As Art Basel Goes Online-Only, European Dealers Are Testing Out Hybrid Virtual/Physical Displays—and Johann König Is Even Launching a Fair of His Own

Art Basel’s flagship Swiss fair
has been postponed until the fall, and while participating
galleries will take part in the fair’s online viewing rooms this
month, some have also decided to take advantage of Europe’s recent
reopenings by supplementing their digital booths with physical
presentations. König
Galerie and Esther Schipper in Berlin and Thaddaeus Ropac in
London are among those hosting physical versions of their virtual
fair booths in their galleries.

Johann König is going even
further: The dealer is launching his own fair at his space in the
former St. Agnes church in Berlin, where galleries began reopening at
the end of April. Its title, “Messe in St. Agnes,” is a play on
words because messe in German means both “fair” and
“church service”. He has mounted temporary walls inside the space,
where he will be showing more than 100 primary and secondary market
works of 20th- and 21st-century art, consigned from collectors as
well as other galleries.

At the same time, König Galerie
is also hosting a physical version of its online Basel booth in its
gallery. While König emphasizes that his renegade art
fair is distinct from the Basel presentation, VIP visitors will
have access to both his recreated Basel booth as well as his fair,
starting June 15 (the day before Art Basel opens to VIPs online)
for two preview days, followed by a public opening from June 17
through 26.

Highlights include a painting on
wood by Katharina Grosse from a new body of work, for which they
have not yet set prices, and a new work by Alicja Kwade, among
other pieces the gallerist stresses work best when they are seen in
the flesh.

The dealer is planning to deck the space out with all the
trappings of a real fair. He is planning a VIP visit to Katharina
Grosse’s exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, a stand for the bookstore
Walther König, a sculpture garden, and catering from the
Michelin-starred restaurant Nobelhart & Schmutzig.

There will be no photographs
permitted in König’s mini-fair, a decision the dealer says was
inspired by the similar policy at Berlin’s infamous Berghain
nightclub. Much like high-profile revelers who don’t want to be
caught in compromising positions, König wants to offer prominent
collectors and consignors discretion, and to ensure that works are
not “burned” in the event that they don’t sell.

König likens the material
included in his fair to a German evening auction, as the target
audience will be collectors traveling from Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland. Highlights include a fresh-to-market Neo Rauch for
€700,000, a Georg Baselitz painting for €700,000, a Stefan
Balkenhol work for €120,000, a Nicolas Party still life for
€750,000, and an early abstract work by Albert Oehlen from the
‘90s, priced at €550,000. Consignments are still open for König’s
fair at no charge, but he will take a 15 to 20 percent cut if they
do sell. Visitors
hoping to attend will have to book a ticket, which König is selling
for €10 ($11).

Elsewhere in the city, Esther
Schipper is also mounting what would have been its booth at Art
Basel in the gallery’s Berlin space. All of the works that the
gallery will show in Basel’s online viewing room will also be on
view in the physical gallery, but the exhibition, titled “PS81E”
(like a fair booth number), is an expanded version of the
presentation, as the Berlin gallery space is about three or four
times bigger than its Art Basel booth.

“Art Basel’s online viewing room
is limited to 15 works and is also much better suited to
two-dimensional works, so there are many more works on view in the
gallery,” a spokesperson for the gallery tells Artnet
News. 

While the gallery’s online
presentation includes work by 12 artists, including two voodoo
dolls by AA Bronson and Reima Hirvonen, a pair of enlarged earrings
featuring the guillotined heads of French monarchs by Simon
Fujiwara, and a dynamic drawing machine by Angela Bulloch, the
expanded physical exhibition includes work by 28
artists.

“To some extent, this is an
anti-fair,” the gallery says in a statement. “With certain social
distancing requirements in place, there will be ample space and
plenty of time to engage with each visitor,” unlike
the numerous brief encounters compressed into the short
timespan of a traditional fair. While the gallery says it is
looking forward to the results of the online Art Basel, the
physical exhibition acknowledges “the irreplaceable experience of
encountering an artwork in person.”

The opening of the show
coincides with the VIP opening of Art Basel’s Online Viewing Room,
on June 16, but will extend a month beyond Basel’s closing date,
until July 25. 

Galleries in London will be cautiously opening from mid-June, so
Ropac will be stocked with face masks and hand sanitizers, and will
limit visitors to a 25-person capacity. Inside, they will observe
social distancing measures and the gallery plans to take
temperatures with an infrared thermometer.

“We’re so happy to be re-opening our galleries one by one and
we’re of course doing so in accordance with guidelines of the
government in each location,” Thaddaeus Ropac tells Artnet News.
“Our London reopening on June 16 coincides with Art Basel, so
we felt that showing a number of the works at the gallery would be
a great way to re-establish the in-person experience of seeing the
works for those who are in London.”

The dealer adds that those who aren’t in London can speak
via FaceTime or Zoom to a member of the gallery’s team who can show
the work by video. “It’s a chance to connect in a way that is
a little closer to the way we would in a usual art fair
situation, and a way of extending and complementing our Art Basel
participation,” Ropac says.

The post As Art Basel Goes Online-Only, European Dealers Are
Testing Out Hybrid Virtual/Physical Displays—and Johann König Is
Even Launching a Fair of His Own appeared first on artnet
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