Started in 1970, Art Basel is the result of a handful of
passionate and determined Basel gallerists who had an ambitious vision. Over 40
years later, Art Basel is one of the world’s most respected art shows,
showcasing both long-established and burgeoning art talents alongside one
another. Three annual shows bring it together, with its namesake in
Switzerland, one held in Miami, and the Asian debut in Hong Kong – which took
place for the first time this year.
MyCreative Ventures,
knowing that it would be a major art show of the year, has sent a
representative to witness the magic of this prestigious event. MyCreative
expected that being the only Art Basel which is held at Asian Country, Art Basel Hong Kong would
focus more in showcasing and highlighting
the interpretation of modern and contemporary arts of Asian countries
especially those in South East Asia.
Unlike Asian countries, Western countries put so much more
emphasis in elevating the value of arts locally and internationally. In Asian,
there are very few such kind of event that can uphold the uniqueness of Asian
contemporary arts at the international level even though we have international
standard of artists.
Throughout the exhibition, we found out that apart from a large number of
galleries from China (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) that participated, the Art
Basel in Hong Kong potrayed too much of Western galleries than it should
be. There are only one gallery from
Malaysia that (Wei-Ling Gallery), 5 galleries from Singapore (and some of them
are owned by Westeners), 6 from Indonesia, 2 from Thailand, 22 from Japan and 4
from Phillipines out of 245 galleries that participated. According to a source, Art Basel received
around 600 applications and they have made an effort to include Asian
galleries, but of course they have to make sure that the galleries is up to
standard with other international galleries as well.
The one and only Malaysian gallery in Art Basel Hong Kong 2013 however did a very good job in promoting Malaysian Contemporary Arts. Instead of promoting solely his artworks or the gallery, Ivan lam transported local art to the international art scenes by sharing the opportunity with other contemporaries. His art piece titled Coma is definitely a gift back to the Malaysian art scene.
Essentially a vending machine, Coma vended 500 different pieces of miniature 8 x 8 artworks by living local artists throughout the duration of the fair. The artworks were rotated daily throughout the exhibition so that the landscape of the piece will change everyday. Each of the artwork was housed in a perspex case with labels bearing the artists particulars. In other words, Ivan Lam gave out 500 pieces of t Malaysian artists' name cards throughout Art Basel Hong Kong 2013!! Kudos to Ivan Lam on his selfless effort in promoting Malaysian Contemporary Arts.
The rest about Art Basel Hong Kong is inspiring. One of
the Artist talks that sparked my
interest is on ‘Two Decades of Indonesian Contemporary Aer. According to Arin
Dwihartanto Sunaryo, an artist from Bandung, there is not much assistance from
the Indonesian Government in terms of development work, primary education and
not much formal infrastructure However,
Indonesian artists have a strong community where they run several initiatives
locally and abroad and it was initiated by the artists themselves and they work
as a group.
Due to this reason, European galleries have been frequently
visiting Indonesia for the past 2 to 3 years
Nevertheless, the acceptance of Indonesian art was not immediate. It
took a while. According to Matthias Arndt,
Gallerist and Editor of ‘SIP! Indonesian Art Today’, Berlin, an artwork that was exhibited in Berlin 3
years ago was not sold. The same artwork which is currently in display at Art
Basel Hong Kong was sold to a Berlin art institution on the first day of
opening.
Indonesian artist have been exhibiting at Venice Biennale.
Due to the exposure and recent exhibition at Guggenheim New York, this year
Indonesia has been invited to open a pavilion
Due to the above invitation, now the Indonesian Government is supporting
and playing an active role in the Venice Biennale.
In order to harness the visibility and exposure of Malaysian
contemporary art, participation in international exhibition and conference is
important. Therefore, all parties should work together in order to garner the
international attention and get the
necessary exposure to elevate our art standard. Art Basel is definitely one of
the platform that we should consider. Hopefully, there will be more Malaysian
art galleries that will be participating for Art Basel Hong Kong 2014.
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| Coma, Ivan Lam |
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