The Belgians have a sense of humor. This is clear nowhere more than at the Art Brussels fair, where drawings by Clo'e Floirat mimic the gems and junk of the arty planet, who, perched in Louboutin, glass in hand, swoons before the canvases, more tipsy from the bubbly than the talent. If the exhibition hall is allowing a little derision, it's because its public is a thousand leagues from such idiosyncrasies. “The collectors here are thoughtful and sophisticated,” said Sean Horton, from the Zieher Smith & Horton gallery (New York), who is back for the third time. “Belgians trust their judgement and their eye. At other fairs, if works are available in the window the next day, they no longer find favor in people's eyes. Belgians don't care about who's buying what. It's not a social status thing.”
In fact, collectors didn't rush to the opening of the fair yesterday morning. For the first two hours, many exhibitors even felt that time was passing slowly. Belgians take their time. Time to gauge a gallery's solidity and an artist's validity. Time for reflection, which in no way excludes the spur of passion. Back for the seventh time, Berlin gallerist Amel Bourouina recognized it: “it was only starting in the fourth year that I started to function, when people said to themselves ‘Hey, she's still here, and she has a bigger booth.'” So much that Art Brussels currently represents 30% of her total business. “Art Brussels is a slow fair. Last year, I sold my main pieces on the last day,” added Alberta Pane (Paris). She takes a big risk to seduce local collectors with Bulgarian artist Ivan Moudov, who made a mockery of the art world by stealing snippets of works from museums before putting them together like fetishes in a suitcase à la Duchamp. In any case, the Crumbesque humor of young Alexander Nolan seduced them at Bernard Ceysson (Paris, Luxemburg): a dozen drawings found takers between €1,200 and €2,500. They also lined up at Axel Vervoordt (Antwerp) in front of the machine producing works by Japanese artist Sadaharu Horio, formerly of the Gutai collective. For a euro, they had the choice between ten types of drawings, some that produced sound, others that were sarcastic, still others that whip…
Although their eyes are fixed towards the future and especially America, visitors to Art Brussels are also sampling artists with an eye towards the past. And they are plenty in the exhibition hall from Bruce High Quality Foundation, who makes pastiches of Grecian amphores and other frescoes from Antiquity at Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels), to Stephan Balleux, at D+T Project Gallery (Brussels), along with Sophie Kuijken at Nathalie Obadia (Paris, Bruxelles), four works of whose quickly found buyers. The Art Brussels public isn't concerned whether these works inspire ancient or futuristic motifs, whether they are figurative or abstract. However, one thing counts: that the pieces are fresh on the market. This was the case with works hung by Rodophe Janssen (Brussels). He has in fact yielded ten of them, notably a painting by Sean Landers for $125,000.
ART BRUSSELS, April 25 to 27, Brussels Expo (Heysel), Hall 1 and 3, Brussels,www.artbrussels.com
