Remixed/Remodeled
The Rebirth of the Frankfurt Art
Fair
Deutsche Bank Art at Frankfurt's fine art fair, Photo Alex Kraus
Art Frankfurt is dead, long live the
fine art fair frankfurt! In his final report for the premiere of the
art fair, that had high & low as it's motto, director
Michael Neff let the numbers speak for themselves: 48 galleries are
showing 65 artists; 10,700 visitors wandered through 150,000 square feet
of exhibition space bathed in the brilliant light of 420 spots. A fire
department band provided the musical background for the opening. Mayor
Petra Roth and government minister
Roland Koch gave speeches. And works of art were sold for around 1.4
million euros.
Opening event: Fire department band Butzbach, Photo Alex Kraus
With his new concept, Neff, the Frankfurt-based gallery dealer and art
consultant, is banking on a radical break with previous fairs, which were
caught up in a slow but steady downfall. "Less is More" is the new
reformist motto: the number of galleries was drastically reduced and a
strict selection process installed to guarantee high quality; one-artist
shows were introduced to replace the local focus and modest profile of
past fairs. Instead of the usual carpeted fair booths, the art was shown
in open modules. These spacial elements, which were designed by the
architecture firm Kühn/Malvezzi
, were installed on the bare industrial floor of hall 9. As it turned out,
however, the 48 galleries invited were not enough to fill the fair hall,
and so visitors seemed a bit lost in the vast expanse of space, especially
during the first few days.
f.l.t.r.: Galerie Mark Müller (Zürich), Laura Mars Grp. (Berlin),
Galerie Krinzinger (Wien), Photo: Gundula Schmitz
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Meanwhile, in New York, the
Armory Show took place parallel to the fine art fair. And that,
of course, prevented some of the larger international galleries Neff would
have liked to have in his list of exhibitors from participating in
Frankfurt. As cancellations trickled in, the press began issuing loud,
dark forecasts announcing the premature failure of the fair and its
ambitious director, degrading the event to a local German affair. But Neff
remained steadfast; on the contrary, he invited the young designer
Alexandra Papadopoulou to design the fair logo from his initials,
signalizing confidently – and not without a certain measure of vanity –
that he stood behind the project 100%.
Fritz Panzer at Krobath Wimmer,
Photo Achim Drucks
Everyone, of course, was
waiting to see if Neff’s new concept of a "curated" fair would work. And
it did, despite all expectations – maybe not as a burst of inspiration,
but as a kindling idea capable of laying ground and even, perhaps, of
providing direction. At first glance, the hall seemed too tidy. Upon
closer look, however, the mixture between minimalist austerity and
experimental play appeared to work. The cool ambience proved ideal for the
presentation of larger installations.
Contemporary Fine Arts from Berlin built a pink fortress that
Jonathan Meese and Tal
R. decorated with a wild collection of sculptures reminiscent of
aliens, Neoexpressionist paintings, enlarged family photographs, and
puzzling slogans such as End of Beef. The soundtrack was provided
by a young Neo-folk bard who sang sad songs for hours to the sound of his
wandering guitar. The Viennese action group
Gelitin – formerly Gelatin – plundered the kids’ room for their large room
piece Balonie. The massive blend of stuffed animal, wood, and
molding clay was created for the
Meyer Kerner Gallery. Berlin-based
Laura Mars GRP showed a three meter-high plywood construction by
Philip Wiegard – a cross between a ghetto blaster and a washing machine. A
video by Turner prizewinner Martin
Creed at Johnen
turned out to present a real challenge. Visitors with strong stomachs could
enjoy a young heavy metal fan vomiting noisily on the shiny white floor of
a studio.
Fritz Panzer’s fine wire pieces were far more subtle, shown in the
module of the Viennese gallery
Krobath Wimmer – floating three-dimensional drawings of a chair, a
suitcase, or a whole kitchen counter.
Deutsche Bank Art: Talk-Talk-Lounge, Photo Alex Kraus
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