 What I Bought in Basel This Year
Alise Tīfentāle
A marvellously hot summer's day in the very heart of Europe. The residents of Basel calmly take off their trousers at the streetside for a dip in the Rhine, which appears as clean and clear as it's described in the adverts, and even the Rheingold glimmers in the deep. But I venture selflessly in the opposite direction, where chauffeur-driven Rolls Royces and Bentleys stand on the hot tarmac, waiting impatiently, in company with the latest-model BMWs. They stand outside former factories and warehouses filled to overflowing with sweaty art-lovers: here, in the course of a single week (14 to 18 June), one small European city plays host to three international 20th and 21st century art fairs: Art Basel, the Liste new galleries fair and the Volta Show alternative art fair, as well as the Bâlelatina Latin American contemporary art market, the presentation of the Swiss Art Awards, the most important Swiss awards for young artists, which is accompanied by an exhibition, along with countless parallel art projects that make every effort to attract the attention of potential buyers, gallerists and art critics.
It should be added that most of the serious buyers of contemporary art have arrived in Basel in their private jets: these people, numbering at least a hundred, include New York collector and trader Tim Nye, who's come straight from Disneyland. Apparently, Tim had been spending some time there with his five-year-old daughter, and, while at the pleasure ground, managed to sell over the phone a 1966 sculpture by Robert Irwin for the sum of 440 000 dollars. There are also many buyers and gallerists from other cities in Switzerland. The Swiss themselves have a hard time of it: thus, every man up to the age of 30 can be called up to the army for a week or so at any time, whatever his occupation or position... they have to go to work at seven in the morning... for a minor highway speeding offence, they invariably get fined an enormous sum... Small wonder, then, that they seek something beautiful! And so, once a year, they can visit Art Basel and purchase something absolutely beyond comprehension, but outwardly very much resembling art (such as photos by the fashion artist and artist of life Karl Lagerfeld, portraiting Zhang Ziyi, the leading actress in the film "Memoirs of a Geisha", for no more than 25 000 euros apiece).
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