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HONG KONG — When the third edition of Art Basel Hong Kong opens to the public on Sunday, the atmosphere at Asia’s hottest contemporary art fair will be noticeably cooler — for reasons that have less to do with the region’s overall economic slowdown than the shift in the fair’s dates from humid May to balmy March.
香港——第三届香港巴塞尔艺术展(Art Basel Hong Kong)将于本周日开幕，作为亚洲最热门的当代艺术展会，本届的“热度”明显会有所降低。其实这和该地区整体经济增长放缓关系不大，而是因为展会的日期从闷热的5月调整到了温煦的3月。
But the show’s organizers hope the real draw of the date change for collectors and galleries will be more distance in the international art world calendar from the fair madness of May and June.
但该展会的组织者之所以更改日期，实际上是希望与国际艺术界5月和6月繁忙的展会安排岔开时间，方便收藏家和画廊参加。
“Because of the timing, we weren’t reaching the potential we thought we could reach,” said Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel.
“因为时间安排问题，我们从前没有实现应该可以达到的潜力，”巴塞尔艺术展总监马克·斯皮格勒(Marc Spiegler)说。
With the March date, Art Basel Hong Kong — the newest outpost of the Art Basel triumvirate that also includes editions in Switzerland and Miami Beach — will no longer run up against Frieze New York, Gallery Weekend in Berlin and the Venice Biennale in May, not to mention the flagship Art Basel in June.
香港巴塞尔艺术展是巴塞尔三大展会中最年轻的一个，其他两个分别在瑞士和迈阿密海滩举办。改期到3月之后，它就不会和5月的纽约弗里兹展(Frieze)、柏林的画廊周末(Gallery Weekend)以及威尼斯双年展(Venice Biennale)发生时间冲突，更不用说6月的旗舰展会巴塞尔艺术展了。
If all goes according to plan, the shift will allow Art Basel Hong Kong to bring in more big Western art players to mix with the younger, less-established regional contemporary art scene for a week of openings, cocktail parties, panel discussions and dinners — a unique intermingling of East and West that has in many ways come to define Art Basel Hong Kong from its counterparts.
如果一切按计划进行，改期将会为香港巴塞尔艺术展带来更多的大牌西方参展商，让他们与这里的更为年轻的、新兴的、区域性的当代艺术人士共聚一堂，在一周长的时间里参加各种揭幕式、鸡尾酒会、小组讨论会和晚宴--东西方以多种方式独特地交织混合，是香港巴塞尔艺术展不同于其他展会的标志性特点。
The strategy appears to be working. This year’s fair will feature 233 galleries from 37 countries and territories — slightly fewer than last year, but still maintaining the 50-50 split between Asian and Western exhibitors, as in previous years. Art-world heavyweights like Gagosian Gallery, Acquavella, Pace, David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth will be alongside prominent Asian galleries like ShanghART Gallery and Vitamin Creative Space.
这个策略似乎显露了成效。今年的博览会将有来自37个国家和地区的233家艺廊参加——比去年略有减少，但仍维持着往年亚洲和西方参展商各占一半的比例。像高古轩艺廊(Gagosian Gallery)、阿奎维拉艺廊(Acquavella)、佩斯艺廊(Pace)、大卫·兹沃纳艺廊(David Zwirner)，以及豪瑟和沃斯艺廊(Hauser& Wirth)这样的重磅级艺术商，将与香格纳艺廊、维他命艺术空间等著名亚洲艺廊同台参展。
But there will also be 29 first-time exhibitors, including Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art from New York, Thomas Dane Gallery from London, Skarstedt from New York and London, and, from the Asia-Pacific region, Darren Knight Gallery from Sydney and Liang Gallery from Taipei.
