I had to go back to the main fair ground to finally get some impressions from the art works exhibited. And it was a slow day here so I actually got to gather both information and impressions and I also saw some great works. Favourites are Carsten Höllers yellow rhino at Casey Kaplan, and Gianni Mottis soap bar made from fat of Berlusconi’s body with the title “Mani puliti” (remember the state of Italy’s harsh treatment of the mafia/camorra in the nineties?). Apparently, the doctor at the clinic where Berlusconi gets his fat suctions has made statements about the artworks fakeness, however Motti is confident and cool, and retaliated by saying: “well, let’s do a DNA-test then and we’ll see if its fake”. I love it! Will submit images later.
Sat down and had strawberry cake in VIP section with Allen. After rambling around the fairground again for some hours (no, there is a limit to what one can take in) I went for dinner with Jan Christensen and we had a great conversation going on. Nicolai and Sabine from c/o Atle Gerhardsen showed up and our smiles grew bigger. I went home for a shower and a moments rest from myself and everyone else. I am getting tired of myself and my voice, and especially my own laughter. I’ve heard my laugh too many times now.
A quick drink in the “Bar Rouge”—the sky bar in the tallest building in Switzerland (31 stories), and then we hit the annual Gavin Brown’s enterprise’s party at the Swiss Hotel. We came early and got a table to ourself, and the party soon filled up. The buzz of Gavin’s free tab for one hour made me decide to get five vodka tonics for the table. When I got back to the table with my loot everyone had left it, so I sat down and had them all to myself. Then dancing took place with some of the art worlds top power players. I had fun. I danced in turns with Jan Christensen, José Kuri, Sam Keller, Marc and Erica Spiegler, Mats Brodén and Daniel Birnbaum—sometimes all of them at the same time. Left party at four, came around to sleep at six, woke up again at eight.
Finally I got to go to a regular museum—Gegenwart with the solo exhibition of Simon Starling, “Cuttings”. Very dry, very boring, very conceptual, very Starling. Took the speed boat to Volta art fair and had a nice chat with the overwhelmingly satisfied Aldy Milliken of Milliken Gallery in Stockholm. He had had a great time, it seems. Volta was smaller than expected, with a nice architecture, more tranquil environment and also a bit more dreary art. I kind of liked Torch gallery though. I then went back to the main fair for the last of the videos in Unlimited that I had missed out on, and for a quick blog-time.
Had an interesting conversation about the dreary status of the Nordic art fairs. We were wondering why we hadn’t seen many/any representatives for institutions or fairs here. Maybe we just missed spotting them. Something needs to be done anyway.
Today was good. Yesterday too. Will be GREAT to go home tomorrow. But still have some miles to walk…
