Related: Art 41 Basel Takes Place June 16

Waiting for Art Basel opening in June, we’re publishing a conversation with the art fair co-director Marc Spiegler.

Annette Schonholzer (left) and Marc Spiegler (right)

PN: My first question is dealing with your previous job, as you has been involved in the art world as a journalist and critic. Based in Chicago and then in Zurich, you wrote extensively about art and art systems for magazine and newspaper like The Art newspaper, The New York magazine, Art + Auctions, ArtNews, Metropolis, Wired and Neue Zürcher Zeitung amongst others. Does in to which extent this training did influence your new position as director of Art Basel?

MS: I think there are very strong connections between these two aspects of my career. My writing focused on the system of the art world, where art galleries play a central role. And Art Basel is one of the premiere platforms for galleries. So galleries have long been a key focus of my thinking. Before, I used my network and my experiences to understand what was going on within the artworld and to write about it; now, I use much the same approach, but try to use the results to benefit Art Basel’s art galleries and artists. But a huge difference is that while before I worked solo, now I’m part of a team, working most closely with Annette Schonholzer, the co-director of the show.

PN: And could we talk about the Artworld Salon project – an online art magazine you conceived and develop along 2007 – in terms of gymnasium and again platform here you’ve cultivated and pursuit information and skills you later poured into the Fair?

MS: Sure, there is a direct connection to the Art Basel Conversations and Art Salon panels at both shows, because we live in a big artworld with many stakeholders – artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, museums, etc – for all them, exchanging information and views is interesting and valuable. The show at Art Basel is more than just galleries trying to sell artworks; it’s also people trading ideas, notions, opinions, and esthetics. Today, it’s really impossible to travel enough to have a deep sense of the global artworld, but at Art Basel and Basel Miami Beach you have the top art galleries of the world showing the best of their program. 

PN: A Fair is also, or mainly, a show: it’s an exhibition project. And it’s also an opportunity to produce a new artwork, as it happens in Art Unlimited for example. I wish you could spend some words about the fair a context of big scale art production. To what extent a fair like Art Basel and Basel Miami beach effect in this process of production?

MS: Art Unlimited was responding to a very clear phenomenon in the art world when it was formed in 2000: the fact that artists were more and more interested in producing works that do not fit within the traditional gallery booth’s context or even within the traditional collector’s home. So, had Art Basel not developed a place to show this kind of works, it was locked off from highly interesting forms of artistic production. And the fact that Art Basel created a platform for this kind of work meant that many collectors suddenly imagined the possibility to acquire this scale of work. What used to be considered a 'museum’ work is now commonly shown by private collectors. So this is a very interesting example not only of how Art Basel responds to what is going on in the art world, but also of how it has been a catalyst at a moment of transition.

PN: For the first time this year (2009) Basel Miami Beach involved a not for profit association like the New York based Creative Time in the design of a space for the Fair, The New Oceanfront (an area in Collins Park that has been created as a platform for virtually all of Art Basel Miami Beach’s cultural programming). And the relationship between profit and not for profit activities is usually very productive: what can you say about this experience?

MS: Whenever we do something that is not directly in contact with the art galleries, we feel that it’s important to work with a curator or a nonprofit organization, because there is a certain kind of skill and experience required in doing these projects, and the need for new viewpoints. And, actually, we had worked before with another non-profit, P.S.1, in Miami Beach. But this was the first time Creative Time did a project of that dimension outside New York City. I remember our amazement the first night of Art Perform at the Oceanfront: When Annette, the co-director of the show, and I arrived, there were hundreds of people there, at night, to see a performance evening by relatively unknown artists.

PN: Which your comments about the appointment of Mr. Jeffrey Deitch as the new director of MOCA in Los Angeles?

MS: The Deitch appointment reflects the extent to which there is a more fluidity between artworld roles today. It also reflects the fact that the museum director’s job is much different from what it was ten years ago. As a gallerist, many people say, Deitch ran his spaces somewhat like a Kunsthalle, and he was always incredibly active with many projects beyond his booth during Art Basel Miami Beach. So he was by no means a classical gallerist. And I really doubt that he will be a classical museum director.

PN: What’s your impression of Italian art galleries nowadays?

MS: Our impression is that the Italian contemporary art scene is very dynamic today. Interestingly, both Italy and France are now very strong, coming out from what seemed to outside observers a long stagnant period in emerging contemporary art. This new momentum is mainly related to the young galleries and the artists involved in their programs.

PN: Which would be the structure of the Art Basel this year? Will you work at some special projects outside the main venue of the fair?

MS: The basic structure of the fair will be the same: The same number of galleries, the same intense programs of talks and conferences. We will introduce a new sector called Art Feature, on two levels of the main hall, with each level having ten Art Feature galleries in a row. The sector is meant to spotlight very tightly curated projects – sometimes a single work from an artist, or a body of works from an artist, or a kind of confrontation between different artists. The point is that is not a classical gallery booth, presenting the program, but rather a highly focused exhibition. And the Art Parcours project – curated by Jens Hoffman of the Wattis Institute – will present ten artists in various venues and public spaces in the historic center of the city of Basel. Visitors will see site-specific projects and performances by both emerging and established artists, such as Daniel Buren, Damián Ortega, John Bock, Martha Rosler and Nathalie Djurberg.