Michael Workman

After this year's well-publicized art-fair problems, it's hard facing the art world as a Chicagoan right now, especially in Europe. Taking a breath, my wife and I have staked a corner at Pravda, a Russian bar on Lower Liffey Street. It's nice to finally be back in Dublin after the art orgy of Basel and the fifty-cents-to-the-pound prices of London. Frankly, we're arted out and happy for time in relative isolation from all the galleries, collectors, curators and artists of our recent travels. Matter of fact, we're staying at Fitzpatrick's in a "stucco castle" (the rocks that built it were still in the ground when the Normans invaded and well after they left, too), the very same who recently opened a hotel in Chicago on Superior Street. There have been lots of Chicago connections on this trip and yet the city has at best managed an inconspicuous showing at this year's Basel show.

At the heart of Chicago's presence in Switzerland is the Voltashow, run in partnership with Kavi Gupta Gallery in the West Loop. Talking with a board member of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, I rushed to proclaim the show a winner, noting that three or four pieces managed to linger with me afterward, a good margin for a show as cramped as Volta. It's in a remote location, difficult to find and with no parking, with many galleries frustrated that they couldn't get into Basel. It's meant as a revolution, but struggles to succeed as an equivalent to Liste. Situated in what resembles an old railway warehouse off the Rhine (it was actually used to store paper), Volta's two floors' worth of galleries are a global selection, with a strong London contingent. The atmosphere's as much a draw as anything: visitors can lounge in the café while claws lowered from cranes load metal scrap into floating containers, or watch as a safety-yellow skylift the height and width of a ten-story building loads shipping containers onto floating barges. Train cars sweep in mere feet from where we sit at the café while, a few steps across an aluminum pedestrian bridge to the shore, small twelve-person skiffs ferry passengers down the Rhine to stops at Balelatina and Liste.

That night during a quick stop-in to the Basel Kunstmuseum, we bumped into MCA curator Francesco Bonami, whose train-wreck curation of the Venice Bienalle still lingers in the consciousness here. We discussed his work at the Tokyo Festival NAME IS this September with Marcel Dzama, friendly and brief. Then it was onto the Basel Kunsthalle a few blocks away, the favorite after-show destination for fair-goers, its outdoor seating area sheltered beneath the boughs of several thick, lush green trees. Each night we whiled away the hours with new dealer friends from Paris and Laurie Glenn-Gista of Chicago's Think Art, a recently formed company that focuses on art events. In fact, many of Chicago's art people were easy to meet while hanging around in Basel, whereas no matter how hard one might work, catching them in the city has always been a struggle. There's an undeniable charm to Basel's easy confidence. In many of our conversations, the subject of Chicago became a subject of heated debate. "Regional doesn't have to mean invisible," we argued, pointing out how the few dealers actually showing at Basel were renowned for their cynicism or brash, desperate attempt to convince others they were worth a sale or two. In conversation, a consensus emerged that Chicago has become known for expecting deference for its place as an art-world power without any consciousness of the fact that the rest of the world has long, long, long since moved on. Most saddle this reputation on a flabby, conceited gallery establishment well past its prime, unable to age gracefully.

Yes, it's hard for a Chicagoan at Basel. That's why it's nice to have a little distance from that contrived Swiss civility, back again in this city with so many ready parallels to Chicago: we have New York to envy, they have London. They have their famine, we have our fire. At least we're both places where art on the fringes can look in with fresh eyes, hungry for something better. Chicago's definitely the more cosmopolitan town, the place where the skyscraper was born but, Dublin has James Joyce.

(2006-06-21)

Also by Michael Workman

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It's World Cup time across the pond in Dublin, where I've started a nine-day tour of Ireland, England and finally Basel, Switzerland for this year's installment of the annual Basel show, Art 37 Basel
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It's great to go see art in a place where you can walk back to the kitchen, grab a beer, sit on the couch and talk with pals
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New media art--art that integrates computers or technology in any number of different ways--suffers from an ongoing visibility problem
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A certain subculture exists in online chat forums such as www.dollforum.com, with its nearly 15,000 members, to discuss the kinds of doll-ownership pleasures depicted in a new exhibition of photography by Elena Dorfman opening Friday at the River North neighborhood's Schneider Gallery
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Tip of the Week
(2006-04-04)

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