When ARTINFO sat down with Magnus Renfrew, Art Basel’s director Asia, to discuss the 2014 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, he was five weeks into a round-the-world trip visiting collectors and gallerists. He had already visited Berlin, Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, and Taipei when he met with us in Sydney, and was preparing to head to Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore followed by Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.
Returning to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from May 15 to 18 for its second edition under the Art Basel umbrella, Art Basel Hong Kong will feature 245 of the world’s leading galleries as well as the work of more than 3,000 artists, ranging from young emerging talents to the Modern masters of Asia and the West. Continuing the fair’s commitment to the region, 50 percent of galleries presented at the show have exhibition spaces in Asia and the Asia-Pacific.
Renfrew’s tireless efforts to forge relationships with gallerists and collectors all over the world is evidence of his commitment to the fair and reflects his ambition to take what is currently regarded as the leading art fair in the Asia and Asia Pacific regions and establish it as an internationally significant event as well as a stop-off for the global art community. See what Renfrew had to say about Art Basel Hong Kong as well as the Asia Pacific art scene in the interview below.
The current talking point is the change of dates from May to March in 2015. Could you speak a bit about the reason behind the change and the logistics involved?
The complexities of securing a change of dates are easily underestimated, but there’s probably only about five days a year that the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre doesn’t have something, either an event or a conference, being built up, broken down, or taking place. So to effect this change, the management of the HKCEC has had to negotiate with nine different events to move, and each one of those events is plugged into its own global industry calendar.
While the May dates had worked fine for the contemporary art scene in Asia and for the collectors in Asia, it had been problematic for some of the Western galleries in terms of the congested nature of the calendar, particularly the proximity to New York Auction Week and Art Basel in Switzerland. Whilst there is no time that is completely free from clashes, March gives us a much better opportunity to attract a stronger audience from the US and Europe.
What are your plans for the future of Art Basel Hong Kong? Do you have any particular ambitions or goals?
There are certain things that we are on the right track with; the basic sectors are along the right lines, but we would love to have more historical content from Asia. Art Basel has always been known as a modern and contemporary fair, and whilst we have a very strong presence of modern and post-war art from the West, there is still a lot more to do to build up that representation from Asia and the Asia Pacific. We would love more of those presentations, most probably through the Insights sector. But we are making some headway in that area, and it’s still early days.
We also want to establish Art Basel in Hong Kong as a fair of truly global standing with mainstream attendance from collectors from all over the world, and with greater numbers from Europe and the United States than we currently have. Our ambition is to take what is currently regarded as the leading art fair in the Asia and Asia Pacific regions and establish it as one of the important art fairs on a global level, as well as a stop-off for the global art community. We are not aiming to create a niche Asian fair, but rather a global art fair for Asia that contextualizes Asia within the global art scene.
Have you noticed any developing trends that interest you?
South East Asia and Indonesia are interesting. There is also great work being produced in China that is outside the Western perception of what constitutes Chinese contemporary art. I think that some people still associate Chinese contemporary art with work that was produced for the auctions in the 2006-2008 period — smiley faces, the color red, pandas, Chairman Mao — when actually there is much more interesting work than that being produced that engages with the reality of what it is like to live in China today and the great changes that China is going through. Elsewhere in South East Asia — in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar — there are some very interesting artists, a number of whom are working in the medium of performance, which is something I would personally like to see a lot more of at the fair.
Will you continue to aim to have 50 percent representation of galleries with spaces in Asia and the Asia-Pacific?
Something that we started facing about two or three years ago, when galleries began to establish branches in different parts of the world, was that people often argue over the definition of an Asian gallery. So we don’t say Asian galleries, we say galleries with spaces in Asia, because those galleries are undoubtedly making an important contribution to the local cultural ecologies in which they are located — they provide artists with opportunities to see work from different parts of the world, for example, and they provide global standards of practice in terms of artist representation for artists from those particular locations as well. It was a really interesting moment in time when this became an issue three years ago; it was a sign of the times of the globalization of the art world. It is funny that you have moments like that when you are trying to pigeon-hole things, and what worked the year before no longer works. It’s interesting that there has been this kind of a shift. It is our aim to continue to have 50% representation of galleries with spaces in Asia and the Asia-Pacific.
Are there any regions you would like to see better represented by galleries at Art Basel in Hong Kong?
We would like to have the broadest and most diverse presentation from all over Asia — from as far west as Turkey and as far east as New Zealand, and everywhere in-between. It would be great to have more work from the ‘stans, and we are delighted that we have the first gallery participating from Azerbaijan this year. So there is a lot more to be done in terms of the breadth of coverage, but it’s a fascinating process.
Are there any particular mediums that collectors are focusing on?
We have spent quite a lot of time thinking about this, but I don’t think the market works like that. Everyone is an individual and tastes are very diverse within countries — as diverse as individuals. The way it does tend to work relates to the different stages of collecting. In my experience it is pretty much the same anywhere in the world. You tend to buy work, when you are starting out, that is conservative in nature and from your own country. And then as time goes on and you develop more confidence and knowledge you often then progress to buying contemporary work, but usually again from your own country. But once you have started buying contemporary art from your own country it is not such a big leap to buying contemporary art from elsewhere in the world. And we’re seeing that pay out in China — those collectors who were early to start buying contemporary Chinese art are not just as happy buying contemporary art from elsewhere in the world.
What makes Hong Kong the best place location for an art fair in Asia?
There are so many different reasons. The shared history with the West means that is a place where English is commonly spoken and people feel very comfortable being there. There is probably nowhere in the world where people from Asia and the West feel quite so equally at home. Also of great importance is the geographical location. When you are looking at trying to create a major international hub fair you have to look at the natural catchment area of that location and Hong Kong has one of the widest catchment areas of anywhere in the world; it’s a natural nexus. The fact that there is no tax on the import and export of art as well as no sales tax makes the city even more attractive.
For an art fair like this to be a success it was important for us to engage with all of the different constituencies around the region; no single domestic market is big enough. What you tend to find is that those art fairs that are located in a particular country tend to take on the identity of that country to an extent. But in Hong Kong we have a place that whilst it is part of China is also regarded as neutral territory, meaning that we can have an internationalism, which has been a positive thing.
Anything else you would like to add?
One of the interesting dynamics is that people are seeing the importance of buying from galleries rather than buying from auctions. Knowledge and connoisseurship are also becoming increasingly valued and respected with collectors moving beyond buying the big brand names. People are still very competitive of course, but there is now also a sense of competition to be the first person to discover a young artist’s work, and that is a positive dynamic.
