After the cancelation of Art Basel Hong Kong, further coronavirus woes for MCH Group, Art Basel’s parent company, which has been forced to postpone Baselworld, the annual watch fair held in Basel. The already embattled event, which saw exhibitor numbers fall from 1,500 in 2016 to 650 in 2019, was due to take place in April. It’s postponement, MCH said in a statement is ‘in accordance with the precautionary principle following the bans of large-scale public and private events issued today by the Swiss federal and cantonal authorities.’ As it stands, the marquee Art Basel art fair is still due to take place in June.
Structural problems have caused collector and patron Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to cancel her plans to turn a former slaughterhouse in Madrid into a contemporary art complex. Full story here. Another private institution is facing structural problems of a different sort after two nominees to the PinchukArtPrize 2020, Valentina Petrova and Pavel Grazhdansky, published open letters, in support of a group of guides at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv who say they were fired after trying to unionise. The Art Newspaper reports a spokesperson for collector Victor Pinchuk’s foundation as saying that they did not renew guard contracts, not because of the proposed union, but they wished merely to ‘re-determine what a guide should be.’ The spokesperson added ‘We are working on developing new ways to interact… Do we not have the right to think? Are we not entitled to innovation?’ One guide told the Kyiv Post they weren’t given sick leave, a claim the gallery denies, that they were required to attend meeting and study groups between shows without being paid, and were required to fill a nine-page form with detailed information on their family, information which the guides believe was passed on to Ukraine’s internal security agencies.
Further cancellations of major cultural events have been announced, as the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread globally: the Art Tokyo Association today announced the cancellation of Art Fair Tokyo, which was due to open 20 March, while Art Dubai (22–25 March) has been postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, the Venice Architecture Biennale, slated to open in May, has been postponed to the summer, citing the logistical issues and reduced mobility facing the participating countries and architects. It will now run from 29 August to 29 November, timing its opening with the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
