Ah, Art Basel, undoubtedly the most important pit-stop in today’s merry-go-round of art fairs. Held in and around the clinical confines of a Herzog & de Meuron-designed convention centre, the legendary, 1970-founded trade show is catnip for art-worlders keen to catch blue-chip greats, as well as hot-shit breakthroughs. Of course, it’s also an accurate sample of all and one that make up the art market, including but not limited to patrons, curators, collectors, journos, critics and it-kids (and breathe), each of whom interact and move between cultural and social ecosystems that – despite wildly different fashion tendencies – are tightly connected.
Between Birkin-boppers and scruffy airbrush artists, a multitude lives and breathes in and amongst the Art Basel vicinity for one week only. Meandering my way through Basel – a city located at the intersection of three territories – it’s immediately clear this is what people mean by ‘global art’. Because it’s huge and well-endowed with financial support, it’s an easy target for clumsy, quasi-Marxist digs. But really, if I get to see my pals from Old Blighty selling the wares they’ve laboured over in a soon-to-be-demolished East End studio, then what’s not to love? So, for a whole week, I’m schmoozing and cheersing to them, getting the lowdown from PV baddies and established institutional leaders alike. Proscht!
Thursday 19th June
Returning to the fair, I decide to finish what I started on Tuesday – Art Basel, that is. I head out on the Parcours hike, making my way across the Basel locale. Of special note is Ebun Sodipo’s shop window display, an astute commentary on romance and love in trans-feminine lives, as well as the urgent and complex issue of visibility. Here, archival imagery and mylar assemble for a successfully moving work. I speak with Stefanie Hessler, director of the Swiss Institute, about how she went about curating Parcours for the second time. (Last year, she programmed a major Alvaro Barrington work that was both thoughtful and immediately engaging for the public.) “One of the main projects is by Sturtevant,” she says, understated and cool in a pair of Nike TNs. She tells me about a video work made in 2010 that now plays in an underpass next to the Rhine bridge. It’s a projection of a dog running left to right on loop, simple yet prescient in that it predicts the incessant flows of information we now know, not least the blurring boundary between nature and digitality. “For Parcours, many of the artists came for site events, and then we chose the locations for the projects with the artist,” explains Stefanie.
I return to the fair to check out the big dogs. Jeffrey Deitch is holding court at Deitch Projects, resplendent in his circular glasses and royal blue suit. I take a mental note of the ‘90s Rammellzee pieces, the newer Futura work, and of course, Keith Haring classics. Like him or not (I like him), his early eye has proven his worth. Elsewhere, I pass through P·P·O·W, ticking off legendary works from David Wojnarowicz, Hilary Harkness and a wooden-framed Martin Wong. New York legend, Wendy Olsoff, is working her magic, with strappy, gargantuan Prada sandals on foot.
From there, it’s Liste time. The satellite fair – a bevy of academic and forward-thinking work that, experience has proven, often reaches Art Basel’s top floor in a few years – is strong. Over at the Insitut Funder Bakke booth, Reba Maybury’s submissive-painted works stand strong. Marcus Jefferson appears alongside Larry Achiampong in a cold set, haunted with clandestine meanings and double-entenre. Great job, Harlesden High Street and Copperfield. Then there’s Arlette’s pewter-like work at Rose Easton, Solomon Garçon at 243 Luz – complete with a listening device implanted in the faux suede wall – and Ana Viktoria Dzinic’s stacked imagery and cheeky jibes at TERF titan (JK Row****).
I return to the Art Basel co-working space and grab a focus cubicle. Work happens, and soon, it’s time for the Art Basel Awards reception at the Kunstmuseum. It’s an imposing space, furnished for the occasion with sleek, clinical table dressing and animated screens showing the variety of medallists. For context, the AB Awards is the first of its kind, billed as a sort of Oscars for the art world. With it, 36 names have been announced as medallists, spanning Grace Wales Bonner (who would have been there had she not been drowning in SS26 show prep) through to Ibrahim Mahama and Lubaina Himid. I grab a white wine with a few of the names behind this huge project, but they’re keen to let it speak for itself. In the smoking area, writer and curator Will Ballantyne-Reid and Art Basel editor Dr Jeni Fulton luxuriate with a few Gauloises after a long week. Helen Neven meets us outside and we hit the Rhine for a few drinkies and a Basel debrief.