects. First of all, presenting an instant overview of today’s worldwide art production, they provide a means for both curators and collectors to economise on search time. This is particularly important for the art market’s clientele whose scarcest resource is not money but time: travelling regularly to individual museum or gallery shows out of town has become a luxury that the richest can no longer afford, unlike the leisure class of yesteryear who used to be the main customers. Visiting fairs and biennials in order to save time and travel costs is all the more important in an art world where “local” has become a pejorative term. As The Economist put it: “‘local artist’ has become a synonym for insignificant artist … ‘International’ is now a selling point in itself.” In other words, a global habitus is expected from all members of the art industry. Both Venice and Basel enable this habitus by temporarily bringing the globally consecrated supply of art under one roof.

Second, the continuing success of both Basel and Venice in attracting art crowds should be seen in the light of a wider culture of events. Within this culture, the consumption (but not necessarily acquisition) of contemporary art is packaged as a social and cultural experience, livened up by the artistic performances, seminars and round table discussions of experts that have now become standard elements of both the fair and the biennale.

Third, Basel and Venice derive their central role in the art industry from the latter’s status-driven nature: both the biennale and the fair are finely tuned tools that reflect and reproduce status hierarchies. They distinguish visitors by providing selected groups with VIP treatment, access to pre-(and pre-pre-) openings, after parties on expensive billionaire’s yachts, or visits to the villas of collectors living close by. Those types of access are broadly recognised as signs of status among the cultural elite: the more exclusive the venue, the more status access to that venue produces.

In short, asking what the impact of Venice on the art market is poses the wrong question: without institutions such as the biennale, it is impossible to conceive of a contemporary art market to begin with. And vice versa: without the art market, the biennale would no longer flourish. To annul the Venice Effect seems impossible, but if the curators and commissioners want to try, here is the recipe: follow Ireland’s example of appointing art dealers as the commissioners and curators; invite artists with a chock-full rather than a virginal curriculum; postpone the opening a couple of weeks so that it can no longer be attended as part of a 21st-century Grand Tour that also includes Art Basel.

It is unlikely that any of these measures will be adopted soon by the biennale’s organisers. And why would they? It may go a long way towards decoupling Venice from the market, but at the cost of turning the institution into an irrelevancy. In the end, the problem may not be the Venice Effect itself, but the art world’s anti-commercial ideology, which makes curators uncomfortable about this effect. As Curiger argued recently in an interview: “What happens to an artist once you’ve approached him or her is beyond your control. Artists are not throwaway objects – if they sell well, does that mean that their work doesn’t mean anything any more?”

II official day of Biennale di Venezia 54

François Pinault Presents a New Exhibition at Palazzo Grassi: The World Belongs to You

The Artwork 'Contamination' by Joana Vasconcelos, is seen at Palazzo Grassi during the opening of the exhibition 'Il Mondo vi Appartiene' at 54th Visual Arts Biennale in Venice, Italy. The Biennale runs from 4th June to 27th November 2011. EPA/ANDREA MEROLA.

VENICE.- The exhibitions In Praise of Doubt at Punta della Dogana, and The World belongs to You at Palazzo Grassi mark the 5 year anniversary of the opening of Palazzo Grassi by François Pinault and the Mayor of Venice in April 2006. It also marks the beginning of a new phase of programming for François Pinault Foundation’s Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.

From now on, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana present exhibitions that operate under two distinct time frames. Palazzo Grassi presents a fast turnover, with more emphasis on the “event” nature of its exhibitions whereas Punta della Dogana, concerned with a continuous presentation of the collection, operates on a long-term schedule, similar to permanent collection changeovers of major international art museums.

On 2nd June 2011, François Pinault Foundation presents a new exhibition at Palazzo Grassi : The World Belongs to You.

François Pinault has appointed Caroline Bourgeois as the curator of this exhibition, which was conceived to coincide with the exhibition In Praise of Doubt at Punta della Dogana, and presents another re-assessment of the traditional limits of the geography of art, and how we relate to others and the world.

The World Belongs to You brings together works by artists from different practices, generations, and backgrounds, exploring artists’ relationships to history, reality and its own representation. «The exhibition revolves around major themes of contemporary history: from the breakdown of symbols, to the temptation of self-withdrawal and isolation, the attraction of violence and spirituality in a troubled and globalised world” (Caroline Bourgeois).

Artists include : Ahmed Alsoudani, Yto Barrada, Alighiero Boetti, Sergey Bratkov, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Maurizio Cattelan, David Claerbout, Matthew Day Jackson, Marlene Dumas, El Anatsui, Urs Fischer, Cyprien Gaillard, Adrian Ghenie, Loris Gréaud, David Hammons, Nicholas Hlobo, Thomas Houseago, Huang Yong Ping, Jeff Koons, Friedrich Kunath, Louise Lawler, Boris Mikhailov, Farhad Moshiri, Takashi Murakami, Giuseppe Penone, Philippe Perrot, Sigmar Polke, Charles Ray, Thomas Schütte, Rudolf Stingel, Lee Ufan, Joana Vasconcelos, Francesco Vezzoli, Jonathan Wateridge, Sislej Xhafa, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Yang Jiechang, Zhang Huan, Zeng Fanzhi.

