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Editorial
Our Swiss Issue is a field study on art and the art market. It has been made at the introduction of the Kunsthaus Zurich for the exhibition Shifting Identities. It has been some six months in gestation and has involved the efforts of approximately fifty people. We spent four months on fieldwork and collecting material, and two months organising and processing it. We have compiled the magazine as if it were a documentary film: with portraits, various voices and images.There is an Export edition and a Domestic edition, the latter of which is distinguished by its double cover and can be used as an entry ticket for the Kunsthaus Zurich.
During the four months of our residency at BINZ39 in Zurich we interviewed artists, designers, curators and collectors about art and the market. We asked seven writers for critical reflections on the art world and its existing model. We also asked artists for visual and textual contributions. Before this issue we had never conducted an in-depth investigation into how the art market works. Apparently that was unnecessary, but in Switzerland the market cannot be ignored.
‘shoot like an amateur, edit like a pro’
The conversations were recorded with an M-Audio Microtrack 24/96, and lasted on average one hour and forty-five minutes. We have transcribed, or commissioned transcriptions, of all the conversations. Our aim is to deliver a ‘readable’ text; as always we have focussed on the main thrust of the conversation, and have retained as many original formulations as possible. Interpretation is unavoidable, but in all cases we have attempted to remain as faithful as possible to the conversations. After the initial edit we gave our interviewees the opportunity to adapt their tone and to formulate their intentions more precisely. The resulting texts are thus dialogues and the outcome of a collaborative effort.
We like what the documentary filmmakers Thomas Imbach and Jürg Hassler say: ‘Forget planning – hanging around is creative’. We like to add – drinking wine at openings and invited to collectors dinners can be productive. Many of our encounters happened by chance, and all the conversations are intuitive and relatively informal. They are not interviews based upon a questionnaire.
We have attempted to understand how the system behind art works, and have looked critically at the role of the market. We have quickly come to understand that the market is effective for only approximately 3 to 5 per cent of artists. But how do you decide who will make it to the top? Nobody is really willing to make a declaration about quality, and many leave this distinction to market forces. It was for this reason that we felt it necessary to look for an other model, a possible alternative way. We had one question that we wished to pose to everyone: do you think the current hierarchical model works? And this usually led to a second question: is it possible to conceive another model?
We received very divergent answers. Rein Wolfs states: ‘There is no art without a market’, Oliver Kielmayer says that the market works fine, but also that there are two systems that operate independently of one another. Anders Petterson talks about a new breed of art investors: Art Angels, a hybrid of traditional collector, patron and shrewd investor. Frank Hyde-Antwi says: ‘There is no reason why you should accept the existing model’ and came up with an alternative model that makes room for more than the 3 per cent whom the market serves. And Henry Levy says that artists cannot survive at all without the help of patrons, collectors etc. Karen Wright describes a business-like managerial approach to art that is a far cry from the romantic vision of the artist.
‘The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.’
In the final pages of her book Hype! Kunst und Markt, Piroschka Dossi uses this quote from Bruce Nauman as an introduction to take the whole matter to a further level, stating: ‘But the art market today sends out another message as well, with the phenomena of speculation and hype taking their toll in the larger context of global social upheaval. The growing gap in prices, the erosion of the centre and the concentration of the market on only a few winners pinpoint a development, as if through a magnifying glass, that may well become a hotspot in the years ahead: the escalation of inequality in our society.’
^Rob Hamelijnck & Nienke Terpsma, editors of Fucking Good Art
May 2008
Colofon
Fucking Good Art – Rotterdam
Editors – Rob Hamelijnck en Nienke Terpsma
Typography – Nienke Terpsma
Print – De Boog, Rotterdam
Paper – La Gazetta dello Sport
Webdesign – catalogtree.net
First issue December 2003
Editorial studio – Calandstraat 3b, 3016 CA Rotterdam
Reactions and contributions
mail[at]fuckinggoodart.nl
Fucking Good Art is a printed and online fanzine that serves as a portal and resource for the contemporary art community. We collect and generate content including critical writing, interviews, reviews, observations, and news.
Special editions (in other European cities):
2004 - München edition
2005 - The Interviews - pocket book, 140 pages Dutch/Eng.
2006 - International edition / Berlin - pocket book, 160 pages German/Eng.
2006 - Dresden edition
2007 - Kopenhagen edition
2007 - Riga web-radio edition
2008 - The Swiss Issue - pocket book, 280 pages English/German.
Order here / hier bestellen!
Price: € 14,50 / 24 CHF
Domestic edition:
www.editionfink.ch
Export edition:
www.episode-publishers.nl
Or send us an email:
mail@fuckinggoodart.nl
FGA#20 - The Swiss Issue
English / German Edition
June 2008
Order here / hier bestellen:
mail@fuckinggoodart.nl
Editors and concept: Rob Hamelijnck / Nienke Terpsma
Publisher(s): episode / edition fink / Fucking Good Art
Design: Nienke Terpsma / Janna Meeus
280 pages / 147x210 mm / softcover
ISBN domestic edition: 978-3-03746-129-7
ISBN export edition: 978-90-5973-087-8
texts / articles
Karen Wright
Piroschka Dossi
Anders Petterson
Barbara Basting
Ilona Genoni
Dora Imhof
Thibaut de Ruyter
So:ren
Peter Stoffel
Jo Maier
Rob Hamelijnck
Nienke Terpsma
conversations
Frank Hyde-Antwi
Daniel Baumann
Esther Eppstein
Wenzel A.Haller
Oliver Kielmayer
Henry Levy
Rein Wolfs
Daniel Suter
Harald Szeemann
Adam Szymczyk
Andrea Thal
Annina Zimmermann
Jörg Zintzmeyer
guide
List of 73 Swiss independent artist / curator - run spaces for contemporary art
map A.I.R Switzerland
meta comic
What Life Could Be / by Michael Baers, in collaboration with Rob Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma
artist contribution
Thomas Hirschhorn
Lutz&Guggisberg
Relax
Serge Spitzer
Felix Stephan Huber
Till Velten
Fabio Marco Pirovino
Karen Weinert
Anna Katharina Scheidegger
San Keller
Dagmar Heppner
Stefan Burger
Hans Rudolf Ambauen
Ganzblum
Heinrich Gartentor
Batia Suter
Showroom
^