但本届也有29家首次参展的艺术商，其中包括纽约的爱德华·泰勒·纳厄姆艺廊(Edward Tyler Nahem Art)、伦敦的托马斯·戴恩艺廊(Thomas Dane Gallery)，来自纽约和伦敦的斯卡斯登特艺廊(Skarstedt)，亚太地区的则有悉尼的达伦骑士艺廊(Darren Knight Gallery)和台北的谷公馆。
“We’ve been wanting to do the fair for some time,” Mr. Nahem said. “But as somebody who prides himself on sourcing great material, and it certainly doesn’t grow on trees, it wouldn’t have been easy to do the two fairs close to each other,” he said, referring to Art Basel in Switzerland.
“我们想来参会已经有一段时间了，”纳厄姆说。“但是，佳作肯定不是从树上长出来的，而作为以购藏佳作为傲的知名艺廊，要在短时间内参加两个展会很困难，”他说。两个展会指的是香港和瑞士的巴塞尔艺术展。
Another first-time exhibitor is the Andrea Rosen Gallery of New York, which will be bringing a billboard by the Cuban-born American artist Félix González-Torres, among other work. Called “Untitled” (1995), the billboard will be exhibited in tram shelters and transportation hubs across the city in partnership with the Hong Kong nonprofit organization K11 Art Foundation.
纽约的安德烈·罗森艺廊(Andrea Rosen Gallery)也是首次参展，它带来了一面名为“无题”（Untitled，1995年）的广告牌，由古巴出生的美国艺术家菲利克斯·冈萨雷斯-托雷斯(Félix González-Torres)创作。在香港非营利性组织K11艺术基金会协助下，这块广告牌将在香港各处的电车候车厅和交通枢纽展出。
“I think a lot of people have a curiosity about Hong Kong right now,” Ms. Rosen said.
“我想目前很多人都对香港感到好奇，”罗森说。
The emergence of Hong Kong as a top destination for international art-world figures is a recent phenomenon. When the local art fair, ART HK, began in 2008, the city was known mostly as a global financial capital. That changed as the market for contemporary art began to flourish, a shift accelerated by the purchase in 2011 of ART HK by MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd., Art Basel’s parent company. (The founders of ART HK will be debuting a more Asia-focused, satellite fair called Art Central on Saturday.)
香港成为国际艺术界成员的顶级目的地的时间还不长。2008年，本地艺术展香港国际艺术展开始举办的时候，该市主要是一个全球性的金融资本中心。随着当代艺术品市场的蓬勃发展，这种状况发生了转变，而巴塞尔艺术展的母公司MCH瑞士展览(巴塞尔)有限公司2011年收购了香港国际艺术展，更是加速了这一转变。（本周六，香港国际艺术展的创办人将举办一个更侧重于亚洲的外围展会，名为香港当代艺术展[Art Central]）。
“I think now that we’ve established Hong Kong as the major site for the fair in Asia, the bigger task is to focus on the markets that feed the fair,” Mr. Spiegler said.
“我认为，我们已经把香港变成了亚洲艺术展会的桥头堡，更大的任务是把重点放在支撑展会的市场上，”斯皮格勒说。
To that end, the team of organizers led by Mr. Spiegler and Adeline Ooi, the new Asia director for Art Basel, have been focusing on recruiting collectors and museum directors, with an emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. Expected to attend this year are the heads of major arts institutions like the Tate in Britain in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei and M+, Hong Kong’s visual culture museum that is scheduled to open in 2018. Last year, the event, which is being held again at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, logged about 65,000 visitors.
为此，在斯皮格勒和巴塞尔艺术展新上任的亚洲总监黄雅君(Adeline Ooi)的带领下，组织者团队集中精力招募收藏者和博物馆馆长，并把侧重点放在亚太地区。一些知名艺术机构的负责人预计将于今年参会，他们来自于伦敦的英国泰特美术馆(Tate in Britain)、纽约现代艺术博物馆(the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA)、东京的森美术馆(Mori Art Museum)、悉尼的新南威尔士艺术馆(Art Gallery of New South Wales)、台北当代艺术馆，以及定于2018年开业的香港视觉文化博物馆M+。去年，这个活动吸引了6.5万名观众，今年的活动仍然在香港会议展览中心举行。
“There is a curiosity about all these galleries and artists they’ve never heard of,” Mr. Spiegler said. “For the Asian collectors, that’s especially true, because the different art scenes in Asia are historically so disconnected from one another.”
