The Armory Show: An interview with Katelijne De Backer

Katelijne De Backer, Executive Director of The Armory Show, answered our questions:

2009 is probably the most challenging year so far due to the economic environment. Will you judge the success of the Armory Show 2009 upon the same criteria than the previous years?
We have always judged ourselves by the quality of the art shown and that remains our primary concern. Of course sales are important, but we feel they result from the great work our galleries exhibit.

Have you taken into account the current economic environment when selecting the galleries? Did you take into account the tough times gallerists and artists are currently facing?
The economic crisis hit the art world after our selections were made, so it didn’t affect our considerations – nor our applications. But we are very aware of the difficulties our exhibitors are facing, so we have tried to help them by offering them such options as being able to get smaller booths and to make their payments in instalments. We have also stepped up our efforts to attract committed visitors to the fair. It is worth remembering that our fair started (as the Gramercy International Fair of New Art) as a response to the art market crash of the 1990s, and the same reasons that made it a success then make it a success now: by pooling the resources of the world’s best galleries in New York, the center of the art world, our exhibitors have access to more collectors, curators and critics than they ever could have on their own.

What are the main differences between Armory Show 2009 and Armory Show 2008?
The most obvious difference is that we have expanded to include Pier 92, in which we are debuting The Armory Show – Modern, a section devoted to Modern and secondary-market contemporary art. I feel that it gives our fair historical depth that it didn’t have before. This also gave us the opportunity to reach out to organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum and the Neue Gallery to get involved in our off-site events.

As sales will be certainly lower than the previous years, have you taken more risk, being more audacious or, on the contrary, have you favoured “high street” galleries and very established artists?
As I said, our decisions were not dictated by the market. I expect that the galleries in our Modern section will bring their heavyweights, while the contemporary galleries will continue to do what they do best – the more established ones will bring their stars, while the younger ones will dazzle us with new talent.

Is the Modern Art section a sign of return to fundamentals, a sign that the excess of contemporary art (declining quality of art works, prices out of control) are over?
I wouldn’t look at it that way. In 2007 we held our fair at the same time as the ADAA held theirs, and we discovered that both fields reinforced each other. We have wanted to take advantage of this at The Armory Show, but were only able to do it this year thanks to our parent company, MMPI, which was able to secure our permanent access to both piers. I do agree that prices were out of control, but that was a result of excesses throughout, not just limited to the art world. I’m glad that things will return to more realistic levels.

Why have you not diversified to design instead of Modern art as it seems it is becoming the next hot collection to have...?
Our only concern is fine art, and it will continue to be that way.

Does it really make sense to have several galleries within the largest fairs that represent the same artists. Some important artists such as Damien Hirst or Anish Kapoor are represented by four or five galleries in some other big fairs...? Is it a concern you have at The Armory Show?
Our Selection Committee (made up of six gallerists from around the world) spend a lot of time weighing the strength of our applicants’ programs. They’re not only concerned with whom they represent, but their standing in the art world and their commitment to their artists. With nearly 250 galleries, it’s inevitable that there will be some crossovers, but for the most part you will see a great variety of work, a lot of which you may not have the chance to see elsewhere.

Would you dare asking galleries to coordinate before the fair in order to do not have too much of the same few artists in different booths?
We don’t do that. Usually galleries that represent the same artists negotiate amongst themselves. But we leave it entirely up to their discretion.

Given the buyant artistic environment of New-York and the permanent presence of very large collectors, there is a risk of being too “New-York centric”. Is it a concern you keep in mind when selecting the galleries? Or on the contrary, do you clearly play the card of New-York...?
We really aim to have a great variety, which is why we make sure that our Selection Committee is made up of dealers from all over the world. This year our Committee was made up of Ciléne Andréhn from Stockholm, Olivier Antoine from Paris, Matthias Arndt from Berlin, Stefania Bortolami from New York, Marc Foxx from Los Angeles and Alison Jacques from London.

Generally, how do you see the art fairs market evolving? Do you believe that fairs will increasingly become like Miami art week with a mix of art, parties, celebrities... or do you think fairs will become more like the Basel week where art and only art matters...?

We work hard on our VIP Program and we have dozens of events happening all over the city, but our emphasis has always been on the art. Parties are great, but we don’t want people to forget what they are here for.

