香港巴塞爾藝術展即將開幕
HONG KONG — When the third edition of Art Basel Hong Kong opens to the public on Sunday, the atmosphere at Asia’s hottest contemporary art fair will be noticeably cooler — for reasons that have less to do with the region’s overall economic slowdown than the shift in the fair’s dates from humid May to balmy March.
香港——第三屆香港巴塞爾藝術展(Art Basel Hong Kong)將於本週日開幕，作爲亞洲最熱門的當代藝術展會，本屆的“熱度”明顯會有所降低。其實這和該地區整體經濟增長放緩關係不大，而是因爲展會的日期從悶熱的5月調整到了溫煦的3月。But the show’s organizers hope the real draw of the date change for collectors and galleries will be more distance in the international art world calendar from the fair madness of May and June.
但該展會的組織者之所以更改日期，實際上是希望與國際藝術界5月和6月繁忙的展會安排岔開時間，方便收藏家和畫廊參加。“Because of the timing, we weren’t reaching the potential we thought we could reach,” said Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel.
“因爲時間安排問題，我們從前沒有實現應該可以達到的潛力，”巴塞爾藝術展總監馬克·斯皮格勒(Marc Spiegler)說。
With the March date, Art Basel Hong Kong — the newest outpost of the Art Basel triumvirate that also includes editions in Switzerland and Miami Beach — will no longer run up against Frieze New York, Gallery Weekend in Berlin and the Venice Biennale in May, not to mention the flagship Art Basel in June.
香港巴塞爾藝術展是巴塞爾三大展會中最年輕的一個，其他兩個分別在瑞士和邁阿密海灘舉辦。改期到3月之後，它就不會和5月的紐約弗里茲展(Frieze)、柏林的畫廊週末(Gallery Weekend)以及威尼斯雙年展(Venice Biennale)發生時間衝突，更不用說6月的旗艦展會巴塞爾藝術展了。If all goes according to plan, the shift will allow Art Basel Hong Kong to bring in more big Western art players to mix with the younger, less-established regional contemporary art scene for a week of openings, cocktail parties, panel discussions and dinners — a unique intermingling of East and West that has in many ways come to define Art Basel Hong Kong from its counterparts.
如果一切按計劃進行，改期將會爲香港巴塞爾藝術展帶來更多的大牌西方參展商，讓他們與這裏的更爲年輕的、新興的、區域性的當代藝術人士共聚一堂，在一週長的時間裏參加各種揭幕式、雞尾酒會、小組討論會和晚宴--東西方以多種方式獨特地交織混合，是香港巴塞爾藝術展不同於其他展會的標誌性特點。
The strategy appears to be working. This year’s fair will feature 233 galleries from 37 countries and territories — slightly fewer than last year, but still maintaining the 50-50 split between Asian and Western exhibitors, as in previous years. Art-world heavyweights like Gagosian Gallery, Acquavella, Pace, David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth will be alongside prominent Asian galleries like ShanghART Gallery and Vitamin Creative Space.
這個策略似乎顯露了成效。今年的博覽會將有來自37個國家和地區的233家藝廊參加——比去年略有減少，但仍維持着往年亞洲和西方參展商各佔一半的比例。像高古軒藝廊(Gagosian Gallery)、阿奎維拉藝廊(Acquavella)、佩斯藝廊(Pace)、大衛·茲沃納藝廊(David Zwirner)，以及豪瑟和沃斯藝廊(Hauser& Wirth)這樣的重磅級藝術商，將與香格納藝廊、維他命藝術空間等著名亞洲藝廊同臺參展。But there will also be 29 first-time exhibitors, including Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art from New York, Thomas Dane Gallery from London, Skarstedt from New York and London, and, from the Asia-Pacific region, Darren Knight Gallery from Sydney and Liang Gallery from Taipei.
