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From Art Basel to ShContemporary
A Conversation with Lorenzo Rudolf
By M. Brendon MacInnis
Lorenzo Rudolf, the founding director of ShContemporary and
one of the show’s three founding partners, with Pierre
Huber and Mauro Malfatti, discusses the history behind the
launch of the new international art fair which attracted some
25,000 visitors at its debut in Shanghai, September, 2007.
We met for breakfast in Shanghai, after the last day of the
fair. I wanted to cut past the obligatory talking points of
PR driven interviews; and to instead, develop a portrait of
one of the international art world’s true innovators
by tapping into a fascinating history that began in Basel,
Switzerland. This conversation took place at the Portman Ritz-Carlton,
Shanghai, China.
Can you tell me something about your background?
I was born in Switzerland, grew up in Switzerland, in Bern.
Studied law, to become a lawyer. Afterwards, international
PR, in an international banking environment.
You did public relations for an international bank?
Yeah.
How long did you do that?
For two years; that was two and half years. Then in Basel,
I was director of the Art Fair.
How did that come about?
They had a situation that the first director, who stayed
there for twenty-five years, he retired. And they looked for
a new director, and I was interested. I was already in the
art scene since a long time, much more on the private side.
So you were a private dealer and Basel?
No, no, I was not a private dealer, I was, so, an artist.
Oh?
I had a lot of contacts in the Swiss art scene, and then
I came in contact with them [Art Basel] and after a lot of
discussions, they wanted me as their new Director, and I became
the second Director.
When was that?
That was early 1991, when I started. Then for ten years,
I was Director of Art Basel. When I started in Basel, Art
Basel was an art fair in the classical sense, back then art
fairs were like trade shows. That means you sold someone a
space, a booth, and if somebody comes, beautiful, if somebody
doesn’t come, you have to find someone else to pay for
the space. It was a trade show. And then, when I started,
that was at the peak of the crisis in the art market…
Okay, I knew that from the perspective of New York, but
I guess it was worldwide.
Absolutely it was a worldwide crisis in the art market. The
art market was really down. And so, I had there the chance
— because, first of all, I was not coming out of the
fair environment — so I had the chance to really change
things in a totally different way, with a totally different
perspective. I wanted to do things different from the way
that other fairs were functioning. So, I made an entirely
new concept of Art Basel — it became a brand; it became
a quality label; it became an event. I started to bring in
the first sponsors for an art event, there was UBS…
So, up until that time the fair was supported only by
exhibition fees?
Yes, a classical trade show, like I told you; you sell space
to an exhibitor, and instead of a company who brings in some
chairs, or whatever, it was galleries.
That’s interesting, because today it seems that
all art fairs have sponsors, in fact you don’t do an
art fair without a sponsor.
Yes, that was the first time, and then there were huge discussions;
how is a possible, art and sponsoring? Blah blah blah. Then
I invented also new formats, like this “Art Statements”
for the young galleries. “Art Unlimited” for those
projects that are not presentable in a classical booth.
You know, I remember when that was introduced, because
I happened to be doing an internship with one of the participating
galleries back then; Galerie Sollertis, a French gallery from
Toulouse.
So what I did was to really change the form of an “art
fair”. And the concept of this new art fair is still
now functioning. I invented the VIP treatment, that says that
the first, the most important guest, is not the gallery but
the collector. So we really changed it step by step. And the
last project that I did as Director was the strategy and the
launch of Art Basel Miami Beach. Then in late autumn of 1999
I got a phone call from Frankfurt, where they asked me if
I would be interested to come to Frankfurt, to become the
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
I see.
And after quite a long time of reflection, I accepted
About Basel… I was wondering, who actually owns
Art Basel?
Art Basel belongs to the Basel Fair, the fair enterprise,
[Messe Basel] which has its own fair grounds, that all belongs
to the company, Messe Basel.
I ask that question because, when you bring all of this
innovation to the table - you know these are really your ideas,
in effect, your intellectual property, to basically make a
new fair - how does that work out? Do you have some feeling
about the fact that other people benefit from your intellectual
property, so to say, I mean your ideas, after you leave…
Well, I think whenever you work for a company, wherever you
are in this world working, when you do something new, that’s
not confidential, everybody can see it, and copy it. The question
is something else; you always have to be one or two steps
ahead of everybody else. And that’s happened.
Why did you decide it was time to leave Art Basel?
I didn’t decide that it was time to leave Art Basel,
I was not even thinking to leave Art Basel, but if you receive
such an offer, to head what is probably the biggest cultural
event, worldwide, as is the Frankfurt Book Fair, then you
reflect about the situation.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is really the meeting point for the
global publishing industry. You have publishing industries
wherever you have languages — the written word, books
and everything. Nowadays the publishing industry is not only
that, it’s multi-media, it’s really everything.
Just so you see, a bit, the dimension; the Frankfurt Book
Fair has around 6,700 exhibitors from all over the world.
The press conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair draws around
14,000 journalists. It’s a dimension, on such a scale,
that you really have to consider an offer like that, to be
the Director.
