Physical Space Is No Longer The Art Market "Cloud War Epidemic".

At present, public health emergencies at home and abroad not only affect all aspects of daily life of citizens, but also suffer from the uncertainty of the macro environment. Due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, the three major art market activities, composed of art galleries, art fairs and auctions, have been forced to postpone or cancel because of the strong clustering of their space. The peak season of art in two or three months has to face a bleak start this year.

Although the epidemic has weakened the market and blocked conventional lines, art institutions will not choose to wait passively. In February 20th, the Basel art exhibition announced that visitors will be able to visit the new online exhibition hall platform through the official website of Basel art fair and mobile phone App from March 20th. When physical space fails to achieve its proper functions, the online network platform has become the best place for art and cultural institutions to launch "self rescue".

Guangdong Museum of fine arts 3D VR exhibits spring breeze. Data map

Fill the line with regret

According to the official website of the Basel Art Fair in Hongkong, the outbreak of the new coronavirus outbreak will be cancelled for the first time from March 19, 2020 to March 21st. This is also the first time that the Hongkong Basel art exhibition has been suspended since its birth. The next Hongkong Basel Art Fair will be held in from March 25 to 27, 2021. Official propaganda, the market has expressed regret but understanding, only so many previous Hongkong Basel Art Gallery expressed its concern for the current small number of participants and poor sales, and even called for the abolition of the Hongkong Basel art exhibition.

However, this kind of regret has not lasted for too long. The on-line function of the exhibition hall is, in a way, filled with the regret of cancelling the Basel Art Fair Hongkong exhibition. Huang Yajun, Asia director of Basel art exhibition, told an economic news reporter in twenty-first Century: "we are very pleased that the first online exhibition hall of the Basel art exhibition is about to be opened to all of you. Although it can't replace the exhibition that was held in Hongkong in 2020, we sincerely hope that this will provide a strong support for the gallery which is affected by the cancellation of the exhibition. "Basel,

Huang Yajun told reporters that the online platform has long been an important channel for Basel to promote art exhibitions and artists' works. The gallery will upload and share information on artworks and artists in the "online catalogue", which will be linked to the audience online. So far, more than 40000 art entries have been included. With the continuous development of the art market, the Basel Art Fair has begun to focus on investing in new technologies and opportunities to provide new momentum for art gallery and collectors.

The online exhibition hall, which was released on schedule, was developed several months ago. It was opened in advance because of the cancellation of the Hongkong exhibition of Basel Art Fair in 2020. All the gallery of 2020 Hongkong exhibition gallery was invited to participate in the online exhibition hall free of charge. Each gallery can display ten works at the same time at the same time. They can change the exhibits at any time as required, such as displaying different artists as themes or replacing the sold works. Collectors can browse works by searching art galleries, artists or creative media, and directly contact the art gallery on the platform to consult sales. With the same mode of exhibition opening, the online exhibition hall will also take the lead in opening the VIP preview and open it to the public in the next few days.

In the future, the online exhibition hall will be held as a long-term project and will be held in parallel with the Basel exhibition, the Miami Beach exhibition and the Hongkong exhibition. In an interview, Huang Yajun stressed: "the online exhibition hall is an additional exhibition platform for the gallery. The digital platform still can not replace the experience of visiting art works or visiting art exhibitions in person. Collectors attend exhibitions not only to buy works of art, just like gallery owners are not just to display works of art. Face to face interaction between people is still crucial. Therefore, although the online exhibition hall will be held at the same time as the exhibition, it will be more complements as offline, and will not replace the physical exhibition in the future.

Walking on two legs

In addition to the art fair, domestic art galleries were also affected by the epidemic. During the lunar new year, delayed notification of closure and exhibitions was issued. Gong Yan, curator of the Museum of contemporary art in Shanghai, admitted in an interview with TANC that the impact of the epidemic on museum operation is related to the fact that the exhibition may not be implemented as planned in the first quarter and that the annual economic income may fall. But for some small arts and cultural venues with relatively weak capital and tight capital chain, the closure has not only brought about "negative effects", but may even be related to the risk of "life and death". In the face of the lack of offline space problems, the Museum of art, which has both online and offline preparations, has launched a series of "cloud exhibitions", "cloud lectures" and "cloud shots", so that massive amounts of literary and cultural resources can also leap to the fingertips of the public in a very special period.

In January 29th, the Museum of fine arts of Guangzhou Acmdemy of Fine Arts announced that the museum has organized some exhibitions and forums that have been used for virtual exhibition hall and live broadcast. At the same time, other exhibitions that are affected by the epidemic or can not be carried out on time will also be launched online exhibitions and related public educational activities. On the same day, the Guangdong Art Gallery announced the "online virtual exhibition hall" function, and launched the "flower language @ spring breeze - Guangdong Art Museum spring flowers and trees theme special exhibition", so that the public can enjoy the wonderful spring festival exhibition without leaving home. The Shanghai Museum of contemporary art has launched an online art gallery. It has also tried to explore the activity planning and educational functions of the online platform. In the official WeChat, it launched the "online rumor" nursery rhymes relay relay and the PSA children's fun art course activities, which enriched the online virtual platform as the "extension" function of the entity. According to the preliminary statistics of the State Bureau of cultural relics, there were more than 2000 on-line exhibitions in the National Museum during the Spring Festival, and more than 1300 art and cultural venues opened online exhibitions.

In addition to online exhibitions and interactions, the Shanghai Hao Art Museum and the Song Qingling foundation of Shanghai join hands with more than 80 important art institutions at home and abroad, and more than 100 artists jointly launched the online epidemic prevention charity auction. As a basic product, Hao Art Museum donated 30 pieces of art worth more than 1 million, and used it as the source and call of auction activities, openly inviting donated original works, hoping to convey hope and faith through the power of art. The proceeds from the final auction will be used to purchase anti epidemic materials and to donate funds to schools in the epidemic areas for primary school students' epidemic prevention.

Although all kinds of "cloud" platforms springing up in the special era seem to be helpless, they actually wake up the art market to explore more unknown possibilities. The art venues use new technologies to adapt to the development of society, giving viewers more convenient, more dimensional and richer online and offline experience, and new technologies are widely accepted and recognized by the public in the practice of art market. In the current situation, it is still unknown whether the epidemic will end. The performance of the art market in the first half of the year is not optimistic. But through this service, whether as a supplement to the offline platform or as a choice to resist the risk of accidents, it is very important for the art organization to build an online business platform in advance and walk along the "two legs" online and offline. It is very important for us to grasp the unpredictable market trend in the future.

Zhang Xiaohua, deputy director of the Beijing foundation of the forest art foundation, interviewed the Beijing GWBJ in the gallery, comparing the attack of the epidemic to a sick leave of the state and all walks of life and members of society. The arrival of disease is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, it can reflect the long neglected and hidden problems in the system, let people stop and take seriously, reflect on and make adjustments, and screen out the real individuals who have vitality. According to the rule of "rehabilitation" process, the overall suspension state is temporary. After experiencing a short period of "sick leave", different forms of rehabilitation will gradually appear. "How to withstand the pressure of economic trends depends on the support of each individual and the whole system," he said.

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