‘We need to leave. Now’. How we strolled out of Covid-hit Shanghai art fair, dodging lockdown and quarantine, and feasted like it was our last supper

With one Shanghai contemporary art fair shut down over a positive Covid test, another fair was abuzz with gossip. Then came signs it too would be locked down

We walked out, not too fast but fast enough to avoid lockdown and orders to test or quarantine. It was another blow for galleries hoping to sell art in China

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One of the gallery booths to be sealed off during Shanghai’s West Bund Art & Design fair, which the city government shut down after two days. Another fair had been shut down a day earlier because of a postive Covid test. Photo: West Bund Art & Design Fair

Published: 6:15pm, 21 Nov 2022Updated: 2:08pm, 22 Nov 2022

There are few experiences as surreal as fleeing an art fair for dear life, but in 2022 Shanghai surrealism has been in plentiful supply.

On November 11 and 12, the city’s two flagship contemporary art fairs were abruptly shut down mid-run because of China’s draconian Covid-19 contact-tracing and quarantine measures. This was just the latest blow to the local art market, which has existed in suspended animation ever since Shanghai’s two-month lockdown in spring.

“Zero Covid” has cost the city’s art world dearly in terms of income, sanity and standards, says a Shanghai-based art consultant, speaking on condition of anonymity. Participants and organisers of the two art fairs, both scheduled to run from November 10-13, were already exhausted before the openings, the person said.

“Achieving excellence lost its priority” when so much energy was devoted to preparing for a “worst possible case scenario”.

This year’s Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair was scheduled to be held at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre from November 10-13. Photo: Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair

The worst did happen, and this year’s art week evidenced how impossible it is to be prepared amid such rapidly fluctuating and inconsistent policies and lack of transparency.