But I thought that Leipzig was the center for book publishing
in Germany? Perhaps I’m thinking of the former “East
Germany”…
No, no. Frankfurt — What Basel is, what the Olympics
are for sports, Frankfurt is for the publishing industry;
that begins with the books, on through to multi-media. That’s
including Time-Warner, Bertelsmann, everything.
So it’s not restricted by the language?
No. It’s really global; it’s really global.
So, how long did you do that?
I did it for a bit more than three years.
Three years? When was that? I thought that when you left
Art Basel, it sort of segued into Art Basel Mimi Beach…
No, as I told you before, I invented Art Basel Miami Beach;
I launched the project, the strategy, everything was done,
and then I consulted with them [Frankfurt Book Fair], and
then I handed it [Art Basel Miami Beach] over to my assistant
at that time, who became then my successor, that was Sam Keller.
Sam Keller — I remember, that was the PR guy in
Basel.
Yes, yes. Then I went back to Frankfurt.
Okay…
And I stayed in Frankfurt for more than three years.
Why did you leave?
I left Frankfurt for two reasons. First of all, they wanted
me to really develop the Frankfurt Book Fair even more into
a globalized… let’s say, into an event that reflects
the globalization of the publishing world. The problem was,
however, there were two things: One thing is that the owner
of the Frankfurt Book Fair is the German Association of Publishers.
That means 90 percent of the members of this Association are
small, national publishers. They have, in the end, no interest
to become even more globally affected. And the other thing
is, not only publishers are in the Association, but also booksellers;
and there is no bookseller in the world who is interested
in globalization. So you had daily conflicts there, between
the direction that, for example, the advisory board wanted
to go in, and the owners of the fair, their interests.
And at the same time, the publishing industry had gone through
huge changes in the last ten years. Before, you had a situation
where you had intellectual publishers. Nowadays all of these
publishing groups, they have disappeared, or they were bought
by huge companies, huge holdings; nowadays the publishing
market worldwide is dominated by a couple of huge holdings;
and your publishers, there are not really the intellectual
publishers any more, it’s all just managers.
So at the end of the day, you decided that you had done
as much as you could there…
At the end of the day I decided that; no, it was no longer
the field that I like, because I don’t have any more
the intellectual discussion, discourse and exchange. It’s
much more a management job, only looking at numbers. So I
decided to go back to where my real passion is, to the contemporary
— to the arts. And then after that, I went to America.
I did some projects. Among others, I did this Fine Art and
Antique Show in Palm Beach.
I know that fair. You worked also with Natalia Hnatiuk…
Yes, and I engaged Natalia as the Director of the contemporary
art fair in Palm Beach. But I think even more important and
interesting than the contemporary art fair was this Fine Art
and Antiques Show, which became, in just two years’
time, I would say one of the most exclusive ones in the States.
At this time I lived also in the States, in Miami. And then
began all the thinking and reflection, together with Pierre
Huber and I, about what is going on in the art market, what
is going on in the international scene, and what globalization
means, and so on; and out of that came, then, the concept
for the show here [ShContemporary].
Whose idea was it do a show in China?
Everybody came to the same conclusion…
I mean who came up with the idea? Was it your idea? Was
it Pierre’s?
Actually, it was in parallel; I have known Pierre for long,
long time, and we met and we discussed, and we realized that
our analysis of the situation, of the development of the market
was congruent. And we also thought, it’s clear: The
market in the future will shift more and more to Asia.
Already, when I left Basel, I told my successor, Sam —
I said: “Sam, I prepared for you Miami, and now the
next step you have to do will be Asia, will be China.”
And nothing happened.
And so, when I met again with Pierre, and we discussed, and
then we decided; yes, we have to think about doing this. And
then we looked for a partner because we needed also an operational
partner. We are two individuals, we are two brains, but for
that… So we took a year, and did a very intense investigation
of the global market — where are the trends for the
future? In which direction will the market probably develop?
And on the basis of this analysis we developed the concept
that would become this fair [ShContemporary]. Together, with
our partner, Bolognafiere, we decided; now let’s realize
it.
So then, this time, you’re not just the Director;
I guess you guys would be the owners of the fair. Right?
Okay, what we decided; that’s now a practical question…
To do something in China, it’s not exactly, from a legal
point of view, the same as doing something in America. That’s
the reason we said, okay, the first event we will do on the
basis that Bolognafiere, [Mauro Malfatti] our partner, is
the organizer, the official organizer, legally. And we, Pierre
and I, we work with and are related to them on a contractual
l basis. The next step, after having done the first show,
is to form a common company where you have three shareholders.
I understand that, in order to do business in China,
you need a license from the Chinese authorities. What happens
if, once your company gets off the ground, and is successful,
someone there in the bureaucracy decides to take your license
and give it to some else? I mean, they could say, “Okay,
thank you very much; we appreciate your help, and now we’ll
just take things over from here”. How do you protect
your investment?
You, as a journalist, you work a lot with a computer….
Yes, okay.
Let’s say, a laptop or a PC.
Sure.
And, like every laptop or a PC, you know, there is the hardware
and there is the software. Without the hardware; it is only
an empty box with a lot of smoke…
I think I know we’re going with that.