Caroline Bourgeois has curated numerous shows including Money, Joan Jonas, Valie Export, Cao Fei, Adel Abdessemed and Loris Gréaud as well as several exhibitions of the François Pinault Collection including The Passage of Time in Lille, A Certain State of the World in Moscow, and Who’s Afraid of Artists? in Dinard.

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With Strong Sales, Art Hong Kong Confirms Its Position Amongst the World's Leading Art Fairs

A visitor walks past the "Untitled (Abracadabra) 2011" by Polish artist Piotr Uklanski at Hong Kong International Art Fair in Hong Kong. The largest international art fair hosts 155 exhibiting galleries from 29 countries that exhibited from May 26 to 29. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu.

HONG KONG.- Strong sales of work by artists from around the world including Liu Wei, Zhang Enli, Yan Pei-Ming, Jeff Koons, Andreas Gursky and Louise Bourgeois to collectors from Asia, Europe and America reconfirmed ART HK’s status as Asia’s premier art fair. The 4-day fair, which ran from 26-29 May at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre’ (HKCEC), attracted 260 galleries from 38 countries presenting works by more than 1,000 artists – with a record numbers of visitors attending, 63,511, a 37.7% increase on 2010, and a similar number of visitors to Art Basel in 2010. Major sales of Asian and Western Contemporary Art at ART HK 11 included: • Beijing’s Long March Space sold Liu Wei’s Don’t touch, 2011, to a European Collector for an undisclosed US$ six figure sum. • Galerie Gmurzynska from Zurich sold Flying Eagles, 2008 by Fernando Botero for US$650,000 to an Asian Collector. • Yan Pei-Ming’s Self Portrait, 2011, priced at US$420,000, was sold by David Zwirner, New York to an Asian Collector. The gallery also sold The Couple, 2011 by Luc Tuymans priced at $1.1 million. • Sprüth Magers Berlin London sold Andreas Gursky’s Ferrari II, 2007 to a European Collector for 550,000 Euros. • Jeff Koon’s Monkey Train (Orange), 2007 was sold at L&M Arts from New York for in the region of US$3.5 million. • Hauser & Wirth London Zurich New York sold out of a number of works by Zhang Enli including one to a private foundation in Shanghai priced at US$120,000. They also sold an eye for an eye, 2011 by Bharti Kher, to a Beijing based collector for US$265,000. • The Geometry of Pleasure, 2009, by Louise Bourgeois sold for UD$750,000 to a Chinese Collector by Cheim & Read from New York. •White Cube from London sold Jake & Dinos Chapman’s Dass Kapital ist Kaput? Ja? Nein! Dummkopf!, 2008 for £525,000 to an Asian collector. • Timothy Taylor Gallery from London sold Wall of Light, Pink White, 2011 a large new painting by Sean Scully for an undisclosed sum to a Hong Kong based collector. Art collectors attended the Fair from across Asia, Europe and the USA. High-profile collectors in attendance included Don and Mera Rubell of the Rubell Family Collection and the Contemporary Arts Foundation (Miami); Richard Chang (Beijing & New York); Sidonie Picasso; David Tang (Hong Kong); Samir Sabet d’Acre (Brussels) and Judith Neilson of the White Rabbit Foundation (Sydney). Commenting on their experience at ART HK, Don and Mera Rubell jointly said: “This is our first time in Hong Kong in over 40 years and things have changed rather dramatically. It’s a city on steroids -dynamic, fresh, vibrant - a true international city, and the general curiosity of people is incredible. The Fair goes out of its way to cater to families and children and there is an explosion of young people at the Fair who were fully engaged with the art on show. They are the future of art, and the Fair is helping build audiences for art here in Hong Kong. There are very few places which are a gateway between East and West and there is a unique opportunity at the Fair to compare and contrast Eastern and Western art, to see the similarities and the differences. It’s been a great opportunity for us to learn about Chinese art, and we've seen an outstanding interest from the Asian collectors who are intent on learning more about Western art. This trip we have bought Chinese art, Indonesian art, and some European art. We hope to come back next year.” Acquavella Galleries from New York, Victoria Miro from London, Anna Schwartz Gallery from Australia and Yvon Lambert from Paris were notable galleries debuting at the 2011 Fair. They joined established ART HK galleries such as Gagosian Gallery, Emmanuel Perrotin, Hanart TZ and Lisson Gallery. This year’s new section, ASIA ONE, showcased vibrant solo presentations of work by emerging Asian artists from galleries across Asia. Commenting on showing in ASIA ONE for the first time, Bill Gregory, Director, Annandale Galleries, Sydney said: “I am very impressed with the way ART HK has positioned the ASIA ONE and ART FUTURES sections, which have been integrated into the Fair. We have done very well with our solo show of work by Zadok Ben David and made a lot of connections with people in the region. This is the first time we have participated in the Fair and we will definitely come back next year.” Among the many cultural highlights at ART HK 11 was the installation of Paul McCarthy’s Daddies Tomato Ketchup Inflatable, 