Page 109 - ARTE!Brasileiros #57

would allow us to move forward and I believe this days of exhibition. André Millan (Galeria Millan), the comparison is ridiculous. The sales that were
was demonstrated by the fact that since July in turn, summarizes: “Amazingly, at least here in the result of something online were derisory in
8, when we launched the first exhibition, until Brazil, these pandemic times surprised everyone my billing.”
today, BiEnalsur has been growing, adding up to and, generally speaking, sales were very good, Although digital programming does not have
the following, adding projects, articulating with the market reacted surprisingly well.” the same power as physics, as Roesler points out,
each other and generating an art community that Some of the reasons for this result, already it is much cheaper. This seems to be one of the
contributes today to the development of a critical seen in the first year of the pandemic, sounded key factors for the success of 2020. If on the one
culture in contemporary times”, says Diana. really unexpected: the longer time spent at home hand sales were lower, it was the ability to reduce
Naturally, this fraying ends up causing a feeling and the decrease with other types of expenses, operating costs that allowed some gallerists to
of disorientation, which can be captured for such as travel and restaurants, encouraged maintain profitability. The return of face-to-face
example in comments and requests for explanation people to buy more works of art for their private has an impact in this direction, especially with
that accumulate in the social networks of the event. environments; the migration of business to the the increase in the price of the dolar and the euro.
But, on the other hand, it brings, according to virtual environment brought a share of younger “Participating in a physical fair, for example, is
Diana, a somewhat liberating flexibility, giving a buyers, less accustomed to the environments of very expensive. It is still more expensive today
malleability and a great capacity for adaptation. galleries and fairs and well inserted in the online because logistics costs have more than doubled,”
“BiEnalsur is an associative project, adapted, world; in addition, the creation of projects of Roesler said.
that is flexible and works with the logics of each partnerships between galleries, previously rare, In the years before the pandemic, fairs
place. It is not a boastful or imperative project that and an experiment with new sales formats brought accounted for nearly 50% of sales of galleries
goes to each place colonizing, but the opposite: results. This is all considering, of course, that around the world, according to the report by Art
it arrives at each place with the humility of the “the elite are the ones who buy art and are the Basel and uBs. In 2020, this number dropped
foreigner, sits down to talk about the possibility ones who suffered the least from the pandemic”, to 13% due to cancelled events. Several gallery
of working together and from sharing an agenda as highlighted by the evaluator and art market owners in Brazil and around the world point out
of interests and issues to be carried out together”, consultant Tamara Perlman at the end of 2020. that this decrease in fairs dependence may have
ponders the artistic director and creator of the What we saw, therefore, was even the opening come to stay. According to a report in The Art
event. “We are aware not only of the processes of new galleries - Hoa, Projeto Vênus and Index Newspaper, in 2019 alone there were 178 art fairs
that in a unique way make each of the artists, but last year; Marli Matsumoto, Arte 132 and Bailune parallel to biennials or triennials and to exhibitions
we understand that these processes are somehow Biancheri this year, among others - and branches of museums and galleries. “It’s a predatory system.
processes of society, they are collective processes, of established houses such as Jaqueline Martins, There is no house that can afford all this investment
they are processes that are also done in plurality dan Galeria and A Gentil Carioca. But if it were two financially,” says André Millan. “When you stop
and diversity”, he adds. positive years, there are also notable differences for a while, you realize you didn’t do any fair [in
between the performance of houses and the 2020] and keep selling well, then you wonder: do
market BalancE sHEEt 2021 [paGEs 16 to 21] behavior of buyers in the two periods. I really need to do all this?” asks Roesler.
