BASEL. As Art Basel’s initial buying frenzy subsided and dealers settled into the steadier pace likely to dominate the rest of the fair, director Sam Keller was yesterday already looking forward to the next edition of Art Basel/Miami Beach, where visitors will discover the latest in Messe Schweiz’s stream of new fair concepts. Art Cabinet, a programme aimed at encouraging galleries to go beyond merely hanging works up for sale and instead devote part of their booth to more curatorial endeavours, is to be unveiled at the fair in December. “We have created Art Cabinet in order to do several things”, explains Mr Keller. “It will help galleries get extraordinary works, both from artists and from estates, because of the special focus on these pieces. It will add a more cultural and educational aspect to the fair. And it will make the fair visually different—there will be greater variety between the stands.” Recent examples of Art Cabinet-style projects at Art Basel would include the entire room Manhattan dealer Per Skarstedt devoted to Richard Prince’s photograph Spiritual America at last year’s Art Basel and the dimly lit space created at Thomas Ammann Fine Arts to display a set of Andy Warhol Diamond Dust paintings. As with pieces in the Art Unlimited hall, Art Cabinet projects will be proposed by accepted galleries to the selection committee, which will then choose as many as 20 concepts for a special section in the fair’s catalogue. “We don’t want Art Cabinet to be like Statements here, with lots of mini shows for young artists”, Mr Keller says. “It will probably tend toward more historical art. And it could involve several artists, as long as there’s a strong curatorial concept. The main issue is that with the market being so strong right now, galleries tend to go for commercial approaches in building their booths. The committee felt we needed to give people a motivation to try something special, but without that incentive, many of them won’t take the risk.”
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'More theming, less serendipity'