巴塞尔09.06.15
收藏家François Pinault. (摄影: Nicolas Trembley) 右: Rat and Bear. (摄影: Peter Schnetz)
在过去两周内最有趣的活动，作为一个从威尼斯到巴塞尔跑来跑去的人，是比较那些在在同一问题上迥然不同的观点。感谢全球化，成倍规模的国家和艺术家出席了展览会，而其中那些最勤奋的马拉松运动员们（艺术家，经纪人，评论家，收藏家）反而有点困惑。而现在正当他们最喜欢做的事情：评判来到时，他们似乎反而显得最慌乱。这里还没有明确的标准，让一个人惊喜的也会让另一个人失望。 “高尚的”或“庸俗的” ， “前卫”或“过时”意见不一正如难以预测的天气一样，永远在闪亮的阳光和倾盆暴雨之间摇摆。
上周三晚上，当我去了巴塞尔开幕的“Il Tempo del Postino,举办开幕的活动，以庆祝这个与城市同名艺术博览会40周年，有人问我有没有“Il Tempo del Cappuccino.”多的门票。“也许我们本来就可以喝点咖啡，但却只有酩悦香槟。这个“Il Tempo del Cappuccino.”的 团体展， “用的时间而不是空间” （有点像巨大的的各种秀），它的的策展人和导演Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno在艺术家安Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno的帮助下，而他们的经销商和几乎所有人都去了。
. Those (myself included) who had seen the show’s original premiere at the Manchester International Festival in 2007 were ahead of the others, and I had fun making my neighbors, curator Raimundas Malašauskas and artist Mario García Torres, guess which artist made which work. Some were delighted that Matthew Barney didn’t reproduce the fist-fucking scene that caused such a controversy for the British, while others thought the work had been better with it. (This time, at the end of Barney’s contribution there was only a concert in the lobby performed with a score by Jonathan Bepler.) To keep things exciting, two new works were added to this version of “Il Tempo”: one by Thomas Demand—a projection of a film imitating rain that was “not at all interesting” for some, “absolutely fantastic” for others—and another by Fischli & Weiss featuring their well-known characters, Rat and Bear. For the latter, the pair were represented in child form, and Bear Cub and Baby Rat fiddled with a remote control and closed the stage curtain by accident. 
Carsten Höller’s piece for "Il Tempo del Postino." 的参与者。(摄影: David Velasco) 右：艺术家 Danh Vo 和Niklas Svennung. (摄影: Nicolas Trembley)
由于观众都是些完全的艺术爱好者就保证了成功。公众被感动到忘我，高呼安可，这也许是整个行程中第一个和谐的音符吧。所有的当代艺术爱好者都特别喜欢Sala的四个艺妓，她们唱的来自蝴蝶夫人（ “现在是歌剧” ）的咏叹调 ，还有Doug Aitken’s的作品， in which cattle auctioneers dispersed throughout the audience wildly rattled off numbers, their voices coming together in a crescendo of faster and faster bids, while a large onstage screen went from pitch black to bright. Most everyone agreed, too, that the show was very appropriate for a fair and much more inspiring than tiresome talk of a market “return” or “collapse.” After the performance, the artists left for the Schiesser’s, where a dinner had been organized by Fondation Beyeler director (and former Art Basel director) Samuel Keller and press rep Isabela Mora. For those who didn’t attend, the only thing open was a restaurant around the corner serving kebabs, because the three-hour show didn’t end until just before midnight.
It wouldn’t be Basel without a proliferation of parallel fairs, and like musical chairs, Design Miami/Basel found itself plopped in Hall 5 of the city’s Messeplatz convention center. Voltashow, which had once been in Voltaplatz, was moved to the Markthalle, where the Design show used to be; Bâlelatina became the Hot Art fair; Scope moved to the Sportplatz, etc. Along with artist Christian Holstad, I opted to visit the former Wartek beer factory hosting Liste, which has served as the gateway drug to the official fair for the past twelve years. If, at Art Basel, you could find miniature versions of the now-famous installations at the Venice Biennale or the Pinault Foundation (Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonakdar, Mike Kelley at Jablonka, Guyton\Walker at Air de Paris, among many others), that’s not quite the case at Liste. This year, as always, some found Liste to be very good, while others complained that the complexity and punk had disappeared. Those who opted to hold solo shows seemed the most satisfied. David Kordansky sold all of Elad Lassry’s photographs as soon as the fair opened, and Overduin and Kite were more than pleased with reactions to Scott Olson’s paintings. 
