The art fair is over. I want to record this event, but at the same time, don’t see much meaning in writing about the fair itself. A fair is a fair. Many artworks by many artists were on display for sale, many people came to town to buy, and many people followed those who buy in a hope they would buy from them too. The most interesting thing of the fair are the encounters in the corridors and at openings. And that chit-chat I believe should stay also there, so nothing to report on that here. Instead I selected three keywords which somehow stood out for me, personally – related to the fair week in Hong Kong rather than to the fair itself: Collectors, Warehouses and Blood.

Collectors

The art fair exists of course for collectors. Somehow, this year I felt that collectors made it more into the spotlight than before. In addition to the art fair, I noticed the exhibition in the Hong Kong Arts Centre, which showed the “2nd Annual Collectors’ Contemporary Collaboration”. A nice exhibition of Indonesian Art, which was presented as a “collector’s exhibition”. Upon entering the show, instead of an interview with the artist or curator, the TV was looping interviews with Indonesian collectors of art – the works they collected could be seen in the exhibition. The artwork itself is turned into a prop illustrating the acquirer’s benevolence, taste and wealth. When listening to the interviews of collectors, I realized how they all turned to collecting in order to fill a certain void. Many talked about their ‘passion’ for collecting, which made me wonder how their lives looked before they started collecting. None of them used art theoretical criteria to designate what they like or dislike. Either they linked the acquisition process back to passion, stating playfully that they buy artworks they enjoy living with. Or they referred to the importance of strategic passion-less investment strategies. It seemed similar to the two faces of a businessman, who is on one hand tired of keeping up his poker face and looks for passion in his life, or on the other hand is afraid of losing the reputation of a cool and precise decision-maker who does not get stirred by emotions. In both cases, the artwork was discussed as an object – either that of an impulsive purchase or a calculated investment. Philosophy, art theory or art history have been completely put aside, making them look like a meaningless blabbering of confused art theoreticians and practitioners. I felt disconnect between these art consumers and the art producers, and old question that resurfaced again and keeps circulating in my mind. Collectors got their share of fame in magazines too. The latest copy of artasiapacific (No.88) featured three artists, next to six collectors. Comparing that with the ratio of the artist and collector populations, it was a nice example of a ratio representing the ‘democratic’ distribution weighted by personal net worth: Number of artists in the region times their wealth compared to the number of collectors in the region times their personal wealth.

Warehouses

Around the art fair time, warehouse areas all across town become beehives as well. Whether it is Wong Chuk Hang, Chai Wan Mei or Fo Tan, all the distant corners of the city, full of diesel smell, waste recycling, car repair shops etc. liven up with a plethora of pop-up shows, open studios and exhibition opening parties. Behind that is of course the wish to attract some of the temporary visitors from the art business. It may also be an act of balancing between the market center (the art fair) and the periphery. The special thing about Hong Kong is that local artists residing in these warehouses are really relegated to the utmost margins. The potential visitor has to make his way through mazes of grey multi-story concrete blocks, parking spaces and freight elevators, accompanied by the ever present hum of truck engines and industrial air-cons. Inside, each artist-cum-gallerist does his best to decorate his warehouse cubicle, which often doubles as his living place too. Stepping through the door of one of these spaces often feels like entering another world – of white walls, wooden floors and design furniture, light years away from what one saw on the way there. The warehouse experience made me nostalgically think about Europe and how low the quality of housing is in Hong Kong. Places of a similar look would be abandoned or squatted by homeless people in the place I come from, however in Hong Kong they become the only choice for artists, at a rent price comparable to renting a nice suburb home in other counties. The real estate prices in Hong Kong are really tragic and hit hard on any creative element.

Blood

One couldn’t oversee the attacks on press freedom taking place in Hong Kong in recent months. In the contrast to the tight ideological control in Mainland China, Hong Kong is supposedly free with guaranteed freedoms of press and speech. However the looming danger became palpable once again at the conference on Art and Values organized by Osage gallery at City University of Hong Kong last Saturday. Singaporean artist Lee Wen dared to raise concerns about the arrest of a Mainland Chinese artist colleague in relation to the upcoming June 4^th (Tiananmen Massacre) anniversary. Not long after he raised the issue of political persecution, blood was flowing: Lee Wen has been found beaten to unconscious in a restroom right beside the conference room. The perpetrator is “unknown”, news articles are very cautious and the issue will probably quietly and quickly be forgotten. Lee Wen himself did not raise any accusations, instead attributing the bloody scars on his scalp to a sudden ‘fainting’ or a ‘ghost’. He proved to be a truly wise man who understood that pressing charges would bring nothing. The perpetrators responsible for the meat cleaver attack on journalist Kevin Lau as well as the reasons for the sacking of radio host Li Wei-Ling are still also still “unknown”. The attack on Lee Wen on City University grounds was a sad conclusion to the art fair week in Hong Kong. It also raised a question of how much self-censorship has been exerted by other artists, curators and academics who have not been beaten up but could have been had they not self-censored themselves.

Conclusion

While the rise of star collectors may be problematic from a certain philosophical perspective, it is a welcome development by most parties: Everyone is happy to make money and get a piece of the collector pie. The dire real estate situation for artists in Hong Kong is another side of the coin which hinders the efforts of Hong Kong which is trying to reinvent itself as a creative hub and not just a financial center. While the practical problem of limited space can possibly slow down the development of a creative scene, the rising threats to freedom of expression are seriously threatening to stifle, if not straightforward reverse any efforts put into the developments of the creative sector.