Art Basel Hong Kong: our critics give their first impressions
Our critical first look at Hong Kong’s art extravaganza
This year’s Art Basel Hong Kong looks a little less loud and flashy, perhaps reflecting the rather unsettling times we are living through (news of the terrorist attacks in Brussels came through just before the fair doors opened).
As usual, the tone of the two halls is set by the large installations called “Encounters”.
These are arranged in strategic spots to break up the low rows of gallery booths, to encourage the anticipated 60,000 visitors to pause and just look. There are fewer of them this year – 16 instead of 21 – which the organisers say is intended to give each work more room to breathe.
As Marc Spiegler, Art Basel fair director, says, “less is more” these days, after a period of rapid expansion of the contemporary art fair market. Some of them, at least, are also too subtle to shout “stop” at the jostling crowd.
Take Tintin Wulia’s Five Tonnes of Homes and Other Understories, for example. A well-meaning installation made for Hong Kong, it features scavenged cardboard bundles ready for recycling that are covered with drawings of weighing centres, the source of a feeble income that so many impoverished elderly people still rely on. Well meaning, but not fascinating to look at. The paintings are difficult to see, so they really do look like bundles of used cardboard.