左：Pierre Huyghe的作品 "Il Tempo del Postino."中 想象的虚拟朋友。(摄影: Nicolas Trembley) Right: Dealers Micky Schubert and Kristina Kite with Kunsthalle Basel director Adam Szymczyk. (摄影: Ryan McNamara)
But the art public wasn’t just there for the fairs. The Schaulager, which always organizes a brunch to lure in the famished tourists, this year presented part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum. Most of the works came from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation (to which the Schaulager belongs), and the show got plenty of attention. Public opinion was much less mitigated about these chefs d’oeuvre, and everyone was amazed to discover that all the works, from Hans Holbein to Wolfgang Tillmans, had been purchased as soon as they had been produced. (Holbein was a longtime Basel resident, and the Kunstmuseum has the largest collection of his works in the world.) Danh Vo’s show at the Kunsthalle was a hit, and alternative spaces, such as the one hosted by New Jerseyy, a collective of artists and curators (Daniel Baumann, Tobias Madison, Emanuel Rossetti, and Dan Solbach), also proved very popular. The evening that Ida Ekblad painted a storefront window and Nils Bech sang a cappella on a ladder was a must-attend, as was the launch of Provence, a new magazine about art hobbies produced by a group of young dandies from Frankfurt’s Städelschule.
On Saturday, after all the madness, I made my way to Dinard, in Brittany, where François Pinault was showing yet another part of his collection. (How much remains?) The show, curated by Caroline Bourgeois, couldn’t be more different from the one at the Dogana and Palazzo Grassi. First of all, the Palais des Arts, where it was held, is a much smaller space (eighty-six hundred square feet), and it is designed for a local public that is less accustomed to contemporary art, which can sometimes be rather provocative. One local newspaper ran the headline “A Shocking Exhibition.” Much more intimate, this show, cheekily titled “Who’s Afraid of Artists?,” features seven sections, ranging from “Around Minimalism,” with classics by Flavin, Manzoni, and Agnes Martin, to “Afraid of Death,” with Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite and a series of works by Damien Hirst offering evidence of one of the collector’s obsessions: skulls. Pinault, who has always spoken with pride about his simple Breton origins, was welcomed like a prodigal son by a large crowd of badauds that also came to greet ex-president Jacques Chirac and the actress Salma Hayek, who was beaming and holding the arm of Pinault’s son. Very few gallery owners or artists attended this very personal exhibition, and there was little idle chatter at the opening. It seemed as though the great collector had decided to return to his roots modestly, a (relatively) simple, uncomplicated end to June’s festivities.
— Nicolas Trembley 
艺术家 Matthew Barney. 右: François-Henry Pinault 和 Salma Hayek. (摄影: Nicolas Trembley) 
左: 法国前总统 Jacques Chirac. 右: Daniel Baumann (right). (摄影s: Nicolas Trembley) 
右: Proyectos Monclova’s José García. 右：经销商 David Kordansky. 
左: Wallspace’s Janine Foeller and Jane Hait. (摄影: Ryan McNamara) 右：策展人 Caroline Bourgeois. (摄影: Nicolas Trembley) 
左: Cosmic 画廊的 Claudia Cargnel 和Frederic Bugada. (摄影: Ryan McNamara) 右: 经销商 Diana Stigter. 
左: 经销商 Tanya Leighton and Emilie Bujes. 右: Circus Gallery’s Silvie Joe Buschmann. (摄影 Ryan McNamara) 
左: 经销商 Sorcha Dallas. 右: Office Baroque’s Marie Denkens and Wim Peters. (摄影Ryan McNamara) 
左: Evergreene’s Nicole Timonier and Samuel Gross. (摄影: Ryan McNamara) 右: Rodeo画廊的 Sylvia Kouvali.
