Miami's Art Basel Kicks Off 2013-14 Conversations and Salon Series

Each year Art Basel hosts its Conversations and Salon series of discussions and talks on a range of subjects, including the collection and exhibition of art, understanding art from a geographical and historical perspective, and timely topics concerning the contemporary art scene. Artists, gallerists, art historians, curators, museum directors, critics, and collectors participate in panel discussions, book signings, and interviews.

Art Basel's Conversations series launches with the Premiere Artist Talk, which this year sees the German artist Thomas Schütte in conversation with Massimiliano Gioni, Curator of the 55th Venice Biennial and Associate Director at the New Museum in New York. On Thursday morning András Szántó, author and cultural consultant, leads a discussion focusing on museums in a time of austerity, alongside Agustín Pérez Rubio, Independent Curator and former Director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Suzanne Cotter, Director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto; and Marina Fokidis, Independent Curator, Founding Director Kunsthalle Athena and Editor in Chief of South Magazine, Athens. On Friday, a panel of curators and collectors discuss the challenges of collecting digital art. 'The Artist and the Gallerist', a new series, sees the artist Dan Graham in conversation with his gallerist Massimo Minini. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, London, on Sunday moderates the sixth panel of his 'Artistic Practice' series, 'The Artist as Farmer', offering fresh insights on dynamic models of artistic practice while exploring the concept and idea of the farm.

Highlights of the afternoon Salon program, an open platform for short presentations, include an art market talk focused on the role of mid-level galleries with Josh Baer, Publisher, Baer Faxt, and Art Advisor; Elizabeth Dee, Founder and President, Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Co-Founder and President of The Independent, New York; and Edward Winkleman, Founder and President, Winkleman Gallery, New York and Co-Founder, Moving Image Art Fair, New York and London; Florence Derieux, curator of Art Basel's Parcours sector and Director of FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, in conversation with artists Tom Burr and Valerie Snobeck; Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum, New York, hosting a discussion titled 'The Fundamental Questions of Curating' alongside Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy Curator of Contemporary Art; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York/Caracas; and Jessica Morgan, Director of the 2014 Gwangju Biennale and Curator of Contemporary Art, Tate Modern, London; and Yvette Mutumba, Curator for Africa at the Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main, leading a 'Focus Africa' discussion with the two leading African artists Meschac Gaba and Otobong Nka.

CONVERSATIONS

The morning Conversations series offers a platform for discussions that allows audiences access to an insider's point of view. Dynamic dialogs take place between prominent members of the international art world, each offering their unique perspective on producing, collecting and exhibiting art. Free to the public, Conversations is held daily from Wednesday, June 12 to Sunday, June 16 in Hall 1 of Art Basel. Panel discussions take place between 10am and 11am, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.

High-quality videos of all Conversations will be available at artbasel.com and absolutartbureau.com shortly after the show.

Conversations is presented in collaboration with the Absolut Art Bureau.

Wednesday June 12

10am to 11:30am | Premiere | Artist Talk | Thomas Schütte
Thomas Schütte, Artist, Düsseldorf, in conversations with Massimiliano Gioni, Curator of the 55th Venice Biennial, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions at the New Museum, New York

The Conversations series traditionally opens with a dialog between and artist and a prominent curator or critic. This year, the highly celebrated German artist Thomas Schütte will inaugurate Conversations with a discussion about his most recent projects and exhibitions, including presentations at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2012), Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2012) and Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2012). Schütte has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Düsseldorf Prize in 2010 and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2005.

Thursday June 13

10am to 11:30am | Public/Private | Museums and Austerity
Suzanne Cotter, Director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto
Marina Fokidis, Independent Curator, Founding Director Kunsthalle Athena and Editor in Chief of South Magazine, Athens
Agustín Pérez Rubio, Independent Curator and former Director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Madrid/New York
Moderator: András Szántó, Author and Cultural Consultant, New York

The global protracted economic crisis and resulting austerity measures have led to significant financial cutbacks all over the cultural sector, thus threatening the traditional system of a generous welfare state supporting its cultural institutions which emerged in Europe after World War II. In the future, museums might not persevere depending solely on the established models of financing. Meanwhile, the demands towards museums continue to expand - both as arts institutions and as educational and civic resources.

