With Asian identity, new Singapore art fair aims high (Feature)

By Kai Portmann Jan 9, 2011, 3:23 GMT

Singapore - Thousands of international art collectors, gallery owners and art lovers were expected to converge in Singapore when the curtain rises Wednesday on the highly anticipated inaugural Art Stage Singapore.

With more than 100 of the world's leading and up-and-coming galleries promising to display the best of Asia's fragmented art scenes at the five-day event, Art Stage's Swiss director Lorenzo Rudolf is dreaming big.

'The goal is to develop this fair in a timeframe of five to six years into one of the top events in the world,' Rudolf said.

The 50-year-old art fair veteran has some experience with setting up cutting-edge contemporary art shows around the globe.

In the 1990s, he transformed a humble art fair to Art Basel, one of the top events on the international art calendar, invented Art Basel Miami Beach and co-founded ShContemporary in Shanghai.

Bringing some of Asia's top artists to Singapore, including China's Ai Weiwei, Japan's Takashi Murakami and Indonesia's I Nyoman Masriadi, Art Stage Singapore would go 'in the direction of a Basel philosophy' as it aims to show art in a context of events and projects and was not just focused on trade, Rudolf said.

In a special section called collector's stage, for example, the fair is to show about 30 privately owned and rarely seen art pieces that are not for sale.

For Art Stage's premiere, Rudolf chose to start 'with a clear Asian identity' because the majority of the participating galleries hail from the Asia-Pacific, whose art scene still lacks infrastructure.

'Step by step, we want to open it more and more,' he said, 'but first we have to protect the Asians.'

For Howard Rutkowski, director of the Singapore art consultancy Fortune Cookie Projects, the Asian focus of Art Stage was just 'a natural first step.'

'We will see more and more international galleries coming in,' he said.

The Singapore fair, however, is set to face steep competition, especially from Art Hong Kong, a fair that aims to welcome more than 160 international galleries in its main section for its fourth edition at the end of May.

Moreover, Art Hong Kong director Magnus Renfrew announced that this year's fair would introduce a new section, Asia One, 'an additional dedicated platform showcasing vibrant and exiting developments in Asian art.'

But Rudolf said there was room for both the more trade-oriented Hong Kong fair and Art Stage Singapore with its side programme of showcases and events.

'Everywhere is competition,' Rutkowski said, 'but it's a big enough world. They [both] can survive.'

An advantage for Art Stage Singapore is its strong backing by the censorious government.

After focusing on economic growth for years, Singapore now aims to improve 'the softer aspects - the cultural areas, the arts,' said Lui Tuck Yew, minister for information, communication and the arts.

If Singapore decided to open up and play on the international art stage, it could become 'a hub for contemporary art and especially for the contemporary art market,' said Rudolf, noting that his fair was ready to help this development.

Not all experts, however, shared his optimism.

For Chen Shen Po, director of the well-established Art Singapore fair, which in its 10th edition in October attracted more than 50 galleries and 12,000 visitors, the city-state's art scene was still not mature enough to have another big show.

'In order for Singapore to be developed into an arts hub in the region and internationally, it needs its own critical mass of local audience to sustain and grow the local art market,' she said.

'A big event here or another art fair there is good for giving more exposure to the local audience,' Chen said.

However, all events rely on foreign visitors and buyers to be sustainable in the long run, she added.

'But Singapore is the new kid on the block, so everyone would want to come check it out,' she said.

Read more about Singapore Culture