Art-party under palm trees: Ten years Art Basel Miami Beach. A retrospective.
It was the day before the opening of the prestigious art-fair Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) and it was all over the news: American Airlines announced filing for Chapter Eleven. But on board there was no sign of the financial turbulences. Once the travelers had checked-in and the aircraft was en route, it was business as usual. The service was excellent, the entertainment channels packed with enjoyable treats and the cheerful crowd of art-fans merrily toasted their champagne cups to wonderful time ahead. This airplane atmosphere proved to be representative of the spirit during the Art Basel Miami. While the news reports keep tumbling about plunging economies and the fear of monetary collapse is rising, the art-scene in Miami seems to have vowed to not take notice and party as though crisis was only a world on some papers. With more than 260 participating galleries and some estimated 50.000 visitors in Miami Beach, the sunny counterpart of the Swiss Art Basel demonstrated once again its predominance as place for art-trade. This year ABMB celebrated its tenth birthday – yet this was not the only thing that was acclaimed.
Since its founding the art-fair in Miami has established itself as fixed point in the international art-calendar. Collectors rush into the hustle and bustle with equal feverish activity as the gallery owners and museum-directors from all over the world. So many renown faces: there you see Damien Hirst, there Jeffrey Deitch chats with Francesca Habsburg, Naomi Campbell makes her rounds and Sam Keller greets all his many friends. None of the really important players would dare miss this event. The success of Art Basel Miami is also greatly due to the geographic position; Miami being ideally located to attract not only collectors from the United States, but also all those coming from Latin and Central America. Spiced up with the beachparty-flair, you find the ingredients to an irresistibly hot cocktail for which the global art-crowd will happily travel to Miami in the cold winter-month. And with their glasses filled they will stand until late at night, arguing whether the art-market can be seen as barometer for the worldwide economy.
The incredible glamour of famous names is what shall also help the selling at the end of the day: Luxury brands invite as sponsors to lavish opening-ceremonies, Ferrari, Dior, Dom Pérignon, Louis Vuitton and Fendi to only name a few of the Vernissage hosts, dinner-parties and reservations in the best clubs included. The guest-lists read like a who-is-who of VIP-fame: Sean „P. Diddy“ Combs, Tilda Swinton, Sean Penn, Michael Douglas, Dasha Zhukova. Not to forget the important string-pullers Larry Gagosian, Aby Rosen and the Mugrabi- or Nahmad-Clan. After all, Miami loves big names – especially when it comes to art, and that´s what the ArtBaselMiami is about somehow, isn´t it…?
Gold-Chip-Art.
Who is actually allowed to exhibit? A severe committee choses carefully the participants and ensures that only those are admitted, fulfilling the strict criteria. Generally all participating galleries filed for low-risk, high value pieces. Who said that only the stock-exchange trades blue-chips? When it came to this years ABMB, one should actually speak of GOLD-CHIPS. Numerous pieces sparkled like the precious metal. There was a great deal of works by John Miller and Anish Kapoor, to underline the statement: Look, art is just as safe and valuable as gold! One is somehow reminded of King Midas – anything art touches shall turn into gold…
Thus the main criteria at the fair were equally conservative as the investing in the shimmering asset. Galleries displaying established artists and pieces worthy of belonging to museums, complying with the mantra: Play It Safe!
An observation especially obvious for works by artists, who just recently opened solo-shows in museums, such as Erwin Wurm. The works by the Austrian sculptor were present at the fair, and simultaneously at the Bass Museum Miami. Not only was the opening of his exhibition accurately timed synchronous to ABMB, but the title of the show paid an ironic homage to the focus of the latter. Erwin Wurm chose the title “Beauty Business” for his retrospective.
But he was not the only artist who performed on two stages at the same time: Sprüth Magers offered works by Cyprien Gaillard, currently exhibiting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Tanya Bonakdar showed a piece by Tomás Saraceno, knowing that the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin exhibits his spatial installations. Mary Boone invited artist Barbara Kruger to design her booth. „Plenty should be enough“, “WorthLess” or „Money makes Money“. With her distinctive sentences she clothed the walls, pinpointing at results of overheated markets and greed.
ABMB is indeed grown-up and is in no step behind the mother-fair in Basel, even grown-up toys like the giant plush monster by Takashi Murakami or Paul McCarthys pink Snow-white dwarf will hide this fact. The booths of Acquavella and Landau Fine Arts displayed the great modern masters. The booths of Helly Nahmad or Galerie Thomas almost seemed like little museums. Too conservative many may have moaned – but the firm trades proved those right, who played their cards right and brought their best ware out.
Consumerism criticism or highly political works were rather scarce. With few but nonetheless effectual exemptions of course: Berlusconis head rolling on the floor (Kendell Geers) or a video-installation by Jonathan Horowitz (at Sadie Coles). The clip showed aphorisms about the art-market, concluding “Art is Propaganda for the Status Quo”.
Those interested in treasure quest could to hunting on the numerous fields on satellite-fairs. Looking at the incredible amount of satellites, one was hit by the great extend of how much merchandise this art-market encloses. Obviously also unclosing huge gaps and differences in regards to quality and prices.
Two satellite fairs freshly contrasted the meager boldness of the ABMB: “Pulse” and “Nada”. They are smaller fairs, sometimes younger but not necessarily less confident. They displayed a fine selection of adventurous yet technically reliable and conceptually audacious works. Concerning the other small fairs like “Red Dot” or “Verge”, the quote of London-based collector and private equity manager points out, what the garage-sale atmosphere suggested: “If you plan on making a good investment, you can´t just buy this stuff because its cheap – left-overs are junk, no matter how well you pack them”.
Sure, there was a lot to see. But for those who fear that such a mega-fair merry-go-round will leave you burnout, just consider: a boreout doesn´t really sound fun either, does it? So it´s all a matter of avoiding excess, and finding the right dosage of the right quality… And that leads us right back into the financially tarnished, panic-ridden reality.
JACQUELINE.NOW 