Friday June 14

10am to 11:30am | Collectors Focus | Collecting New Media
Steven Sacks, Director of bitforms Gallery, New York
Carl Thoma, Collector, Chicago
Alice Gray Stites, Chief Curator and Director of Art Programming, 21c Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

This panel series had always offered fresh insights into collecting and patronage, including 'Patronage and Politics', 'Collectors as Producers', 'Asia's New Private Institutions', 'Memory and Collecting' and 'The Asia-Pacific Region'. This year's panel will explore the challenges and risks of collecting digital artworks and the expanded opportunities that collecting new media offers future generations.

Saturday June 15

10am to 11:30am | The Artist and the Gallerist
Dan Graham, Artist, New York in conversation with Massimo Minini, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy

This new series of Conversations was launched recently at the inaugural Art Basel show in Hong Kong. Titled 'The Artist and the Gallerist', these talks offer a peek behind the curtain of the unique and essential art world relationship between artists and their representing gallerists.

Sunday June 16

10am to 11:30am | Artistic Practice | The Artist as Farmer
Gianfranco Baruchello, Artist, Rome
Fritz Haeg, Artist, Los Angeles
Agnes Varda, Filmmaker and Artist, Paris
Adrian Villar Riojas, Arist, Buenos Aires
Zheng Guogu, Artist, Yangjiang
Moderator: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, London

'The Artist as Farmer' offers fresh insights on dynamic models of artistic practice while exploring the concept and idea of the farm. Conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, this is the sixth panel of the series entitled 'Artistic Practice', following previous talks 'The School Makers', 'The Artist as Urbanist', 'The Artist as Poet', 'The Artist as Activist' and 'The Artist as Musician'.

SALON

The afternoon Salon program serves as an open platform for short presentations such as artist talks, panels, lectures and performances - often informal - with a range of speakers including artists, academics, curators, collectors, architects, art lawyers, critics and many other cultural players. Free to Art Basel ticket holders.

Salon is held daily from Thursday, June 13 to Sunday, June 16 from 1pm to 7pm (Sunday to 5pm) in Hall 1 of Art Basel; Access with Art Basel Ticket. Videos of Salon talks will be available at artbasel.com shortly after the show.

Thursday June 13

1pm to 2pm | Art Market Talk | The Place of Mid-level Galleries in the Age of the Mega-gallery
Elizabeth Dee, Founder and President, Elizabeth Dee Gallery and Co-Founder and President of The Independent, New York
Edward Winkleman, Founder and President, Winkleman Gallery, New York and Co-Founder, Moving Image Art Fair, New York and London
Moderator: Josh Baer, Publisher, Baer Faxt, and Art Advisor, New York

2pm to 3pm | Artist Talk | Parcours
Tom Burr, Artist, New York
Valerie Snobeck, Artist, New York
Moderator: Florence Derieux, Curator of Art Basel's Parcours sector and Director of FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims

3pm to 4pm | Artist Talk | Unlimited
Oscar Tuazon, Artist, Paris
Latifa Echakhch, Artist, Martigny, Switzerland
Matt Connors, Artist, New York
Moderator: Gianni Jetzer, Curator of Art Basel's Unlimited sector and Director of the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York

4pm to 5pm | Presentation | The Possibilities of the Artists' Book
Max Schumann, Associate Director of Printed Matter, New York

5pm to 6pm | Discussion: The Fundamental Questions of Curating
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Curator of Contemporary Art, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York/Caracas
Jessica Morgan, Director of the 2014 Gwangju Biennale and Curator of Contemporary Art, Tate Modern, London
Host: Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum, New York

6pm to 7pm | Thursday, 6pm to 7pm | Artist Talk | Ericka Beckman: Sports, Rules and Musicals
Ericka Beckman, Artist, New York
Lionel Bovier, Publisher JRP|Ringier, Zurich
Fabrice Stroun, Director Kunsthalle Bern

Friday June 14

1pm to 2pm | Discussion and Magazine Launch | The Future of Biennials in Local and Global Context
Marieke von Hal, Founding Director of Biennial Foundation and Member of International Advisory Committee for the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale, Athens
Riyas Komu, Director of Programs for Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 and Secretary of Kochi Biennale Foundation, Mumbai/Kochi
Carol Lu Yinghua, Artistic Director of OCAT, Shenzhen/Beijing
Jessica Morgan, Director of the Gwangju Biennale 2014, President of the International Jury, 55th Venice Biennial and Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, London
Moderator: Shengtian Zheng, Trustee, Vancouver Art Gallery, Senior Curator of Asia for Vancouver Biennale and Managing Editor, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vancouver
This talk is in conjuction with Yishu's special issue, 'World Biennial Forum No 1'

2pm to 3pm | Reading | Letters to and from Meret Oppenheim - The Undiscovered Woman behind the Artist
Lisa Wenger, niece of Meret Oppenheim and author, Lugano, will read Meret Oppenheim's letters to and from her parents, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Ingeborg Lüscher, Jean-Christophe Ammann, Bice Curiger, Christoph Bernoulli, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and more.

