Become an important point on the map of the art market Singapore hinder both the cultural and financial reasons

< /a> Fair at the Singapore Art Stage Source: blogs.wsj.com

< /a> Fair at the Singapore Art Stage Source: blogs.wsj.com

Singapore, according to the prevailing on his revival of the art market, may well soon change the status of the province and the art market become one of its capitals. A series of exciting events this year, attracted to the Asian city-state of many visitors, causing talk of him as a promising cultural and market area.

first held in January this year, Singapore art fair Art Stage on which it was possible to buy works of Ai Veyveya (Ai Weiwei), Yayoi Kusama (Yayoi Kusama) and Takashi Murakami (Takashi Murakami), attracted 32 000 visitors, not pozhalevshih money for a ticket. Took place in March, the Singapore Biennale III also attended by an impressive number of spectators - 913 000. And in 2015 in Singapore should open the National Gallery of Fine Arts area of ​​60 000 square meters, which will be the largest exhibition space of the country.

«Features of the art market are expanding in Singapore - says Tan Boon Wee (Tan Boon Hui), director of the Singapore Art Museum (Singapore Art Museum). - In recent years Singapore has opened a number of venues and events were held that led to a significant advancement of the country on the world art scene ».

big contribution to these processes is making active government policies aimed at is to make Singapore a major art center in the region. Fair Art Stage, for example, was organized by the Chamber of Tourism in Singapore, as well as the State Chamber for Economic Development (a government body, responsible for attracting new investment into the country). Eugene Tan (Eugene Tan), head of the Chamber and the former director of the Institute of Art, Sotheby's (Sotheby's Institute of Art), the fair was made curator of the Art Stage Stands Singapore galleries. Local Biennale and was mostly financed from the state budget: it is carried out Singapore Museum of Fine Arts and has cost him in this year's 6 million Singapore dollars (about 4.9 million U.S. dollars).

But will Singapore, which are used to skeptics viewed as a cultural backwater, courage, and the pressure to become a thriving capital market of art?

< /a> symbol of Singapore - the Merlion statue Source: infocommclub.vs.moe.edu.sg

TATZU NISHI Hotel Merlion Source: blogs.wsj.com

Already, there are some signs that Singapore is prepared to experiment, without which modern art is impossible to imagine. For example, a Japanese artist Nishi Tatzu (Tatzu Nishi) in the end is still allowed, despite the doubts overwhelmed authorities, to build a temporary installation in a hotel around the legendary symbol of Singapore - the Merlion statue. And last year the short film "Hush!» («Hush»), which was announced as "the most candid film made in Singapore", was shown without censorship bills. However, sometimes it works involving sexual topics, chaste Asian city carries less: sometimes they are even excluded from the exhibits. Also, according to Chen Helin (Helina Chan), the director of the local galleries iPreciation, warily in Singapore are too sharp and creative utterances on political topics.

Ms. Chen, for which the reputation of the ambitious art dealer in Singapore, believes that artists "are free in their work to affect any topic," but whether they will reach shocking works to the public in Singapore - is, in her words, has "a different question».

Thus, the performance of Indian artist Tigullio Venkanny (Theegulla Venkanna), in which he posed naked, was banned almost immediately after the opening of the fair Art Stage, and the artist himself was summoned for questioning at the police. Lorenzo Rudolf (Lorenzo Rudolf), director of art fairs, has refused to comment on this event.

Installation Briton Simon Fujiwara (Simon Fujiwara) «Welcome to the Hotel Manber," also suffered censorship: it considered as organizers, contained elements of gay pornography is banned in Singapore laws like the Act of unwanted products, and was excluded from the program after a preliminary examination Biennale. "We have to adjust the exposure to a specific local cultural context", - says Mr. Tan, the head of the Singapore Museum, located on the provision of the state House for the conservation of cultural heritage. The museum's director admitted that initially the organization could not cope with the stringent ethical requirements of local authorities and "could well be closed, not yet started to work properly." The buzz surrounding the installation of Fujiwara is partly due to the fact that she was shown just in the halls of the museum, which is positioned as a museum for a family visit. According to Helin Chen, private art galleries are not suffering so much from state interference in their politics, so that she would be happy to demonstrate the work of Fujiwara in itself.

even more cautious dealers and gallery owners in Singapore have to refer to works that affect racial and religious issues: local residents remember well the violent clashes between Malays and Chinese, have occurred here in 1964. "Singapore - a multiethnic country, and I would not show this work of art that could adversely affect vzamootnosheniyah between people of different cultures and cause tension on religious grounds - Helin says Chan. - If there is any doubt as to what, say, some art installations may destroy the law, it is better to negotiate with the authorities to clarify the situation ».

Another question still remains open - how the growth of the art market in Singapore will be stable and lasting. The debut issue of fair Art Stage was pretty successful, but ArtSingapore, the oldest contemporary art fair in Singapore this year, it seems, did not take place. By Sheng Chen (Shen Po Chen), director of the event, said that the one-year break would allow his team to "re-examine the market situation." However, skeptics argue that it is too early to talk about the success of Singapore as a serious art market, and the data on the number of visitors to the Singapore Biennale, and in general are greatly exaggerated, as the organizers felt and casual visitors to the exhibits that were installed on the streets and squares of the heavily loaded areas center in Singapore.

Another difficulty for the ambitious city lies in the fact that Singapore has to withstand stiff competition from a powerful rival - Hong Kong. Hong Kong art fair Art HK this year introduced the creation of celebrities scale of Andreas Gursky (Andreas Gursky), Louise Bourgeois (Louise Bourgeois) and Jeff Koons (Jeff Koons), whose work was sold for an impressive $ 3.5 million. Art HK does not publish data on their speed, but if you compare the numbers, it becomes clear that the mere sale of Koons' fair brought more than half of last year's revenue ArtSingapore put together (it was 6 million Singapore dollars).

Auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's in 2007 and 2006 have made Hong Kong the center of their auction sales in Southeast Asia. Jonathan Stone (Jonathan Stone), head of the house Christie's and its department of Asian Art, called it a step to the requests of collectors, but also explained the company's arrival in Hong Kong "the Hong Kong branches of the power of the market».

with the result that the flourishing of Singapore as a new art center can prevent more financial than cultural and other factors. Rotation of the art market in Singapore are "drop in the bucket" compared with revenue of Hong Kong, says Ms. Chan, who, in addition to galleries in Singapore, owns another one in Hong Kong: "From a commercial point of view, Singapore is not yet a mature art center. The main task [for him] - learn how to extract all of the [pass here] shows and fairs dollars and cents ».

Prepared by Mary Estrova, AI

Source: blogs.wsj.com , artinvestment.ru