Art Dealer Dominique Lévy on the future of the art market and art fairs post-coronavirus

Art Fair proponents in the first part of the year now mean at around seven art fairs from Chicago to freeze in London TIFF F in New York and Art Basel and Miami are all happening during the last few months of the year swiss art dealer dominique levi with galleries around the world says this isn't realistic if we take this bigger bigger than just our little art world I do not believe anyone will want to come to an Art Fair as long as we don't have a vaccine for this terrible situation even if you have an antidote um you know Los Angeles has already banished any big gathering until 2021 who will want in September if by the way kids are finally going back to school and you will need the time to resettle families and you really want to jump in a plane for an Art Fair where it's all recycled there where you're rubbing elbow where social distance is impossible I think we it's time for the art world to be realistic and I know it's hard to hear because it's the main source of one of the important source of our revenue but I think right now the help and our social responsibility and our social duties it's much more important I don't see any art fair before next year if I go on the program on our Basel in September you're still on the list la vie Gorby so I wonder are you concerned considering not going I've never missed the Basel Art Fair so if the fairies existing of course will go participate but I cannot imagine the fair finding the place and the and I don't even think they'll be allowed to put it that way I can't imagine and this is valid for master itch and Basel and and Miami now to answer the other side of your question is it possible to have I think it's seven seven art pairing between September and December absolutely not it this is one of the things that has to stop and as a galleries I will not do five or six fairs in a few months if it is and if it is responsible I will consider doing two or three at the great maximum and how do you pick and choose I mean you know my allegiance to our Basel is unconditional so I would of course do Art Basel I have a soft spot for Fiat because I think it has finds its identity and I liked a faff in New York so I think those are the only three I would consider doing in the fall but again I just feel it's not relevant right now I think we have to really question what is relevant in being a galleries how do you show art how do you are an ambassador for artists how do you keep the pleasure alive for clients to maybe even desire art and right now it's not by putting an imposition of travel art fair stressed danger conversation I think we have to go back and and and look at things slightly differently whether it's digital whether it's the old traditional phone call whether it's sending a mini exhibition in a local region where you have a few clients that can come one by one and create a private viewing room in different cities I think there's going to be many ways to reinvent yourself until getting all together is not a headache also Art Basel Hong Kong in March was cancelled and then it turned into an online viewing room and you participated in that can you even compare it to a real fair no no no I think Art's a basel hong kong online was a very interesting experiment because i think what it showed us it started doesn't work not because the technology had an issue not because the beginning was just an explosion I think everyone rushed to see what it was but mostly the art community not so much collectors and it's not friendly you go on a web site you are forced to really look at art on a digital way it is slow you're not having a conversation you're not having fun you're not seeing your friends you're not looking at one piece of art and then looking and the third one having that experience so most people went in stayed half an hour 20 minute 15 minutes and I think the only sales that were made were when you had made the outreach before hey I'm going to launch art Hong Kong I have that piece in my booth which I think you might be interested in but therefore you don't need the online art fair so to me personally I don't believe that an online art basel has a future is the exact 180 opposite of what it ferries about so it can't work like that it has to be something that is more dynamic and more exciting than just going so slowly through booth after booth after booth it doesn't work you might as well call the gallery that you know and say what you have by that artist so an Art Basel as parents company had quite a blow in the last few weeks there other faire Basel world had a lot of major brands pulling out Rolex LVMH etc and of course a share price dropped and now with the art fairs being canceled or postponed even worse now their voices of shareholders saying that MCH group should be taken apart and souls I was wondering if the selling of the art path of the vision is something that is being talked about in the art world that's a very tough question I think of course it's being talked about I think art basel is the fundamental art fair for our dealers and galleries all around the world so we are all very aware and painfully aware of what's happening with the mother company and i think come and I hope that it's all of our duties and responsibilities to try to keep an Art Basel at all cost whether it will mean reinventing it recreating or whether it will mean putting energy into saving existing one I don't know but yes the conversation is full-on especially in the last 10 days when the shares have dropped so tremendously what are your plans are thinking about how to revamp the business when the lockdown is over yes I think that the business had reaches speed and drama if you wish and no turmoil like a vortex that that had become impossible to sustain for collectors for auction houses for artists and and and for us galleries there was not a day off there was no time to recharge there was