For Thiago Gomide and Thais Darzé (Paulo
FAR FROM THE CRISIS the role of the online anD the Darzé Galeria), the pause resulting from the
aCCeleration (DeCeleration) pandemic allowed the gallery owners - usually
Amid extremely troubled context with the of faCe-to-faCe immersed in intense routines of events - to think
pandemic, professionals in the Brazilian If in 2020 online became the center of the about how much the operational cost and the
art market report a year of positive sales negotiations, doubling the number of sales process of stress, tiredness and expectation revert
results, benefited both by the expansion of executed in it - as presented by the annual financially and institutionally. The Brazilian result
the virtual and by the recent resumption of report of Art Basel and uBs - with the beginning seems to talk to foreign forecasts, which indicate
face-to-face of vaccination and the reduction in the number a decrease in travel and participation in fairs by
of new cases of Covid-19 in Brazil and worldwide, the galleries. Márcio Botner, partner of A Gentil
By Giulia Garcia and marcos Grinspum fErraz 2021 had part of this scenario changed. Face-to- Carioca, on the other hand, believes that the
face activities were gradually resumed throughout trend is a resumption very close to what existed
in 2020, almost a Year after the beginning of the year, galleries and museums reopened their before. “Of course, it gives a feeling that maybe
the CoviD-19 panDemiC, arte!brasileiros spoke exhibitions and national and international art fairs you can’t be that fast, that maybe it would be
with a number of gallery owners, auctioneers and adopted a hybrid format. better in some other way, but I still find the face-
market experts to take stock of what the period In the case of auctions, “the online is enshrined to-face contact fundamental,” says the Carioca.
for the sector had been like, particularly in Brazil. as a solid alternative of operation”, as Aloísio Despite the disagreements, the opinion does
The finding, surprising at the time, was that after Cravo assures. The auctioneer points out that not completely depart from the attitude of the
an initial hit with the enactment of quarantine, the his two events this year took place virtually and other gallery owners, who argue that even with the
reheating of business was rapid and consistent, in had good results, even doubling the values of the decrease in dependence on fairs, it is not possible
contrast even to other regions of the globe such pieces. There is also a profusion of small auctions to completely detach, either by the possibilities of
as Europe and North America. At the end of 2021, through virtual channels, with lower price levels, bonding and socialization created, by the results
after another year of pandemic, we interviewed as Tamara Perlman says. in long-term sales or by the expansion to other
again a series of professionals in the area to find However, this does not seem to be the general markets.
out about the results of a period that, despite the scenario for the arts. The hybrid model stands The results of the two largest national events
restrictions, also involved a series of flexibilities. as a path of no return, the online does not seem in 2021 show, in fact, that interest in fairs remains
The conclusion, practically unanimous among willing to retreat, but may not persist in the way high. Over the five days of the event, sp-Arte -
the approximately 15 interviewees, is that the expected. “I think this year, the virtual was more which this year exchanged the Biennial Pavilion
year was even better than the previous one, even a process of approximation, less selling. It has (25,000 m2) for the arca shed (9,000 m2) - received
amid a scene - sanitary, political, economic and not lost importance, but the sale has returned about 18,500 people, exhausting virtually all tickets
social - so troubled in the country. to be more face-to-face,” says Murilo Castro, available, and had 40,000 accesses in its virtual
“2021 was much better than 2020 and better also from Belo Horizonte. Vilma Eid and Alexandre version. For Gomide & Co., the fair presented one
compared to the year before the pandemic,” says Roesler, a partner at Galeria Nara Roesler, echoes of the best results of the year. Verve Galeria sold
Luisa Strina, one of the country’s most important and highlights viewing rooms as a complement, 95% of the first collection exhibited and Portas
gallery owners. Auctioneer Aloísio Cravo, who had more than a business front. The director of ArtRio, Vilaseca sold all selected works even before
a more oscillating performance at the beginning of Brenda Valansi, was able to verify this in this year’s the end of the event. ArtRio, in turn, had 14,500
the quarantine, follows the same line: “The auctions edition of the fair in Rio de Janeiro: “The virtual people in the physical version and, shortly after
of 2021 had revenues comparable to those of 2014 platform ends up being widely used as research, the edition, announced its expansion in a new
or 2015, before entering a very bad sequence with for those who then want to see in the face-to-face endeavor: ArtSampa, a fair in São Paulo territory
all the political and economic instability in the way, or sometimes the person sees physically and with a date already scheduled for March 2022.
country”. With the particularities that surround finalizes the purchase online”. For the founder of It should be noted, however, that both fairs - as
each house, the statements of the gallery owners Gomide & Co. (formerly Bergamin & Gomide), well as international ones - took place in a more
always follow in a similar sense. Vilma Eid, from Thiago Gomide, the comparison between the local way, with fewer exhibitors and foreign visitors,
Galeria Estação, says that two of the expositions results of face-to-face and virtual events is unfair: due to the difficulties of transit between countries
held in the house had all the works sold in the first “I think the viewing rooms are here to stay, but caused by the pandemic. Other audience changes
109