但本屆也有29家首次參展的藝術商，其中包括紐約的愛德華·泰勒·納厄姆藝廊(Edward Tyler Nahem Art)、倫敦的托馬斯·戴恩藝廊(Thomas Dane Gallery)，來自紐約和倫敦的斯卡斯登特藝廊(Skarstedt)，亞太地區的則有悉尼的達倫騎士藝廊(Darren Knight Gallery)和臺北的谷公館。“We’ve been wanting to do the fair for some time,” Mr. Nahem said. “But as somebody who prides himself on sourcing great material, and it certainly doesn’t grow on trees, it wouldn’t have been easy to do the two fairs close to each other,” he said, referring to Art Basel in Switzerland.
“我們想來參會已經有一段時間了，”納厄姆說。“但是，佳作肯定不是從樹上長出來的，而作爲以購藏佳作爲傲的知名藝廊，要在短時間內參加兩個展會很困難，”他說。兩個展會指的是香港和瑞士的巴塞爾藝術展。Another first-time exhibitor is the Andrea Rosen Gallery of New York, which will be bringing a billboard by the Cuban-born American artist Félix González-Torres, among other work. Called “Untitled” (1995), the billboard will be exhibited in tram shelters and transportation hubs across the city in partnership with the Hong Kong nonprofit organization K11 Art Foundation.
紐約的安德烈·羅森藝廊(Andrea Rosen Gallery)也是首次參展，它帶來了一面名爲“無題”（Untitled，1995年）的廣告牌，由古巴出生的美國藝術家菲利克斯·岡薩雷斯-託雷斯(Félix González-Torres)創作。在香港非營利性組織K11藝術基金會協助下，這塊廣告牌將在香港各處的電車候車廳和交通樞紐展出。“I think a lot of people have a curiosity about Hong Kong right now,” Ms. Rosen said.
“我想目前很多人都對香港感到好奇，”羅森說。The emergence of Hong Kong as a top destination for international art-world figures is a recent phenomenon. When the local art fair, ART HK, began in 2008, the city was known mostly as a global financial capital. That changed as the market for contemporary art began to flourish, a shift accelerated by the purchase in 2011 of ART HK by MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd., Art Basel’s parent company. (The founders of ART HK will be debuting a more Asia-focused, satellite fair called Art Central on Saturday.)
香港成爲國際藝術界成員的頂級目的地的時間還不長。2008年，本地藝術展香港國際藝術展開始舉辦的時候，該市主要是一個全球性的金融資本中心。隨着當代藝術品市場的蓬勃發展，這種狀況發生了轉變，而巴塞爾藝術展的母公司MCH瑞士展覽(巴塞爾)有限公司2011年收購了香港國際藝術展，更是加速了這一轉變。（本週六，香港國際藝術展的創辦人將舉辦一個更側重於亞洲的外圍展會，名爲香港當代藝術展[Art Central]）。“I think now that we’ve established Hong Kong as the major site for the fair in Asia, the bigger task is to focus on the markets that feed the fair,” Mr. Spiegler said.
“我認爲，我們已經把香港變成了亞洲藝術展會的橋頭堡，更大的任務是把重點放在支撐展會的市場上，”斯皮格勒說。To that end, the team of organizers led by Mr. Spiegler and Adeline Ooi, the new Asia director for Art Basel, have been focusing on recruiting collectors and museum directors, with an emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. Expected to attend this year are the heads of major arts institutions like the Tate in Britain in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei and M+, Hong Kong’s visual culture museum that is scheduled to open in 2018. Last year, the event, which is being held again at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, logged about 65,000 visitors.
爲此，在斯皮格勒和巴塞爾藝術展新上任的亞洲總監黃雅君(Adeline Ooi)的帶領下，組織者團隊集中精力招募收藏者和博物館館長，並把側重點放在亞太地區。一些知名藝術機構的負責人預計將於今年參會，他們來自於倫敦的英國泰特美術館(Tate in Britain)、紐約現代藝術博物館(the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA)、東京的森美術館(Mori Art Museum)、悉尼的新南威爾士藝術館(Art Gallery of New South Wales)、臺北當代藝術館，以及定於2018年開業的香港視覺文化博物館M+。去年，這個活動吸引了6.5萬名觀衆，今年的活動仍然在香港會議展覽中心舉行。“There is a curiosity about all these galleries and artists they’ve never heard of,” Mr. Spiegler said. “For the Asian collectors, that’s especially true, because the different art scenes in Asia are historically so disconnected from one another.”
