ART BASEL - HONG KONG 2018
Overview of the fair
It is March 2018 and i have just boarded with three other aficionados to revisit one of the most prestigious fairs of the continent Art Basel Hong Kong. Of course, one does not simply waltz up to the doorstep of Basel at its opening days, especially in HK which has overwhelming mainlanders who are furious enough to spend their newly made millions by commissioning private arts experts.
Just in less than a decade Hong Kong's art market has rocketed to the second largest in the world. This year Art Basel HK presents 248 galleries from around the globe, Iran and Turkey are debuting at this prestigious fair for the very first time. Hong Kong's Exhibition and Convention Centre where the venue is being organised for the 6th time sits on the banks of HK's bay facing Kowloon in a reflection of once the island resembled few decades back.
Basel starts by occupying from ground floor that consists of exit area and press space where us journalist can easily access to all necessary utilities where you can use wifi, print stuff, and catch up with your errands. Then there is a 1st floor where the main entrance is located where you can see the endless queues lining up followed by books and magazine stands and in the middle of it there is a cafe where you will encounter more queue. The main sponsors of the event BMW and USB have taken a large space where they have installed their pavilions that represent their exclusive projects and small vip areas that are restricted from the general crowd unless you have been invited. Exclusive areas are culturally Asian thing, where you want to distinguish yourself from the rest of the others.
The main attraction start from the first floor and it is filled with more than hundred galleries offering from
Matisse to Jeff Koons, Basquiats and you just name it because it can blow your mind what have they brought for one of the future top markets of the art world, and also i am always quite impressed with the array of Asian art to be offered next celebrities of modern art. I alway interest myself at the Basel programs such as Encounters, Discoveries and Insights followed by Conversations and Film section. I have planned to visit the Discoveries sections where Timur Si Qin was presented by Société at his debut in Basel, he is a young emerging talent from Berlin, his mother is German and his dad is Inner Mongolian which really interested me to this years Basel HK, ive raced myself to his stand and found his installation of virtual art that already been visible 3 person can enjoy his visual language using 3d glasses in a virtual world, but the problem was that it already had a quite line of queue and i hate queuing so i took some good snapshots of installation and moved on the conversation area where another person i was interested in hearing was moderating a conversation with contemporary artist Bai Ling and Sophia Al-Maria, Hans Ulrich Obrist moderated expertly artist talk “Nobody Ever Asked Me”.
Second floor space consist of different environments, the rest of the galleries are places in the same order as the first floor with additional vip spaces excluding press personnel this year. By the time you are allowed to enter the exuberant market of high end arts you will find out that works of art is being sold like a bread in the bakery, it's the HK ambience that magically makes it happen. I will highlight few works from the Basel program that ive enjoyed to see realised. König Galerie was proud to present Erwin Wurm’s “One Minute Sculptures, 2000-2018”. Austrian artist has already well installed in my memories with her last years 57th Venice Biennale solo show at Austrian pavilion. At her works public bravely interacts and becomes a part of the subject narrative. Another interesting conceptual artists from Taiwan Chou Yu-Cheng that Edouard Malingue gallery has highlighting his 2017 work “Refresh, Sacrifice, New Hygiene, Infection, Clean, Robot, Air, Housekeeping, www.agentbong.com, Cigarette, Dyson, Modern People” it was a stage with huge tableware sculptures linked to an application that works as a cleaning service, while on the stage one mechanical robot hover around cleaning another actor is reciting poetically recites description in front of the modern sculptures, creating a theatre of daily life.
At the level 6 of the Hong Kong’s Convention Centre one very refined auction house has settled for its another record breaking sales in just three days. How could i miss to check out Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, so i went up and i noticed that it was huge, there were four different sections starting from the vintage wines, jewelleries, decorative arts including fine selection of Chinese porcelains, and fine arts section. During my visiting hour the auction hall was occupied with fine wine biddings and the numbers where whooping around five to six digit us dollars. After quick documentation at the arts section we returned downstairs for catch up with the rest of the galleries sections.
Just in less than a decade Hong Kong's art market has rocketed to the second largest in the world. This year Art Basel HK presents 248 galleries from around the globe, Iran and Turkey are debuting at this prestigious fair for the very first time. Hong Kong's Exhibition and Convention Centre where the venue is being organised for the 6th time sits on the banks of HK's bay facing Kowloon in a reflection of once the island resembled few decades back.
Basel starts by occupying from ground floor that consists of exit area and press space where us journalist can easily access to all necessary utilities where you can use wifi, print stuff, and catch up with your errands. Then there is a 1st floor where the main entrance is located where you can see the endless queues lining up followed by books and magazine stands and in the middle of it there is a cafe where you will encounter more queue. The main sponsors of the event BMW and USB have taken a large space where they have installed their pavilions that represent their exclusive projects and small vip areas that are restricted from the general crowd unless you have been invited. Exclusive areas are culturally Asian thing, where you want to distinguish yourself from the rest of the others.