Details:

http://www.thearmoryshow.com/

Pier 92 and 94

5-8 March 2009

Noon to 8pm (7pm on 8)

12th Avenue and 55th Street

Volta New-York: List of events

Beside the main fair, a number of animations, events and talks are organized on the fair site or in cinemas of Manhattan. Here is a list of the “official” events:

Imperfect Articles
Imperfect Articles will be on site with their limited edition T-shirts with artwork by contemporary and emerging artists, such as Akroe, Anders Nilsen, Atsushi Kag, Carmen Price, Cody Hudson, David Shrigley. Davis/Langois, Eri Ito, Huskmitnavn, Hvass&Hannibal, Ian Pedigo, Joshua Abelow, Katherine Bernhardt, Matthew Feyld, Misaki Kawai, Rashid Johnson, Richard Colman, and UFEX as well as Italian artist Pesce Khete and Troels Carlsen from Denmark, both of whom are exhibiting at VOLTA NY.

Web site: imperfectarticles.com/

Colección Whitney

In the lobby will be Colección Whitney, a work by New York-based artist Trong Nguyen, a replica of the medieval discipline device of the stocks, used often in olden days of New York City to publicly punish criminals. In keeping with his practice, which often questions the power relationships between viewer and art object, here the Vietnamese artist aims to regain control of the act of looking by encouraging the visitor to spend time in the stocks. Both the object’s name and its given name (“stocks” and “Whitney”) also ask us to consider how the financial crisis, banks, or public and private collections, create a hierarchy of art objects and artists.

Web site: http://www.cameandwent.com/coleccion.html


Suck it ! by Sweet Tooth of the Tiger
Collaborative operation of Sweet Tooth of the Tiger with contemporary artist and pastry chef Tara Strickstein, presents Suck-it! In which sweets will be given out to visitors, artists and dealers. Highlighting the choreography and ceremonial nature of food exchange, Tara and experimental chef Adam Danforth, explore innovative flavor pairings combined with a unique sense of social ritual based in art theory and reflecting their individual studio practices. STT organizer, Tracy Candido, utilizes the public sphere as a place for eating, feeding, and talking with your mouth full and provides a "sugar high" that aims to engage active dialog and conversation.

Web site: http://www.sweettoothofthetiger.com/

A New Stance for Tomorrow

Amanda Coulson, director of VOLTA NY, the darling of the Armory Show satellite fairs,
has commissioned Natalie Kovacs and Victoria Brooks to create site-specific programming for the Tribeca Grand that explores an alternative position to VOLTA NY’s 2009 theme: ‘The Age of Anxiety’. The curators have combined their expertise to create a 3-part exhibition that references historical contexts while offering positive propositions for the future. Concentrating on alternative visions and innovations by artists, designers and filmmakers from the 1950s to now, A New Stance for Tomorrow includes screenings, site-specific design, sound art and performative installation with works by Byron Broadbent, Michel de Broin, Charles & Ray Eames, Tim Etchells, Noam Gonick & Luis Jacob, Claire Hooper, Pierre Joseph & Philippe Parreno, Yves Klein, Oswaldo Macia, Simon Martin, Mathieu Mercier, Alain Resnais, Pia Rönicke, Mika Taanila, and Andrea Zittel.

A New Stance for Tomorrow – Part 1 Cinema programme
The first major piece in A New Stance for Tomorrow will be a series of artists’ film and video screenings to be shown in the Grand Screen screening room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel – a chic art nouveau-style private cinema that hosts a diverse film programme throughout the year, including New York’s A-List Cinema Society film events. The screening programme will be split into two, conceptually focused around the films of Charles and Ray Eames from the 1950s and 1980s. Part 1 concentrates on imaginings and innovations in architecture and the built environment and will explore the relationship of these disciplines to how space is designated and inhabited. Part 2 will concentrate on imaginings and innovations in design, interiors and ways of living and will explore the relationship of these disciplines to how we interact and associate with design, both socially and functionally. The artists, designers and filmmakers included in these programmes in different ways dissolve the boundaries between art, architecture and design whilst creating experimental imaginings and explorations for positive propositions for the future.

A New Stance for Tomorrow – Part 2 Wildflowers of Manitoba mixed-media performative installation
The second major piece, hosted in The Tribeca Grand’s Sanctum, comprises an arresting mixed media work that incorporates film, performance and a domed installation by Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob. Wildflowers of Manitoba is both a utopian vision of an idealistic world and a model or vision of how things to come could be. Blurring fact and fiction they draw on varied historical references from the history of the hippy and radical fairy movements to Gay and Lesbian Culture providing an insight into other potential futures or possibilities.

