Art Basel Hong Kong recalibrates with a digital-only edition

There’s much talk in the art world about the untapped potential of virtual gallery viewings, online curator’s tours and digitally driven sales, and, propelled by world events, Art Basel Hong Kong is putting them to test.

This year’s edition, from 20-25 March is an online-only event, with 234 galleries from 31 countries displaying works through virtual viewing rooms.   

More than 90 per cent of exhibitors from the cancelled Hong Kong fair decided to take part in this experimental iteration, and since more than half of these have exhibition spaces in Asia, art from the region was an obvious highlight.  

Lisson Gallery collaborated with Antenna Space from Shanghai, Beijing’s Boers-Li Gallery, Singapore’s STPI and Taipei’s Tina Keng Galleries and TKG+ to provide a VIP virtual walkthrough of their booths. Each gallery gave a ten-minute presentation to an online audience of hundreds, providing descriptions of its artists and insights into their methods. Up to ten works can be displayed per booth and unlike a real-time fair, these come with a title and a price tag. 

Technical hitches aside (and there were a few), David Tung, Director of Lisson Gallery Shanghai who master-planned the virtual walkthrough, reveals other challenges; ‘You lose texture and feeling online, so we selected works differently to try and replicate this.’ Among Lisson’s heavy-hitting pick were Julian Opie, Ai Weiwei, Cory Arcangel and Carmen Herrera, whose Camino Negro sold at the preview for 850,000 USD. Lisson’s Alex Logsdail explains, ‘While a viewing platform is not a substitute for the pace and interaction of a fair, business is still active and we have made sales in parallel to the fair this week.’

STPI director Rita Targui adds: ‘the online format provides an opportunity to be nimble. We can change works round with ease.’ Each day, two different artists are exhibited at its booth, accompanied by images of the works in progress, (adding narrative that might well be lost in the traditional fair setting). All the works on show have been made in STPI’s on-site paper mill. First up were Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi and his Autumn Trees series and paper pulp pieces by British artist Jason Martin, while additional exhibitors include South Korean artists Do Ho Suh and Haegue Yang who incorporated ground spices purchased in Singapore markets into her canvases. 

Opie’s distinctive, reductive language may work well online, but other artists translate with less success; viewing Antony Gormley's Breathing Room II, an environment that uses phosphorous to conjure architecture as if from the air through Galeria Continua’s portal, or seeing James Turrell’s new circular glass work at OMR’s online gallery, leaves you feeling underwhelmed. You just wish you could be there.

Perhaps inadvertently, Heemin Chung, on show at P21 Gallery, sums up the reality of this year’s Art Basel. The Seoul-based artist explores the lack of tactile sensations – and our desire for them – in a modern world that is filled with virtual images. She strives to capture those senses that are overstimulated or deficient in the digital realm and portray them on canvas; direct touch, not digital media, provide true reality.  

But who gets to touch big-ticket artworks anyway? Collectors often know what they want without having to see it at a fair, and a time when we need to reduce our carbon footprint, Art Basel’s virtual version may just be a trailblazer.

INFORMATION

Art Basel Online Viewing Rooms, 20-25 March. artbasel.com