Art Basel returns in a big way to Hong Kong, the city that aspires to Asia's cultural throne

When Art Basel opened its doors in Hong Kong in 2013, the former British colony was rather irrelevant on the international contemporary art scene. A little over a decade later, and aside from the fair, the city has at least three overwhelming reasons that justify the presence here this week of some of the most important gallery owners and collectors in the world: the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the former Tai Kwun police station from the colonial era, converted into an artistic space, and M+, the latest jewel with which Hong Kong aspires to crown itself at the top of global contemporary culture.

Between these three points and the Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong, where the fair is held, from March 26 to 30, art professionals from all over the world parade these days, playing a good part of the year's sales pie. . It is not surprising that the number of exhibitors interested in showing their most popular artists at Art Basel Hong Kong, the largest fair in the Asia-Pacific region, has grown by 37% in 2024, reaching a record of 243 galleries from 40 countries .

More information

Art Basel launches from Hong Kong to conquer the Asian market

After four years of a low profile, the fair owned by Art Basel (with venues also in Basel, Paris and Miami Beach) has recovered its pre-pandemic size and some of the most powerful international galleries, such as the American Gagosian, the British White Cube or the Swiss Hauser & Wirth, which has just moved to a new and larger headquarters in the city. With the help of a checkbook, Hong Kong has set out in this edition to confirm its strength in the face of competition from the other two major capitals in the region: Seoul, with a powerful fair owned by Frieze, a global rival to Art Basel, and Singapore, which , like Hong Kong, tries to attract international collectors with its low taxation.

The Hauser and Wirth gallery space at Art Basel Hong Kong 2024.Art Basel

The Chinese artistic ecosystem is thus expanding without reaching its ceiling for the moment. In 2023, Hong Kong art exports increased almost 60% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2022, according to the report on global collecting that UBS financial analysts prepare for Art Basel and which considers it surpassed. trauma of the pandemic in the art market. The report, published on March 13, also confirms for the first time the

overtaking

of China (19% of global sales) over the United Kingdom (7%) as the second world art market, only behind the United States (42 %). In fact, and contrary to the global trend, which marked a 4% drop in sales, those in China increased by 9% in 2023, reaching 12.2 billion dollars (about 11.3 billion euros). Although the push moderated in the second half of the year, given the forecast of a contraction of the economy, those for 2024 remain on the rise, encouraged by interest rates and the control of inflation.

“The resurgence of this market is linked to the vitality of Hong Kong's art scene and a new generation of collectors and audiences who are increasingly fond of art,” commented Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, at the opening day of the fair.

Waiting for uncertainty

All this despite the undeniable political and economic turbulence that looms on the horizon of the second world economic power. The tension between the United States and China and its economic slowdown, originating from the real estate market crisis, is impacting the region's art scene, particularly in auction houses. Although Christie's announced last Monday the transfer of its Asia-Pacific headquarters to Hong Kong for September of this year, and Sotheby's that of its offices in the capital to a new and larger location, both firms closed in November 2023 disappointing international sales, which not even the increasingly active Southeast Asian clientele could remedy.

The work 'Cut Suits', by the artist Fuyuhiko Takata, present at Art Basel in Hong Kong.Art Basel Hong Kong

Beijing's political interference also poses a threat to trust in the city. The announcement in January of a new proposed security law in Hong Kong aimed at terrorism and espionage has reopened the debate on freedoms and the possible brain drain, especially among representatives of Western museums and cultural institutions present at the fair. An estimated 250,000 Hong Kongers have moved to the UK since it was announced that the door to residency was opening for Hong Kong citizens with British passports. “We have not received any indication [from the Hong Kong authorities] on how we should act. If there were any fears, the artists or gallery owners would have let us know. And the only thing we are seeing is that some of the most powerful galleries in the world are doubling down on Hong Kong,” Vincenzo de Bellis, director of Art Bassel fairs, told EL PAÍS at the fair.

A piece in the Neugerriemschneider gallery at Art Basel Hong Kong 2024.Art Basel

Oblivious to the dark clouds, Art Basel Hong Kong has gotten off to a good start this year, with 24 new galleries and the return of others that were absent during the pandemic (Galerie Lelong or Lisson Gallery) that try to compensate for the absence of others like the New York ones Marian Goodman or Sean Kelly. Organized into five sections,

Discoveries

presents

the solo work of artists such as Arthur Marie, author of ghostly portraits at the Fitzpatrick gallery in Paris; in

Insights

, focusing on artists from the Asia-Pacific region, there is work by the late Shiy De-jinn, whose portraits of

queer

desire from the 1950s to 1970s are pioneering in East Asia.

Encounters

is the area dedicated to 16 large-scale artistic projects (11 created specifically for the fair), under the title

I am a part of what I have known

.

Kabinett

, the part focused on presentations by the participating galleries, most of them Asian, reaches 33 participating projects this year, the largest in the history of the fair. The conversations between agents from the art world and the section dedicated to contemporary audiovisual art close the official menu of an event that, in its first hours of opening, breathed the optimism that gallerists transmit like no other after closing a sale.

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