A New Stance for Tomorrow – Part 3 Soundscape and installation at VOLTA NY 7W

A New Stance for Tomorrow continues in the elevators at 7W – the site of VOLTA NY, opposite the Empire State Building, with a series of artists’ audio projects. Here, Oswaldo Macia’s Tomorrow will be cloudy (2004-7) creates a soundscape that represents all the animals that boarded Noah’s Ark in early 17th century philosopher John Wilkins’ archive. It not only works as an analogy of the current climate crisis and the recent financial ‘crunch’ but also represents a journey into the past and future. Also in the elevators, artist, director and writer Tim Etchells, best known for his work as leader of the renowned performance ensemble, Forced Entertainment, will present Brief Reminder (2006). The declaration/warning is modelled on announcements in public spaces, reflecting the rules and systems in language and in culture and the way in which these systems are both productive and constraining.

Related Installation:
Byron Broadbent’s Cine-Pod – commissioned in response to the exhibition A New Stance for Tomorrow. The model, drawings and film present a future proposition for a new, mobile cinema structure that is at once sculptural and functional. Experimenting with new materials and technologies, the Cine-Pod is a solar-powered cinema made from ‘smart glass’ – a switchable material that transforms from translucent to opaque with the start and end of a screening.

Open Forum
Volta will share its talks programme “Open Forum” with the Armory Show; the one taking place at Volta’s location 7W 345th street is on Friday 5th at 5 p.m.

The Curated Art Fair: Trend or Necessity?
In recent years there has been a growing involvement of curators with art fairs, whether assuming posts as artistic directors, conceiving projects specifically created for a fair or acting as members of a selection committee. Are curatorial practices expanding more and more towards art fairs? If so, to what extent can we speak of a "curated art fair" and an "art fair curator"? Can a curator provide a new perspective or will the actual economical situation herald the retreat of the curator to less commercial spaces. The panel includes personalities who have bridged both worlds, such as a museum director who has worked with art fairs, a curator turned gallerist and an art critic turned art fair director.

Participants:
David Liss, Artistic Director Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MoCCA), Toronto
Louky Keisers, Director LMAK Projects, New York
Miguel Amado, Free-lance curator and art critic
Amanda Coulson, Executive Director VOLTA
Paco Barragán, Artistic Director CIRCA Puerto Rico and author “The Art Fair Age”

Volta New-York: An interview with Amanda Coulson

Amanda Coulson, Executive Director of Volta Show, answered our questions about the Volta fair, New-York and the challenges faced by the art market.

Do you consider the purchase of Volta by MMPI as a new step/new challenge for the Volta fair or does it remain business as usual?
It’s always a challenge when a small “family run” operation gets absorbed into a large company but we certainly wouldn’t have been able to expand to the U.S. platform so quickly -- and fairly painlessly -- without the support of MMPI and The Armory Show, the entire staff of which was incredibly welcoming and helpful. It’s business as usual in the sense that the core group organizing it have remained in place with the same vision we always had, the Merchandise Mart supports us with logistics and back office, but we can focus on content.


Have you received specific guidelines or recommendations from MMPI? Are you encouraged to coordinate your program with The Armory Show (also owned by MMPI)?
Absolutely not. MMPI does not meddle in artistic decisions about the fair though of course it’s now a serious business and there are expectations and there is oversight. To use an analogy offered to me by a journalist, Steven Kaplan : Volta used to be a small town for which I was mayor, sheriff, garbage collector and dog catcher. But the small town has now been incorporated into the county; I remain the mayor, but the other services are taken care of by county personnel, which gives me more time to be mayor. However, I have to shape up: no more lounging around the spittoon chewin' tobacco with the local yokels. I have to tuck in my shirt and meet my budgets.

Regarding the Armory, we do work very closely together and, of course, to “graduate” from VOLTA to the main fair is a natural progression but it’s not like Katelijne De Backer and I sit around deciding who’s going where like Masters (or Mistresses) of the Universe. We have a very friendly collaboration and part of that is due to the fact that I conceived the NY edition to complement them with the solo projects. We are not in direct competition, doing precisely the same thing as them; we have a very precise focus and profile and we stick to that, but we keep each other au courant of each other’s lists and choices and exchange opinions.

Do you consider single artist booths is a way to give more importance to the artists (even thought there are consequently less artists shown in total) than to the galleries?
Absolutely. Even now people scan the galleries at a fair and make a snap judgement based on their names and where they are based. I’d like people to open their minds to the notion that good art is made everywhere and even a gallery you’ve never heard of might have a good artist in their programme. The fair is a market, of course, but I thought that the solo project concept was a way to make it feel hopefully less like a trade show and more like a kind of exhibition. It’s why we base it loosely around a theme as well.

I suggested to a lot of galleries that they band together to promote an artist work: this was as much for economic reasons as to purposefully encourage a more collaborative feel. It was actually surprising how few galleries – even in this climate—didn’t want that!