“这些从没听说过的艺廊和艺术家让大家很感兴趣，”施皮格勒说。“对亚洲藏家来说，尤其如此，因为亚洲不同的艺术圈子一贯是相互脱节的。”
David Heng, 48, a collector in Singapore, has attended the event every year since it began as ART HK in 2008. “ The fair is getting quite interesting,” he said. The scale is growing, he added, and “we’re starting to see a lot of big names in terms of the works the galleries are bringing.”
48岁的新加坡藏家戴维·王(David Heng)从香港国际艺术展2008年创办以来就每年前来参会。他说，“这个展会正在变得相当有意思。”他还表示，展会的规模也在扩大，“我们开始看到艺廊送来的作品里头出现了很多重量级的名字。”
The juxtaposition of Western and Asian artists at the fair makes for a fresh cultural dialogue for collectors who are accustomed to viewing one or two artists at a time here in galleries or at auctions, said Pearl Lam, a Hong Kong dealer “It’s a very different way of looking at art,” said Ms. Lam, who opened a second Hong Kong gallery in the Sheung Wan neighborhood in time for the festivities. “But now with contemporary art being so fashionable, the gallery culture in Hong Kong is coming together and everybody is getting into the habit of going to art fairs.”
香港经销商林明珠(Pear Lam)表示，展会上西方和亚洲艺术家的混搭提供了与藏家开展全新文化对话的机会，而这些藏家习惯的是在艺廊或拍卖会上一次看一两位艺术家的作品。“看待艺术的方式非常不一样，”林明珠说。她刚好在此次活动前在上环开设了自己在香港的第二家艺廊。“但是现在当代艺术这么时髦，所以香港的艺廊文化正在形成，人人都在养成去看艺术展的习惯。”
Among the many artists being highlighted at the show is Cao Fei, a rising Chinese artist known for her exploration of Chinese identity through multimedia and video projects.
参加香港巴塞尔艺术展的众多艺术家中，有一位是冉冉上升的中国艺术家曹斐。她的特色是通过多媒体和视频项目来探讨自己的中国人身份。
For this year’s fair, she will present “Same Old, Brand New,” a large-scale video installation commissioned by Art Basel that will be shown across the façade of the 118-story International Commerce Centre, the tallest building in Hong Kong.
今年，受巴塞尔艺术展委托，曹斐将展示大型视频装置作品《乐旧·图新》(Same Old, Brand New)。它将在香港最高的建筑118层的环球贸易广场的外立面上展示。
The work, which draws on symbols and logos from video games in a reference to popular and youth culture in ultra-wired Hong Kong in particular, will be shown each night from Friday to Tuesday, with a smartphone app viewers can download.
这件作品从视频游戏中截取图标，影射年轻人的流行文化，尤其是在高度联网的香港。它将在本周五到下周二的每晚表演，还配有一款智能手机应用供观众下载。
While not explicitly political, Ms. Cao’s piece, with its reference to Hong Kong youth, inevitably calls to mind the recent democracy protests that convulsed the city for months as protesters, many of them young Hong Kongers, took to the streets to demand open elections for the territory’s chief executive.
曹斐的作品虽说并不直接带有政治色彩，但它涉及了香港年轻人的文化，不可避免地让人想起近期令香港震荡了数月之久的民主抗议活动。当时，抗议者走上街头，要求公开选举香港行政长官，其中许多参与者是本地年轻人。
“Everybody is curious how the recent political unrest is going to have an impact on the arts community,” said Doryun Chong, chief curator of M+.
“大家都想知道，近期的政治动荡会怎么样来影响艺术圈，”M+的首席策展人郑道炼(Doryun Chong)说。
He added: “My view is actually that this shifting ground that we’re standing on in fact actually makes things much more interesting.”
他还表示：“我的观点实际上是，我们的大环境在改变，而这其实在让事情变得有意思得多。”