They cannot do it without…
They could not do it without your connections, your know
how.
Yes. Or even if they wanted to do it, then we say; okay —
then we just go to another place. Now we have a position of
strength; where everyone goes here in Asia, people look to
their pocket, and they would follow us. So, it’s not
that easy. But, of course, this is a theme that for sure we
have thought about.
In the run up to the fair, there was a lot of talk, among
some dealers, about the issue of censorship. Now that the
fair has taken place, how has all of that played out?
Well, I’ll tell you frankly, we are dealing here in
a country where there are certain delicate things, where there
is censorship. It’s strange. Because on the one side
you have this ideology, a certain communist ideology, and
on the other side you have a kind of unbridled capitalism
here that offers even more freedom than in America. That is,
so long as you don’t touch certain delicate themes.
So, in other words, for this reason, there is a certain censorship.
But I tell you, the censorship thing here is really peanuts.
There are very, very few works of art where they, where we
could not show; and on the other side, don’t forget,
this is the first time that something like this [ShContemporary]
has come along. Censorship people are functionaries, they’re
not art historians. So, at first, they were a bit afraid of
what could happen. Now they see that we are not going to cause
a problem for them. I think that in the future it will go
very, very smooth. Also this year, it was not a big problem.
Can you tell me something about the price structure for
exhibitors? Isn’t it something like 10,000 Euros for
a booth? Is that a lot for the market here?
The price is based on the square feet, and we break that
down into blocks of space. You can have two blocks or three
blocks, and so on. The price is within the average for international
affairs.
In the Art Basel fair, doesn’t the “Art Statements”
thing offer reduced prices, to bring in fresh, young galleries?
Is there something like that in this fair?
Yes. When I started the “Art Statements” the
idea was that we wanted to support the young galleries, especially
young galleries with younger artists,
Sure, to make it a more interesting fair…
What we are doing here is, we say, we don’t only want
to support the young galleries; we want to position unknown
artists in a way that they really have the possibility to
make a statement in the international market. That, for example,
is why we made the “Best of Discovery” section.
But the big difference is that this is the first show where
the show, itself, takes the responsibility for the content.
It was us — Pierre, actually — that curated the
work. He traveled all over Asia, he looked for the artists,
he picked them up, he went to Afghanistan, and to Pakistan,
to where artists didn’t have a known structure; and
then he found, for them, a market. And in the end, the costs
for such a place in “Best of Discovery” turned
out to be even less, much less expensive than for a space
in “Art Statements”.
Can you give me figure?
Yes, it’s a bit more than 2000 Euros for the entire
space, with infrastructure and everything. So, the idea is
to give real support for the artist, for them to be able to
position themselves in the market.
Who is the artist, Zhou Tiehai?
He’s one of the most important artists in China; he’s
one of the stars. And, for us, it’s very important,
when you go to a place like this, that you don’t come
and say: “We know everything, we do now a show for your
country.” What’s important for us is, first of
all, to know exactly this art scene, to have relationships,
to be a part of this art scene, of this art market.
And for that we needed somebody who opens all of the doors
for us, who makes the bridge for us, everywhere. And Zhou
Tiehai was exactly this guy. He, on the one side, is a very
respected artist — as I said, worldwide, not only the
top here in China. He knows everybody, here; he knows everybody
in the art scene; he knows everybody in the art market scene;
he knows even everybody in the local scene because he’s
based in Shanghai. He has an incredible network. And for us
it was important to have somebody like him, as a colleague
and even a friend, who opens all of the doors for us and who
builds all of the bridges. He became part of this team.
Did Pierre know him from some time ago?
Yes, yes.
So, what are you plans now that the show is over?
It’s now the first step, and I think it was a very
successful first step. This fair will be developed in such
a way that — first of all, every year, it will happen
at the same time — it will be a yearly event. Next year,
I think you’re going to have the big boom here, because,
this year all that we could say [to promote the fair] was,
we have a beautiful venue, please come and have confidence.
Now, however, we have a product that everyone can speak about.
Next year we are going to have a constellation, because we
are operating and doing it in parallel with the Biennale;
and the Biennale in Shanghai is one of the most important
in Asia. We are going to have, next year, the opening of the
Biennale and the opening of the fair [ShContemporary] happening
within two days. So that will be a beautiful attraction in
the market, for everyone.
The fair will take place the same time next year?
Yes — already, in its first edition, it is, from the
quality, the most important art fair in Asia. It’s the
only art fair in Asia that really gives you an overview of
the contemporary market, the activity here in Asia —
and it’s not only China, it’s Asia. So, we want
to go even more in this direction; but, on the other side,
the goal and the plan is that it [ShContemporary] will become
one of the two, three or four most important art fairs in
the world.
You know, from what I see, I believe that’s how
things will play out.
Me too, because we have something at our back that will happen,
without that anyone can change it — that’s the
shifting of a certain economic power to Asia.
Is there an agreement to have this venue next year? The
building is incredible; it’s a palace, really.
Yes, yes we have long-term contracts and options. Yes.
Okay. Well, I’m really glad that I caught up with
you for this chat — fascinating history. Thanks for
your time.
It was a pleasure.
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