Are you concerned by the current art market and, as a consequence, would you consider giving the galleries more flexibility in the organization of their booths if it would enable them to sell more works?
It would be pretty callous of me if I wasn’t concerned. To pretend it is not a huge commitment for a gallery to support a fair at a time like this is really disingenuous. Some fairs give the impression that they are doing the galleries a huge favour by accepting them: yes, a fair can do a lot for a gallery or an artist’s career but there is also a responsibility one has to one’s exhibitors and a bad fair can also break a gallery. But I don’t think a solo project means necessarily harder sales; sometimes a deep exploration o a single artist’s work can be a real asset… at least that’s what many collectors told me at last year’s VOLTA NY. This year though we are having a whole second space as a “Collector’s Lounge”—a kind of storage area where galleries can bring more than they can fit in the booth and even other works.

We started VOLTA as a platform to help galleries reach an audience, the last thing any of us would want is to become a hindrance to continuing business, so I do think a lot about that aspect. Having said that, I believe 100% in our platform: New York is and will always be the epi-centre of the art world. To have a solo project for an emerging artist in a place where you will get both the curatorial boards and the collecting groups of institutions like Dia, MoMA, New Museum, Whitney, Guggenheim, Brooklyn Museum, Sculpture Center … just to name NY institutions!...is an incredible asset. Then all the galleries that might offer your artist a show; it often changes an artist’s career to get a NY gallery.


What’s the profile of collectors at Volta? Do you think that the development of Volta means that you’re stepping away from young and moderately-wealthy collectors to more established collectors with an eye on emerging artists?
No, not really; I just think the more established are now coming as well, it doesn’t mean they are pushing any one out. The art is not changing… As some galleries mature they progress to The Armory or Art Basel. We’ve had a large number do so already and that allows us to keep bringing in new galleries or different artists. VOLTA’s not a place to come and see the “greatest hits,” it’s the place to make discoveries so I think the audience might get bigger but remain a group with the same interests: to look at emerging art.

Do you already see consequences of the economic environment prior to the fair (number of applicants, experiences of galleries, countries of origin of the galleries, experience of the artists shown at Volta, etc…)?
Yes and no. We had the same number of application for Basel and that was well after the crash started… even more applications came in way after the deadline and after Miami. There are some galleries who are cautious or scared but for each one of them is someone who sees crisis as opportunity. So, what I’ve seen is a shift but by no means an all-out decline or run for cover. Certainly the U.S. galleries are having a much harder time than their European counterparts mainly because the good ol’ “Old Europe” economy that everyone used to make fun of for being “sluggish” means, indeed, there are not the extreme highs but also not the extreme lows. I’m not saying there isn’t a recession, but it’s not a full-scale bloodbath and—surprisingly-- there are even signs already of a pick-up in the art market according to a lot of galleries I talk to regularly in Europe.

Is Volta NY intentionally more business-focused than Volta Basel? What are the differences between Volta NY and Volta Basel? How important is the influence of New-York (biggest art market in the world, permanent presence of the biggest collectors in NY, major artists as well as buoyant emerging art scene) over Volta NY?
No. In some ways I might even say the opposite, going back to the point I made above about the sheer number of institutions in the Greater New York area (and beyond)!! NY isn’t just about the market because it has a very strong curatorial backbone… Still, Basel might not have a gallery or institutional scene as rich as NY but it is the Mecca of the art world so thousands flock there—especially in a Biennale year like this one—so the exposure one gets not just to collectors but to curators, critics and observers is huge. Being so central in Europe is also a factor and particularly being so close to the German-speaking countries, which have such a high percentage of contemporary art institutions and collectors. Really both have a good balance between market and other factors, which is precisely why they are such successful venues.

There are differences between VOLTA Basel and NY but it’s more about how we approach the fair and what we think it brings to each cities scene: I don’t believe that VOLTA should juts go anywhere there is an overflow: London, Berlin, Miami… our idea is to really fulfil a function. In Basel that function was very specific to the time and place where it was born: when Liste had an age-limit (even for the artists!!) and a limit on the amount of times you could do the fair (which changed since the arrival of VOLTA) and in a city where the main fair gives half it’s floor-space over to Modern. Conversely, in NY, we came in a year that Armory was contemporary only, so we had to react to that, to think about what we could offer that was different from everything else and possibly even needed. So the fairs definitely have a different slant and flavor.

Details:

Address: 7W 34th Street, 11th Floor. NY 10001 New York USA
Dates: March 5th- 8th , 2009
Vernissage: March 5th, 11 am - 1 pm
Admission: Regular US$ 15 Reduced US$ 10
The Armory Show + VOLTA NY Combination Pass: US$ 40