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All the Fun of the Fair

Art13 London Olympia Grand Hall London, UK March 1-3, 2013 Art fairs are tricky beasts. Often located in convention centers or temporary tents, and populated by maddening crowds of art collectors, gallery staff, and surly art students, they are well-nigh impossible to negotiate, let alone review. Nevertheless, spurred on by fair director Stephanie Dieckvoss's promise that the inaugural Art13 London would be "different," I attended the fair armed with my battle-hardened students, only to find myself duly convinced. Located in the Olympia Grand Hall on the westward edge of Kensington, Art13 London--its name a wry acknowledgement of its place as the capital's thirteenth art fair--lived up to its billing as "Europe's first truly global art fair." The brainchild of ART HK founders Tim Etchells and Sandy Angus, Art13 showcased the work of emerging and established artists from 129 galleries in countries as diverse as Brazil, Australia, China, and India. Through a combination of talks and spaces dedicated to projects and performances, the fair broke out of the three-walled cul-de-sacs traditional to art fairs in the hope that architectural openness would stimulate fruitful dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures. This global cocktail sought to contest the art world's prevailing Eurocentricity, as well as provide a forum within which to exhibit some politically loaded pieces. Upon entering the fair, it became clear that the organizers had wrapped this serious investigation into global hybridity in a shiny bow of fun. From educational family activities, to fancy fast food, to sponsor Fortnum and Mason's champagne bar, frivolity-focused "visitor experience" was the order of the day. As Lithuanian Zilvinas Kempinas's ribbons of celluloid film (Fountain, 2011) bubbled across the entrance floor, South Korean Choi Jeong-Hwa's inflatable kinetic lot us flower (Breathing Flower, 2011) announced visitors' arrival at this global party, its reflective blobbiness attracting the sticky fingerprints of passing children and international collectors alike. A treasure trove of jenga chips and blue chips, Art13 announced itself as a place of interaction and exploration. In the spirit of a Jules Verne adventure, Zhu Jinshi's 12-meter-long centerpiece installation Boat (2012) served as the mothership for ideological transportation. Comprised of eight thousand sheets of xuan (rice) paper, cotton, and bamboo, the vessel echoed the delicate spine of Olympia's barrel-roofed Victorian architecture, its core enveloping spectators in a tight walkway connecting people, place, and time. "Whereas time only moves forward, the Boat can be sailed in any direction," Zhu stated in the press release for Pearl Lam Galleries. Silent whispers of Chinese culture past, present, and future divulged the cultural resonance of xuan paper, from its origins during the Tang Dynasty to its continued use as a heavenly gift for the dead. Delicate yet monumental, spontaneous yet meditative, Boat embodied the economic and spiritual contradictions of modern China. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Zhu's journey to the center of the earth projected voyagers into the bright lights of Lebanese artist Zena El Khalil's A' Salaam Alaykum: Peace Be Upon You (2009), a mirrored sculpture of the Arabic script for "Allah." While Boat's contradictions felt like a tender caress, El Khalil's glittery rumination on life in contemporary Beirut amounted to a full-on slap in the face. With this piece, rotating to club music like a giant disco ball and comprised of hundreds of mirrored tiles, the artist aims to reflect but also affect the spectator. "I want to suffocate fear through love," describes El Khalil in her quest to highlight the superficiality of war, violence, and religious intolerance through dance and all-round revelry.' Whether such an effect was possible at 11 am on a Friday morning in Hammersmith is questionable; however, the surrounding detritus from the opening party the night before underscored the work's festive effects. …