Mercado de arte: de olhos postos em Basileia

A 41ª edição da Feira de Arte de Basileia (Art Basel), Suíça, a mais importantes do mundo, abriu ontem em clima de grande expectativa e decorre até dia 20.

Segundo muitos especialistas no mercado internacional de arte, este será o evento decisivo para se saber se a crise foi ou não ultrapassada - "Se Basileia sobreviver, a confiança regressará. Se Basileia fracassar, o medo cresce", sintetizam os analistas do semanário online Art of the Day:

If Basel survives, confidence will return. If Basel fails, fear rises. The famous Swiss fair is more than ever this year the barometer of the art market. When a secondary art fair goes up or down it is considered an epiphenomena.

It is not at all the case for Basel, the profession’s standard metre, while the only real difficulty resides in measuring the real volume of transactions carried out: many will only unreel much later.

The market is an entity that is much harder to seize than one generally imagines …

For this number 41 edition, the number of galleries is close to 300. The two sections called Art Statements– to discover new talents – and Art Unlimited – for the pleasure of seeing installations that at times are out of proportion – will once again be the most visited.

There will be fewer Chinese artists than usual and a comeback of certain confirmed artists – Dan Flavin, Mario Merz, Yayoi Kusama, Doug Aitken, Michelangelo Pistoletto or Sigmar Polke, whose Laterna Magica will be a sort of ho mage to his career (the German artist died last week).

Fotos de vários stands, cortesia Art Basel