Few people have more experience at art fairs than the Italian curator and writer Francesco Bonami. “My first visit to Art Basel was in 1985. I was a struggling artist, then belonged to a group who would go to the fairs and waste time there,” he says. “Now there are many more fairs than there used to be, so going to all of them can become a sole source of entertainment.”
Bonami, who curated the Venice Biennale in 2003, says he has an ambivalent relationship with art fairs. “They are 57% business, 33% waste of time and 10% boring,” he says. “Art Basel in Basel is the only art fair I like to go to. I like Basel as a city—everything is kind of on a human scale.”
Bonami is in Basel to curate Gagosian’s stand. He admits that curating a fair stand is an unusual assignment: “We are bridging the gap between curatorial idealism and the art-fair format. In placing these dynamics in thoughtful dialogue with each other, we are suggesting different relationships beyond commercial value.”
Bonami is also a talented cartoonist. Exclusively for The Art Newspaper, he has offered a sideways look at this year’s Art Basel, referencing Jordan Wolfson’s VR work at Fondation Beyeler. Don’t fall in!