Germany’s leading art fair Art Cologne has moved its 2017 edition forward by a day to avoid a scheduling clash with the popular Berlin Gallery Weekend. Daniel Hug, the director of Art Cologne, says the decision “will allow international visitors to visit both Art Cologne and Gallery Weekend comfortably in the same week”.
In March, Hug announced that, due to scheduling issues at the fair’s venue, the 2017 edition would take place between 28 April and 2 May, dates usually reserved for the Berlin event.
The proximity of the dates led to fears that visitors and participating galleries might have to choose between the two. At the time, the dealer Johann König told the German art magazine Monopol that he would pull out of the Cologne fair and try to persuade his Rhineland clientele to stay in Berlin too.
Now, Art Cologne has decided to hold its preview on Tuesday 25 April, rather than the usual Wednesday, and continue until Saturday 29 April. Berlin Gallery Weekend is scheduled to open on Friday 28 April and run until Sunday 30 April. A spokeswoman for Berlin Gallery Weekend says that while the move is a “good compromise”, smaller Berlin galleries with few staff may have difficulty participating in both events. “If you are attending Art Cologne, you may still find the two-day overlap hard to manage,” she says.