Or: Art Basel Miami Beach should have received its share of beating more publicly.

What would have been the story of Art Basel Miami Beach had there not been a recession?

“The Art Fair as Outlet Mall” – says the New York Times and is probably right, apart from the fact that the mall wasn’t selling too well. Now I dropped out of the sky on Thursday afternoon and strolled around the fair for two and a half days with my two colleagues Christian Schwarm and Gabriele Knüpfer, both from the Independent Collectors staff. I was underwhelmed (by the fair, that is) to put it politely. Which is not to say that I didn’t see great art. It just was much less compared to frieze in London or Art Basel in, well, Basel.

A recession becomes most threatening, in my humble amateur opinion, when it manages to paralyze people. Which it seems to have clearly done with a lot of gallery owners exhibiting in Miami: Most were playing it safe in what could have been an attempt to cater to the needs of those art buyers who made last years fair such a boom. Unfortunately these are the type to drop expensive hobbies like hot potatoes when the going gets tough.

A theory we developed during our stay was that while the “buyers” were gone, the “collectors” were still there. Some reports of first hour sales and the media coverage seemed to support this theory. Talks with gallery owners over a beer and a burger however shed a slightly different light on the situation: A lot of them haven’t sold a single piece in Miami, not to mention the incredible strain the fair is putting on exhibitors wallets. 400 $ for a weeks worth of wifi alone is what I have heard. This really asks for some provider to set up a free guerrilla wifi next year!

One problem of Miami, at least for me, is that it feels like a humungous ocean liner. And while not wanting to be disrespectful, I have to say that I often had the impression of involuntarily having stepped in either an “arts for the elderly” excursion or into a class of art students who’d really prefer to draw nudes on the beach.

When overhearing conversations, they were either about Beyonce or some other celebrity bouncing about with their entourages of staff - or about the crisis. And many gallery owners I talked to agreed that a lot of the art on show was unexciting boring.

Of course, gallery Sies + Höke from Düsseldorf must have done something right when they decided to be bold and bring only one work by one Belgian artist (Kris Martin), a giant bell without clapper, swinging by means of an electromagnet: It sold within the first two hours of opening.

Other great stuff I saw was the “Weeping Monolith” by Bert Rodriguez, “A sombra e o brilho” by Iñaki Bonillas or “Pointing at Vandalism” by Peter Piller.

Parties? Lots of them and the worst was actually the one at the Miami Art Museum. Serving Grolsch as an excuse for a beer and hiring some daft two person “band” that played way to loud and with a sound that could scare the dead awake is not my idea of fun and cavortment held beneath a Jeff Koonz fun fair balloon. I preferred the Deuce bar where there was at least someone who looked like Keith Richards.



Rumours? Sure. How about these: Art Basel Miami will terminate after the next three years and actually Art Miami pitched for the larger size at the same venue at the same time, so Art Basel Miami had to expand in order to keep the spot. Just rumours, though.

To return to the beginning of the post: When asked about “the other Miami story besides the crisis”, no one I talked to could come up with a fast answer.

If you have one, shoot.

Or: The promised pictures.

Being completely relaxed at artforum Berlin (no intention or money to buy), I took the time taking some pictures which I’m usually not very fond of. But I figured with so much art out there I will never own but like nevertheless, I should start getting over it.

I simply loved this sculpture by Via Lewandowsky (at least this was the nearest name tag). A beautiful winter landscape, complete with footprints and the gaping hole reaching to the bottom of the earth maybe.

Thomas Feuerstein has created this manifestation of Stoner Rock. At leat for me that’s exactly what it is. Pop in the first two or three albums from the Desert Sessions series published on Man’s Ruin to that and I’m all fine.

This definitely has to be posted right after Feuerstein: “Pluto; the ultimate antihero” by Kim Seob Boninsegni. The line “and my shadow plutoes the sun” alone is worth buying this, if you have the change left. This clocks in at several thousand, but lower than 10k, if I remember correctly.

Tom Molloy is the brain behind the soap boxes here. I simply fall for artworks that consist of more than two seemingly identical items, so naturally, I was attracted to this one. Although they are being sold separately. Molloy also painted the book “1984″ by George Orwell (at least that’s what I believe it was) in watercolour, omitting everything but the love story. Beautiful.

Some more stuff by Lasse Schmidt Hansen. The item on the left right is called “In your face (Borrowed shirt)” and it is actually a shirt Lasse borrowed from another artist and the collector “owning”this (who is registered over at Independent Collectors, by the way –> link) is not actually buying it but borrowing it from Lasse for a fee.

And then the crisis struck:

And as if this real life installtion weren’t enough (I expressed interest and handed them my card but never heard from then again, by the way), German television was collecting statements regarding the situation:

Beind questioned: Christian Schwarm, one of the founders of Independent Collectors.

And last but not least two works that grabbed my attention and that somewhat fit my passion for science fiction and for little items (i.e. dots) on large backgrounds:

Left is “Great Britain” by Anatoly Shuravlev (the white dot that seems to hover behind the dude in the blue shirt is great britain in white on a huge black background) and right we have “Red Son of the Scrith” by Justin Lieberman. Which was taken down after the professional opening, I believe.

Not bad for taking pictures, right? I think I finally got the hang of it. No I only need to be more precise in noting down names, titles and prices. I will get there, eventually.

Or: Five months is not enough.

At the gallery dinner hosted by Barbara Thumm (link) at art forum Berlin (just after the opening of the exhibition of a huge work by Fernando Bryce (link)), Barbara came over and said to me: „I have been thinking about you a lot since yesterday and I came to the conclusion that when you decided to start collecting contemporary art, you haven’t actually changed anything. You’re still collecting science fiction. Not contemporary art.”

The night before Barbara had joined us for the first Independent Collectors Dinner, where I gave a report about my first five months of collecting. During the speech I mentioned my passion for collecting science fiction literature. And yes, maybe Barbara has a point.

(This is my dinner speech, by the way.)

My collection includes one work with a direct tie to a major science fiction work, namely Kris Martin’s “End point of Time Machine (H.G. Wells)”. Two other works have something to do with stars and the universe.

Barbara also said that the works I collect are very literary. Which would be true, had I bought Sven Johne instead of Kris Martin, although the works themselves would have been very different.

The easy way out is to quote Wilhelm Schürmann who says that you can only collect yourself. Looking at my fictious collection however, I realized that the reason why all my works bare a resemblance to science fiction is that when I have to decide between two works that will both ruin me, I’m more inclined to take the one with a link to science fiction. Kris Martin’s “13 Idiots” for example has nothing to do with science fiction at all. Is it still a literary work? I’m not sure.

Right there in that moment, Barbara had caught me off guard. Right now, with a night of proper sleep in between me and the fair, I think that my collection will develop further away from science fiction over time. Five months is not enough to leave familiar tracks. Still, her remark was a very useful and interesting one to ponder about.

Other than that, art forum Berlin was awesome. I will post a bunch of pictures of works I liked next week.