Buenos Aires has been selected as the first partner for the new Art Basel Cities programme, the fair’s organisation announced today.
The multi-year initiative, set to launch in late 2017, aims to expand “Art Basel’s engagement in the art world from staging art fairs to working with cities to develop cultural events with international resonance,” according to the release, essentially serving as consultants to help organise the kinds of events and projects that are found in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong—only without the accompanying art fair.
“This is a new form of business for us,” Marc Spiegler, Art Basel’s Global Director, said in an interview from Argentina. “This is not a beachhead for a fair. This is another way in which Art Basel can mix culture and commerce. We will be paid to do this by the city and the city is doing it because they see it as part of the economic and cultural development of Buenos Aires, so it’s not a means, it’s an end.”
“Culture in and of itself is an industry, which creates employment and tax dollars,” he added, saying that Art Basel Cities is aimed at luring the creative class by making a location an appealing place to live. “Like every company, every city in every country is in a war for talent.”
The programme was announced in March of this year and Spiegler said Buenos Aires had always been in his “top five” potential launch cities, especially in a region of the world coming out of an economic slump, “on a continent where we do no fair and have no intention of doing a fair”.
“Art has been one of the historical pillars of the city of Buenos Aires,” the city’s mayor Horacio Rodríguez says in the release.
Spiegler couldn’t yet say what Art Basel Cities will look like in Buenos Aires, but said it would, as with the fairs, mix local and international art scenes in a way that promotes both. He was also quick to point out that Art Basel Cities is funded by municipal economic development budgets, not cultural funding, and is designed not to undercut local institutions.
Other cities may apply for future editions, but Art Basel has not announced further participants after Buenos Aires.
