Art Basel: Far or Near the People?

Yesterday concluded the largest contemporary art fair in the world, Art Basel, which joins the events held these days in Europe, generating a singular movement in the market, among collectors, as well as within the curators, critics and promoters union.

Ai Weiwei played the leading role once again, with a piece that opened the show, thus announcing the intention of Art Basel organizers of making more emphasis on Asia and specially China. In fact, MCH Swiss Exhibition, which is in charge of producing the event, bought the Hong Kong International Art Fair a year ago, since the edition held every year in Miami has been a success from several points of view, and the idea is achieving such results in other spaces. The first edition of the new event, scheduled for 2013, will be very selective, with space for 250 galleries from every corner of Earth, though half of the marketplaces are reserved for Asia and countries of the Asia-Pacific region, from Turkey to the Near East, India and China, and even Australia and New Zealand.

As for the sales matter in Basel, the price of 258 Fake, Ai Weiwei’s artwork that welcomes the visitors, is 140,000 euros. And that sum can be multiplied for eight, depending on the amount of editions previously announced by the gallery that represents him.

The rest of the prices were that high, since it seems that the strategy to deal with the crisis is pushing even more, achieving record sales such as Sotheby´s in May that sold El grito de Edvard Munch to a Qatari collector for 120 million dollars.

Some of the strategies to turn the fair into a more exclusive space were reducing to four days the opening for general viewers and increasing entry prices to 250 euros (313 dollars). Amazing. On the one hand, some events look for a larger approach of people to visual production, through projects in public and interactive spaces, or social insertion. On the other hand, the promotion of the elitist essence of art as an alternative for market crisis. We’re waiting for short and long term effects.