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Art Basel 2020 scrapped over virus uncertainties

Art Basel, the world's biggest contemporary art fair, cancelled its 2020 edition in Switzerland due to the coronavirus pandemic, denting its parent company on the stock exchange Monday.

Published: 8 June 2020 16:50 CEST

Art Basel 2020 scrapped over virus uncertainties

Photo: G SIghele/Flickr

The fair had already been postponed from June to September but organisers pulled the plug, saying there were too many uncertainties to stage the international show, which will return in 2021.

“Art Basel regrets to announce that the 2020 edition in Basel has been cancelled,” it said in a statement.

“While there are signs of hope as individual countries are coming out of lockdown, the global situation remains precarious and, unfortunately, too many uncertainties remain to go ahead with the fair.”

It said those included limitations on intercontinental travel, the health risks posed by large gatherings, and doubts over whether Swiss COVID-19 regulations would allow large public events.

“We believe that the best option concerning the Basel show is to focus on next year's edition and delivering a fair of the exceptional international quality that the art world expects,” it said Saturday.

The 2021 Basel fair will run from June 17 to 21.

The share price of parent company MCH Group fell further on the Swiss stock exchange on Monday.

MCH, which had already lost 41 percent of its value since the start of January, fell 3.05 percent to 15.90 Swiss francs in afternoon trading.

By comparison, the SPI index of the top 215 companies on the Swiss exchange was down 0.28 percent.

The Swiss government stopped short of imposing full confinement to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

But the restrictions it brought in led to the cancellation of major events, including the Geneva Motor Show and the main watch fairs.

While events for up to 300 people can now go ahead with appropriate protection measures, events for more than 1,000 people remain banned until August 31.

While Art Basel is based in its Swiss home city, its success led to additional annual events in Miami since 2002, and in Hong Kong since 2013.

This year's Hong Kong event, scheduled for mid-March, was cancelled because of the pandemic and will return next year, though Miami Beach is still scheduled to go ahead from December 3 to 6.

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African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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