Why the India Art Fair is unlike any other in the world
The seventh edition of India Art Fair opens at a point of time when we are seeing a noticeable evolution in the strategies and models of international and regional art fairs, as dictated by the general evolution of the global art market.
Traditionally, people tend to categorise all art fairs under the same banner - typifying them as one type of entity, whereas, in fact, that is not the case at all. There has never been one global model. Each fair needs to define itself and its objectives according to its own region and local context.
There are certain fairs that are defined purely by a commercial objective, that do not consider the local market and its evolution. Some are not even based in a local market, so they become destination fairs. If you take the Basels for instance, they're not trying to educate people and build a market, they're about pure business, which is completely different from India, where one of the key objectives has always been to build the local market.
India Art Fair is a local city-based fair. It's not a destination fair in that it's focused on Indian art, and Indian markets, and what we're building is from the ground up. Whilst the fair can certainly compete with other major international fairs around the world, this crucial difference must be acknowledged by those who like to compare fairs as a way of measuring success. Blanket comparing a Basel or a Frieze, with India, makes no sense. The objectives of each one vary, and so how they can be measured is different.
Another factor that makes a significant difference to the evolution of art fairs is the changing perspectives of the collectors.
No longer is it interesting for collectors to follow White Cube or Gagosian all over the world. They can just go to one of their international galleries and attend a select few fairs. When collectors go to Dubai, for example, they want to see Middle Eastern art; when they come to India they want to see art from India and the subcontinent; when they go to Istanbul, they want to see art from that region. Many of the international fair-goers are actively looking for these differences, and that's kind of where the opportunity for our emerging markets comes up.
So, as opposed to the pure business objectives of international fairs typified by the Basels, we need to recognise the significance of India Art Fair as a vehicle for education, accessibility and market growth and development.
The art fair gives a really easy to negotiate, easy to enter, window into India. It creates an organised structure and world-class format to tap into the country. International galleries then, exhibiting in India, will use this window of opportunity for differing reasons.
Some galleries participate as an experiment - dipping their toes in the water. Some galleries do it simply because they love India, and they like to do business here, whilst others do it for the real future business potential. What we do see with most is the desire for a long-term relationship. This requires a level of commitment and time, because it takes time when you're building a market, when you're showing international art to people who have never seen it before, and when there are very few museums and very few galleries who show international art year round. It's an educational process, and it will take time. So people who are in it for the long term tend to do a lot better.
Galleries that are in it in a way where they have some connection with India also tend to do better. So, for example, in their booth program, if they have even one Indian artist, and then they have a whole international set of artists, there is a reason why people will become familiar with their booth and then they can share their international program with them as well. It's a small sort of conversion process, often with impressive and quantifiable results, where significant connections and lasting relationships are established for the future.
From a geographical perspective, other galleries will alternate between various emerging markets, such as Rio one year, and India the next. And some come simply to pick up on the art scene here, perhaps to facilitate exchange shows, in order to represent Indian artists abroad. In fact, since the fair began, we've seen a huge increase in the number of Indian artists who are doing shows with international galleries.
For the Indian galleries what's interesting is that by creating an art fair here, for that time in January we bring the art world's attention to the Capital. If an Indian gallery was to participate in a fair abroad, let's say for example FIAC [Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain] in Paris, they may not get the attention from western collectors and French collectors as much as they would get it from exhibiting at India Art Fair. Because here India is the focus, and they know that if big museums are coming to India, they are coming to look at Indian art. Otherwise they're going to remain only one per cent of the local art market. It is a high-risk and expensive enterprise and difficult and very cost-prohibitive for Indian galleries to change that by doing more abroad. With the complete lack of state support, no participation in International biennales, no country pavilions, how are people going to know about Indian art? The only real sustainable way is to do it on our turf here. That is the real value creation of India Art Fair for the Indian galleries, and that's why they keep coming back.
One of the challenges of focussing on accessibility and education, is balancing a sense of openness and inclusivity with the more exclusive "VIP" element that is expected in any major international fair. As India Art Fair developed, we certainly focussed on broadening the base of people who would visit the fair, in order to develop the culture of actually seeing art. It didn't matter what kind of art, it didn't matter if you bought or not, just come and engage. This allowed us to broaden the base of the art market altogether.
But having achieved that milestone now, our focus has shifted towards strategically looking at bringing in and building communities within the collecting audience - both at an international level with non-Indians and NRIs, and also at an Indian art level. So, in the last two years - this year particularly - our focus is now on building the top end of the market. We've done a few very focused initiatives specifically for that.
We have had a strong museum outreach program between me and my business partners, since they ran the Hong Kong art fair, so there is a wide range of museums who have been coming to the fair. Over the last two years we had about 30 different museums participating. We've also seen a great response from important museum delegations for 2015. In the past, museums would come to the fair with a few patrons each, but this year we have two or three groups with 25 to 30 patrons each, so this form of engagement has been significantly upscaled.
We're also doing more in terms of collector engagement at the fair and around the fair, in terms of social events - we always had a VIP program, but we're making it considerably more substantial. We're making specific efforts to encourage collectors to come back a second time to the fair.
We're working more consciously with corporates. We see the very limited patronage of corporate patrons of the arts. In terms of sponsorship for art events, in terms of buying in corporate collections - it's almost non-existent. So we've been engaging at the promoter level, and then at the top management level, to bring in a degree of not just interest but real commitment.
At a regional level, we are very consciously looking at developing the market in Ahmedabad, Surat, Chandigarh, Trivandrum, and Hyderabad, for example. The plan is to cover a whole range of cities, as many as twenty rather than two, and to create a degree of engagement, recognising that in those cities there are people who have the interest and have the money, who are and will be big collectors of today and tomorrow.
We've also brought an artistic director on board this year, Girish Shahane, to create a degree of freshness and energy. There are works this year in the curated projects sections that are more challenging, space-specific, some of them are live performance-based, including collaborative work. These are all very subtle but very conscious ways in which we want to focus on the top end of the fair.
We did an assessment - of all the art fairs, actually, with Frieze, with Basel, with everyone, to see that the international, total collecting-base put together is less than 8,000 people. That's prospective. So actually, literally, you're going after them one by one. As much as we may say it's a very small collecting base in India - it is growing. And you know it will grow more and more.
Other events such as the Kochi Muziris Biennale help develop this top-end collector base, as well as the broader-base cultural consumer market in India. It's great that its happening, because before Kochi, the only thing that India was known for was the India Art Fair. And now there are two very different, very interesting platforms that in a way define the Indian art scene - both for local and international audiences. We are two mutually complementing initiatives that are much needed and I think people awaited a biennale as much if not more than they've waited for an art fair. So it's really overdue, and it's really great that it's happening.
I feel like the more people can see us in complementary roles, the better it would be for them to really be inspired and excited about what India overall can offer. And at the end of the day it is about sustainability. The question for an art fair is not whether it's set up - there are lots of fairs being set up. There are a huge proliferation of fairs around the world. The question is how many of them will survive, and have survived over time. There's an equal number of fairs shutting down - that's not such a widely reported fact. But the point is sustainability. I think the answer to that is you can only sustain yourself if you are in a market that can be sustained and has long years ahead. And in that sense, I'm privileged that we have been doing this in India.