The main attraction start from the first floor and it is filled with more than hundred galleries offering from
Matisse to Jeff Koons, Basquiats and you just name it because it can blow your mind what have they brought for one of the future top markets of the art world, and also i am always quite impressed with the array of Asian art to be offered next celebrities of modern art. I alway interest myself at the Basel programs such as Encounters, Discoveries and Insights followed by Conversations and Film section. I have planned to visit the Discoveries sections where Timur Si Qin was presented by Société at his debut in Basel, he is a young emerging talent from Berlin, his mother is German and his dad is Inner Mongolian which really interested me to this years Basel HK, ive raced myself to his stand and found his installation of virtual art that already been visible 3 person can enjoy his visual language using 3d glasses in a virtual world, but the problem was that it already had a quite line of queue and i hate queuing so i took some good snapshots of installation and moved on the conversation area where another person i was interested in hearing was moderating a conversation with contemporary artist Bai Ling and Sophia Al-Maria, Hans Ulrich Obrist moderated expertly artist talk “Nobody Ever Asked Me”.
Second floor space consist of different environments, the rest of the galleries are places in the same order as the first floor with additional vip spaces excluding press personnel this year. By the time you are allowed to enter the exuberant market of high end arts you will find out that works of art is being sold like a bread in the bakery, it's the HK ambience that magically makes it happen. I will highlight few works from the Basel program that ive enjoyed to see realised. König Galerie was proud to present Erwin Wurm’s “One Minute Sculptures, 2000-2018”. Austrian artist has already well installed in my memories with her last years 57th Venice Biennale solo show at Austrian pavilion. At her works public bravely interacts and becomes a part of the subject narrative. Another interesting conceptual artists from Taiwan Chou Yu-Cheng that Edouard Malingue gallery has highlighting his 2017 work “Refresh, Sacrifice, New Hygiene, Infection, Clean, Robot, Air, Housekeeping, www.agentbong.com, Cigarette, Dyson, Modern People” it was a stage with huge tableware sculptures linked to an application that works as a cleaning service, while on the stage one mechanical robot hover around cleaning another actor is reciting poetically recites description in front of the modern sculptures, creating a theatre of daily life.
At the level 6 of the Hong Kong’s Convention Centre one very refined auction house has settled for its another record breaking sales in just three days. How could i miss to check out Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, so i went up and i noticed that it was huge, there were four different sections starting from the vintage wines, jewelleries, decorative arts including fine selection of Chinese porcelains, and fine arts section. During my visiting hour the auction hall was occupied with fine wine biddings and the numbers where whooping around five to six digit us dollars. After quick documentation at the arts section we returned downstairs for catch up with the rest of the galleries sections.
Art Basel Hong Kong, It is marked on every tourist map and guide, along with the advertisement banners across the city, the venue is located at the harbour in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year the show offers world's leading 248 galleries from 32 countries.
The fair’s consists of eight different sector's including:
Galleries - Art Basel's core sector presents 187 of the world's leading Modern and Contemporary art galleries showing 20th and 21st century works. 28 galleries are participating for the very first time including Dastan's Basement from Tehran, Iran.
Insights - 28 galleries offer thematic exhibitions and curatorial projects include 2 artist's with exceptional historical materieals for Art Basel.
Discoveries - focused on solo shows by emerging artist's, this year will feature 25 galleries. Highlights include Timur Si-Qin's (b.1984) virtual reality installation and Carlos Motta's (b.1978) sculptures and photographs.
Kabinett - dedicated to curated exhibitions within the galleries.
Encounters - Encounters is curated for the fourth time by Alexie Glass-Kantor, director of Artspace, Sydney, Australia.
Conversations - curated by writer and editor Stephanie Bailey the series offers a platform for dynamic dialogs between prominent member's of the international artworld.
Film - Curated by Li Zhenhua, director of Beijing Art Lab, Film sector presents 59 films and video works.
Magazine - Art publications from around the world display their magazines in single-magazine stands or the collective booth.
The fair’s consists of eight different sector's including:
Galleries - Art Basel's core sector presents 187 of the world's leading Modern and Contemporary art galleries showing 20th and 21st century works. 28 galleries are participating for the very first time including Dastan's Basement from Tehran, Iran.
Insights - 28 galleries offer thematic exhibitions and curatorial projects include 2 artist's with exceptional historical materieals for Art Basel.
Discoveries - focused on solo shows by emerging artist's, this year will feature 25 galleries. Highlights include Timur Si-Qin's (b.1984) virtual reality installation and Carlos Motta's (b.1978) sculptures and photographs.
Kabinett - dedicated to curated exhibitions within the galleries.
Encounters - Encounters is curated for the fourth time by Alexie Glass-Kantor, director of Artspace, Sydney, Australia.
Conversations - curated by writer and editor Stephanie Bailey the series offers a platform for dynamic dialogs between prominent member's of the international artworld.
Film - Curated by Li Zhenhua, director of Beijing Art Lab, Film sector presents 59 films and video works.
Magazine - Art publications from around the world display their magazines in single-magazine stands or the collective booth.