Category: City Report

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By the Sea. Report from Marseille

For its first edition in 2007 the Art-o-Rama hosted only five galleries, under skeptical observations from the Paris art scene about the chances of a fair in a poor city like Marseille. Sixteen years later, the fair has become a significant end-of-summer event with an international program, and cooperation with other institutions in and beyond the Provence. Even Parisians leave their city to enjoy art ‘by the sea’ and see what France’s second city has to offer.

Read my impression from the Art-o-Rama fair, edition 2019, on DAMN magazine.

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Vienna Contemporary

Vienna Contemporary, work by Angelika Loderer

De Vienna Contemporary is een jaarlijkse kunstbeurs met het focus op Oost-Europa. De editie van 2019 was goed om ons eraan te herinneren dat Europa meer te bieden heeft dan nationalistische angsten en discussies over vluchtelingen en grenscontroles.  De beurs was een uitnodiging om nieuw artisitiek territorium te betreden, en kennis te maken met galeries uit diverse hoeken van Oost-Europa, waar je normaal nooit op een dag tegelijk op bezoek zou kunnen gaan. In een bericht voor HART magazine combineert Jurriaan Benschop een bezoek aan de beurs, met een bezoek aan galeries en ateliers in Wenen om de temperatuur te meten in ‘de poort naar Oost-Europa.’ De tekst kan worden gelezen in nummer 185 van HART en ook  hier .

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Riga Biennial 2018

In her opening speech, the curator of the Riga Biennial of Contemporary Art, Katerina Gregos, pointed to our busy and stressed ways of living, leaving many people with burnouts or existential fears. In some of the artworks this is reflected quite literally, while other sections of the biennial shift the attention and try to offer an antidote. The Biennial touches on many topics of our current times, luckily without degrading the art works to mere illustrations. The biennial was one of the better surprises of the 2018 summer, and still on view till October 28 in the Latvian capital. For DAMN magazine I wrote a report about how Riga and the arts relate, which you can read here

 

 

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Report from Marseille

For the German Tagesspiegel I went to Marseille to visit the  Art-O-Rama fair and measure the artistic temperature in France’s second largest city. While artists and gallerists say there is not much market and future in Marseille, the Art-O-Rama tries to prove the opposite, and energizes the city – at least once a year.  You can read the text in German here