At the Art Basel fair taking place these days, 270 contemporary art galleries and the work of more than 4,000 artists from different countries are presented. From 24 to 26 September, the general public can not only see actual art objects, but also take part in the new “hybrid” format of the fair.
“Hybrid” exhibition: what is it?
This year Art Basel is being held in two formats at once: classic and digital. Thanks to online presentations, broadcasts in social networks and virtual tours, viewers from anywhere in the world can touch the beauty. As Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler noted: “It is important to re-host our exhibition in a classic format, drawing on the digital innovations of last year at the same time to attract as many viewers as possible from all over the world.”
Art Basel also introduces new models and approaches to participation. For example, joint and virtual stands, which provide an opportunity for participants who cannot be physically present in Basel to show their own small exhibition.
Covid bracelets instead of covid certificates
A real innovation was the Art Basel covid concept, which provides for the wearing of bracelets in different colors. Exhibitors, employees and those visitors who will be at the fair all week are required to wear a special black bracelet, which they will receive after confirming vaccination with a vaccine approved in the European Union and Switzerland. In the absence of such a certificate, a test can be made on the territory of the expocentre. Wearing the bracelet will also allow its wearer to visit restaurants, museums, bars and hotels in Basel during the entire art week.
The colored bracelet is intended for those visitors who have confirmed the vaccination or made a test, but will spend only one day at the exhibition. For the first time, a precedent has been created when a covid certificate (albeit for a limited time) is actually replaced by another object – a bracelet.
Crypto picture for cryptocurrency
Digital technology is forcing gallery owners to argue about what the world of art fairs will be like tomorrow. Basel is trying to combine the present and the future, but after the pandemic, there are more and more supporters of full immersion in the virtual art world. Exhibitors note that this time there are many young people among the visitors, and it is millennials who become their main buyers.
In Basel, galleries selling digital works in the format of the NFT cryptoart (non-fungible token) are actively represented. According to Artnet, on the opening day, the work of the artist Olive Allen in the NFT format “Post-death or The Null Address” was sold for eight cryptocurrency units of ethereum, which is equal to 25 thousand Euro.
Gallery owners admit that difficulties with paying for a cryptoart often arise, because few collectors trust cryptocurrency, and therefore calculations sometimes take place the old-fashioned way: in dollars or euros.
Obviously, the pandemic has made the art world more technological, virtual and … intangible. From abstraction on canvas, artists imperceptibly moved to files on the server, and we hear more and more about art from the sections “science” or “finance”.
Who buys what in Basel?
In fact, the exhibition runs from Monday, September 20. However, the first days are exclusively closed shows for representatives of museums, large collectors and famous guests from the world of stars. Thus, actor Brad Pitt and rapper Kanye West are considered regular visitors (and buyers) of contemporary art in Basel.
The press is already discussing record deals: for 6.5 million dollars was sold the abstraction “The Poet” by the American artist from the family of Odessa emigrants Philip Guston. However, many prefer not to disclose the cost of the acquisitions: for example, according to the Swiss publication Blick, the Frankfurt art museum Städel acquired the work “Girl in Love with a Wound” by Romanian artist Victor Man from the Neu gallery from Berlin at an unknown price.
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