no time I think to think creatively so however tragic this pause is I think if we don't use what I now call post-traumatic growth rather than post-traumatic stress if we don't grow and we don't we think our profession and how to make it relevant then we're not responsible so yes we are thinking about that and talking about that all the time right now so you're not worried I mean one grader told me that she's worried if that goes on that people will hold back their money and not invest in art and that was kind of worrying so I mean that's also where you and your employees live from so are you seeing a slowdown and you're okay with that I mean am i okay with a slowdown absolutely not but do I have to accept yes are we seeing a slowdown tremendous the business I believe is down 90 percent if not 95 percent we're at a standstill the market is not clear of where it is the market doesn't know are we at a place where we are at 20 percent less 30 percent less 50 percent less so right now there's an adjustment period however I mind a fundamental believer that art is essential and that at one point the desire for collector to be engaged with art is part of the survival kit to me you need food yes you need help you need shelter but if you are you need art so whether that art is buying art or seeing art your right is a very fine line well if museums are closed it's going to be very hard for people to resource themselves and find that solace but the collective community you know had gotten so being so engaged so active that yes I'm sure we will lose a lot of people who will say you know what pose I have great heart at home I don't need to spend money at this time it's not responsible it's not conscious to do it and then you will have other people saying you know what I need to be alive to live without it makes me a better person it makes me a more engaged person I continue to find joy so if I had to answer your question I'd say volume will not pay the costs it might be quality but not not volume big gallery Gagosian had to lay off people you also furloughed some employees and you also told artnet news that you want to get them back after 90 days and that you don't want to lay off people until the next year so I wonder why are you so convinced that you can keep them I'm not convinced I'm only hopeful I feel a sense of responsibility to is my employee and we've had to indeed furlough some people that we're hoping to get back but there's no security the security is more in the people we took and we kept we've asked enormous sacrifices from our team everyone took strong pay cuts breath and I committed to not take anything out of the business until we can put it all back together but it's not I'm realizing it's not putting it back together it's putting it forward together so without knowing what the business will look like my first commitment is to our team because that's my responsibility and I owe it to them um but indeed there might be a point where you can't but that is the last thing right now that I want to think about I'm a businesswoman I'm a realistic but I also feel I have a social responsibility here and so how to combine the business side which is yes let's just slash everything and sit and wait or your responsibility I have to hold on as long as we can as we try to morph and reinvent and I have to be agile because guess what for the first time in our life it's not like the Oh eight crisis or these financial crises where you know that there's always another country which is less affected or another financial person who's less affected so the business can navigate on an international way you can navigate okay the dollar and America is in disarray but right now China is strong this is the first time that you have a worldwide crisis that affects everyone so there's no way to know what tomorrow is made of so after both and hopefully find an answer that combines imagination and creativity and love for our work responsibilities which is essential all this under business hats and guess what I don't know yeah yeah and you also mentioned that the business might be down up to 90 percent and if you don't know what is happening I wonder how long can you even stain yourself in this situation right now you know with galleries all around the world the sustaining is going to depend on how you can renegotiate your fixed cost so that's been as I said to you earlier renegotiating rent and salaries and managing your costs in a very different way has been our first duty and we've been I think really efficient there the second is how you're going to value your inventory and and sell even if you need to sell at loss to keep the business going as long as you can but look I am convinced that mankind is resilient Humanity is resilient we haven't perished at the time of the Black Plague we haven't perished at the time of AIDS which kills so many more people than Corona will not perish in with Corona we're just pausing for a while and maybe learning different behavior or having to adapt to different behavior so we will be there we will have a gallery we will show art how at what cost with how many people I don't know so you have to admit what you are sure is how relevant are and artists and creativity and creation is and then you move forward and you say okay there's a big unknown how and when and I believe that my team is incredibly agile that I am agile and that we will adjust and adapt but there is the unknown on that positive note thank you so much and all the best

Channel: Archive TV

Views: 7,276

Rating: 4.8780489 out of 5

Keywords: Art market, art dealer, swiss art dealer, gallery, New York, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, Art Basel, Online viewing room, cancelled art fairs, art basel postponed to september, dominique lévy, future of art fairs, Lévy Gorvy, tanya könig, interview, art talk, coronavirus, covid19, the world post-corona

Id: c5dyiQgN484

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020