“這些從沒聽說過的藝廊和藝術家讓大家很感興趣，”施皮格勒說。“對亞洲藏家來說，尤其如此，因爲亞洲不同的藝術圈子一貫是相互脫節的。”David Heng, 48, a collector in Singapore, has attended the event every year since it began as ART HK in 2008. “ The fair is getting quite interesting,” he said. The scale is growing, he added, and “we’re starting to see a lot of big names in terms of the works the galleries are bringing.”
48歲的新加坡藏家戴維·王(David Heng)從香港國際藝術展2008年創辦以來就每年前來參會。他說，“這個展會正在變得相當有意思。”他還表示，展會的規模也在擴大，“我們開始看到藝廊送來的作品裏頭出現了很多重量級的名字。”The juxtaposition of Western and Asian artists at the fair makes for a fresh cultural dialogue for collectors who are accustomed to viewing one or two artists at a time here in galleries or at auctions, said Pearl Lam, a Hong Kong dealer “It’s a very different way of looking at art,” said Ms. Lam, who opened a second Hong Kong gallery in the Sheung Wan neighborhood in time for the festivities. “But now with contemporary art being so fashionable, the gallery culture in Hong Kong is coming together and everybody is getting into the habit of going to art fairs.”
香港經銷商林明珠(Pear Lam)表示，展會上西方和亞洲藝術家的混搭提供了與藏家開展全新文化對話的機會，而這些藏家習慣的是在藝廊或拍賣會上一次看一兩位藝術家的作品。“看待藝術的方式非常不一樣，”林明珠說。她剛好在此次活動前在上環開設了自己在香港的第二家藝廊。“但是現在當代藝術這麼時髦，所以香港的藝廊文化正在形成，人人都在養成去看藝術展的習慣。”Among the many artists being highlighted at the show is Cao Fei, a rising Chinese artist known for her exploration of Chinese identity through multimedia and video projects.
參加香港巴塞爾藝術展的衆多藝術家中，有一位是冉冉上升的中國藝術家曹斐。她的特色是通過多媒體和視頻項目來探討自己的中國人身份。For this year’s fair, she will present “Same Old, Brand New,” a large-scale video installation commissioned by Art Basel that will be shown across the façade of the 118-story International Commerce Centre, the tallest building in Hong Kong.
今年，受巴塞爾藝術展委託，曹斐將展示大型視頻裝置作品《樂舊·圖新》(Same Old, Brand New)。它將在香港最高的建築118層的環球貿易廣場的外立面上展示。The work, which draws on symbols and logos from video games in a reference to popular and youth culture in ultra-wired Hong Kong in particular, will be shown each night from Friday to Tuesday, with a smartphone app viewers can download.
這件作品從視頻遊戲中截取圖標，影射年輕人的流行文化，尤其是在高度聯網的香港。它將在本週五到下週二的每晚表演，還配有一款智能手機應用供觀衆下載。While not explicitly political, Ms. Cao’s piece, with its reference to Hong Kong youth, inevitably calls to mind the recent democracy protests that convulsed the city for months as protesters, many of them young Hong Kongers, took to the streets to demand open elections for the territory’s chief executive.
曹斐的作品雖說並不直接帶有政治色彩，但它涉及了香港年輕人的文化，不可避免地讓人想起近期令香港震盪了數月之久的民主抗議活動。當時，抗議者走上街頭，要求公開選舉香港行政長官，其中許多參與者是本地年輕人。“Everybody is curious how the recent political unrest is going to have an impact on the arts community,” said Doryun Chong, chief curator of M+.
“大家都想知道，近期的政治動盪會怎麼樣來影響藝術圈，”M+的首席策展人鄭道煉(Doryun Chong)說。He added: “My view is actually that this shifting ground that we’re standing on in fact actually makes things much more interesting.”
他還表示：“我的觀點實際上是，我們的大環境在改變，而這其實在讓事情變得有意思得多。”
