Dealers at the 33rd edition of the modern and contemporary art fair Art Brussels (25-27 April) gave a mixed reaction to the announcement Friday (24 April) that the event will locate next year to a central site. After 17 years, the fair will transfer from the Brussels Expo convention centre on the outskirts of the capital to the historic Tour & Taxis on Brussels Canal, northwest of the city centre.
The veteran Brussels-based dealers Albert Baronian and Xavier Hufkens both welcomed the announcement while a spokeswoman for another local gallery, Sorry We’re Closed, said that a city centre location is preferable, though there may be parking issues.
Alexandre Daletchine of the Brussels-based D+T Project Gallery said that the relocation will “give the fair management more flexibility in the service they can offer. Exhibitors often complain about the catering here”, at Brussels Expo.
But most dealers stressed that in its new location, Art Brussels will complement Independent, the New York fair that is due to launch its inaugural edition next April at the former Dexia Art Center. Anne Vierstraete, the fair’s managing director, told VIPs and press that the imminent arrival of Independent means “there is still space for more contemporary art in Brussels”.
The move across town means that Art Brussels will be smaller in 2016, says Katerina Gregos, the fair’s artistic director; this year, 191 galleries were sel ected from 420 applications (the roster includes 44 Belgium dealers, 32 French and 24 German galleries, while 57 dealers are newcomers).
In her opening address at the VIP preview Friday, 24 April, Gregos said that Art Brussels’s identity differs greatly from the blockbusting, blue-chip fairs on the circuit. “Money seems to have overtaken art in importance… fairs have played a big role [in this],” she said. Along with her fellow organisers, she is “casting a critical eye” over the current marketplace, adding that she opposes “flipping”—quickly reselling works, generally at auction.
Sixty per cent of the artists on show are emerging, Gregos said. The “Young” section of the fair encompasses 90 galleries that present “younger generation” artists. These include the Paris-based dealer Jérôme Poggi who is showing Family Friendly (2014), by the Algerian artist Faycal Baghriche (€3,500), a diptych of classical images redacted by censors in the United Arab Emirates.
Galleries across the Prime section, consisting of dealers that present “predominantly established artists”, reported seeing large numbers of Belgian and French collectors, but very few UK buyers (one French collector, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that high income tax rates introduced by President François Hollande may have prompted some French collectors to relocate to Belgium).
The leading Belgian collector Mimi Dusselier attended, along with various French museum professionals including Bernard Blistène, the director of the Centre Pompidou’s Musée National d’Art Moderne.
Frédéric Bugada, of the Paris-based gallery Bugada & Cargnel, said that the number of French collectors present makes Art Brussels “feel like the second French fair after Fiac”. The gallery had sold a vivid selection of works painted neon by Claire Tabouret (Le Carnaval series, 2015, priced at €7,500 each).
Price points appear low as befits a fair catering to younger artists largely untested on the market. Galerie Paris-Beijing, a local dealer, is for instance selling images by the Chinese photographer Ren Hang priced between €1,500 and €3,000. Meanwhile, D+T Project Gallery saw a steady stream of collectors, and sold a large-scale wall sculpture by the Belgian artist Stephan Balleux (Le recit speculaire, 2015), priced at €17,000.
Works by Jesse Littlefield, Aaron Spangler and Ellen Lesperance are available with the New York dealer Zieher Smith & Horton priced at “up to $15,000”, says the gallery co-founder Sean Horton. “Belgian collectors engage, they are not motivated by, or compete with whoever else is collecting certain works,” he says. But not everything is priced under €100,000. A 1966 painting by Lee Krasner, Mister Blue, is available with Robert Miller Gallery of New York for an eye-watering $1.3m.
