Germany’s international news service Deutsche Welle digs into the potential for a German art fair war as MCH makes plans to launch Art Dusseldorf and Art Cologne eyes moving into Berlin in September.
Berlin isn’t new territory and Art Cologne has previously tried to expand, as DW explains:
Kristian Jarmuschek, chairman of the Federation of German Art Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG), welcomed the plan to launch an Art Berlin fair, but argued that it all depends on the costs the galleries would face in the end, adding that he “greatly doubts” the planned fair would be an economic success.
The Cologne trade fair would be operating on “foreign terrain” in Berlin, without access to its own technical and personnel resources, Jarmuschek argued. “Let me remind you of the Art Cologne’s efforts to branch out to Mallorca.”
The 2007 Art Cologne Palma de Mallorca was a flop, and the costly adventure on Spanish soil ended the career of then-Art Cologne director Gerard Goodrow.
Seven years ago, a Berlin art fair by the name of art forum berlin shut its gates. Do fair managers in Cologne do a better job than their colleagues in Berlin? That is a question ABC’s Maike Cruse has also asked herself. Will the booming young gallery scene in the capital be able to afford participation in the Art Berlin? How can a Berlin art fair survive in the long run, also from a business point of view?
Unlike the Koelnmesse Group, Cruse’s event firm is a consortium of about 50 Berlin art galleries, and as such is not profit-oriented. “I’m not quite sure yet how the Art Berlin is going to make money,” Cruse said, adding that negotiations about the conditions of cooperation on ongoing.