3pm to 4pm | Artist Talk | Michel Auder - Stories, Myths, ironies, and other Songs: Conceived, Directed, edited and Produced by M. Auder
Adam Szymczyk, Director, Kunsthalle Basel
Michel Auder, Artist, New York

4pm to 5pm | Artist Talk | Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige: The Lebanese Rocket Society
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Artists, Beirut/Paris
Aaron Cezar, Director of Delfina Foundation, London
Moderator: Princess Alia Al-Senussi, Patron, London

5pm to 6pm | Artist Talk and Book Launch | Tea Time with Gavin Turk
Gavin Turk, Artist, London
Matthew Collings, Artist and Writer, Norfolk/London

6pm to 7pm | Artist Talk | Survivors of Socialism and Post-Socialist Chaotic Transition
Nedko Solakov, Artist, Sofia, in conversation with Iara Boubnova, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia

Saturday June 15

1pm to 2pm | Between Word and Work
Vanessa Safavi, Artist, Basel and Berlin; Michele Robecchi, Art Critic and Editor at Phaidon, London
Moderators: Samuel Leuenberger, Independent Curator and Co-Founder of SALTS, Basel, and Boris Magrini, Assistant Curator, Kunsthalle Zurich

2pm to 3pm | Artist Talk | Eduardo Terrazas
Eduardo Terrazas, Artist and Architect, Mexico City in conversation with
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, London

3pm to 4pm | The Global Artworld | Focus Africa
Otobong Nkanga, Artist, Antwerp
Meschac Gaba, Artist, Rotterdam
Moderator: Yvette Mutumba, Curator for Africa, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main

4pm to 5pm | The Global Artworld | Istanbul's Independent Initiatives
Haro Cumbusyan, Founding Director of collectorspace, Collector, Istanbul/New York
Merve Ünsal, Co-Founder of m-est, Artist, Istanbul
Mari Spirito, Founding Director of Protocinema, Istanbul/New York
Moderator: Abaseh Mirvali, Independent Curator and Chief Curator of Draft Urbanism, Biennial of the Americas 2013, Istanbul/Berlin/Mexico City

5pm to 6pm | Lunch Bytes | On Releasing, Distributing and Exhibiting Art Online
Aleksandra Domanovic, Artist, Berlin
Oliver Laric, Artist, Berlin
Domenico Quaranta, Curator, Critic and Co-Founder of the Link Center for the Arts of the
Information Age
Ben Vickers, Curator of Digital, Serpentine Gallery, Co-Curator, Limazulu Project Space and Member of Edgeryders, London
Moderator: Fabian Schöneich, Assistant Curator, Kunsthalle Basel and
Melanie Bühler, Lunch Bytes, Amsterdam

6pm to 7pm | Artist Talk | The Algorithm of Manfred Mohr. 1963-now
Manfred Mohr, Artist, New York, in conversation with Margit Rosen, Curator, ZKM Media Museum, Karlsruhe

Sunday June 16

1pm to 2pm | Artist Talk | Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley, Artist, London
Loris Cecchini, Artist, Italy
Moderator: Germano Celant, Contemporary Art Historian, Italy

2pm to 3pm | An Artist's Perspective on Architecture
Kerim Seiler, Artist, Berlin
Gregory Chapuisat, Artist, Paris
Arienne and Pascale Birchler, Artists, Zurich
Moderator: Hubertus Adam, Director SAM, Basel and Nele Dechmann, Curator and Architect, Zurich

3pm to 4pm | Discussion and Book Presentation | 'What is Art?'
Stefanie Bringezu, Daniel Kramer, Janine Schmutz, Art Educators at Fondation Beyeler, Basel/Riehen and Authors of 'What is Art?'

Art Basel stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary works, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. In addition to ambitious stands featuring leading galleries from around the world, each show's singular exhibition sectors spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts, offering visitors new ideas, new inspiration and new contacts in the art world.

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