What might be called the Art Fair Industrial Complex has been an ambivalent force on both art markets and art itself in recent years: in one view, fairs offer their attendees chances to see international work they wouldn’t otherwise have access to; in another, the vast mall of it all dulls context into commerce.
Such questions were put on hold with COVID-19 but as signs of life return—the Istanbul Design Biennale takes place through May 2021, overlapping with the projected return of Art Basel Hong Kong in March—it’s worth thinking about how such massive enterprises use space once it’s safe to inhabit them, and what the ethics of such inhabitation might be.