2007, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth, an installation by Australian artist, Janet Laurence, in which viewers encountered a laboratory equipped for the palliative care of ailing plants and Jason Hackenwerth’s balloon installation, sponsored by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Artist visitors to the fair included Liu Wei; Marc Quinn; Yan Pei-Ming; Yoshitomo Nara; Takashi Murakami; Wang Kepin; Zhang Huan, who participated in a talk with Charles Saumarez Smith, Secretary & Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts; David LaChapelle & Ming Wong, both on the panel for this year’s Intelligence Squared Asia Debate; Wucius Wong, Pak Sheung Chuen, Jeon Yong-Seok, Huan Zhiyang, Qiu Zhijie and Park Chan-kyong who all took partin Asia Art Archive’s Backroom Conversations at the Fair. This year’s fair was sponsored by Deutsche Bank, who will continue to be the lead sponsor for ART HK 12. Michael West, Deutsche Bank Head of Communications, Asia Pacific, said: "In scale, quality and attendance, ART HK has quickly developed into a premier event on the global art calendar. Deutsche Bank will again be the lead sponsor of ART HK in 2012”. Magnus Renfrew, Fair Director of ART HK, commented: “From galleries to government, curators to collectors there is genuine excitement that ART HK has put Hong Kong firmly on the international cultural map. We’re thrilled with the record visitor attendance and believe that the people of Hong Kong and the surrounding area are embracing the Fair and are intensely curious to learn and experience more about contemporary art”. ART HK 11 was also attended by some of the world’s most influential museum directors & curators, including Lars Nittve, Executive Director of M+, the contemporary art museum in Hong Kong’s planned US$2.1 billion West Kowloon Cultural District; Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Dr. Melissa Chiu, Director of the Asia Society Museum; Doryun Chong, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in London; Kwok Kian Chow, Director of the National Art Gallery Singapore and Tan Boon Hui, Director of the Singapore Art Museum. Commenting on his experience at ART HK, Lars Nittve, Executive Director of M+, said: “It has been absolutely marvelous to experience the incredible energies in the Hong Kong art community being released this ART HK week. I have heard so many visitors from abroad being both surprised and impressed by the Hong Kong audience and artists - and I have witnessed the delight among the region's art world over being able to take part in a world class art event! We are just in the beginning of something big in Hong Kong, and it is already amazing!" Private museums of contemporary art are growing extraordinarily fast in Asia and in a groundbreaking seminar, ART HK brought together more than thirty five major collectors and owners and directors of private museums, to explore how to sustain and develop such innovative institutions. Participants came from mainland China, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong as well as from Europe and the USA. From mainland China alone, major collectors and private museum owners came from Xi'an, Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai. This seminar will now lead to the development of an active working group to explore how private museums can cooperate – sharing information and exhibitions - in a way that public museums routinely do. This year’s ART FUTURES Prize, sponsored by Lane Crawford, was awarded to the emerging artist, Gao Weigang, for his solo presentation at Magician Space, Beijing. The judges for the US$25,000 Prize included Lars Nittve, Executive Director of M+, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in London and Elaine Ng, Editor and Publisher of ArtAsiaPacific Magazine. Following his experience at ART HK 11, Hans Ulrich Obrist praised the Fair and its host city: “The Hong Kong experience was even more exciting than in 2010. There is a fascinating local art scene and more and more international artists, collectors, critics, curators, gallerists and museum directors are coming to experience it. The Hong Kong miracle continues.” Commenting on winning the Prize, Qu Kejie, Founder and Director of Magician Space, Beijing said: “This has truly been a memorable first appearance for Magician Space at ART HK, which has given us a great opportunity to showcase our space and artist Gao Weigang to an international audience. To have been awarded the ART FUTURES Prize this year by its panel of critics and curators of the highest esteem is fantastic. I hope that we can continue on this trajectory into the future and through the exhibitions and projects we are planning, both in our Beijing space and for further events abroad. Gao Weigang is an artist representative of Magician Space’s focus on experimental emerging art, and interest in his work has piqued during the Fair.” Following consultation with exhibitors, collectors and suppliers during the Fair, the dates for ART HK 12 have been revised and the Fair will take place from 17-20 May 2012, with a preview and press day on 16 May 2012. The long-term plan remains to move the Fair to early Spring, and together with the HKCEC we are looking at suitable dates. www.artdaily.com