There’s nothing more uncomfortable than stewing for 12 hours in a seat that’s far too tight…
We took this on ourselves for Art Basel Hong Kong. You realize how far Hong Kong is from us when you have to reset the clock. Our families were already 7 hours behind (winter time)… In contrast, our US colleagues were already 12 hours ahead of their families… We also learned that it takes just as long if you fly along the equator or fly to the North Pole and back down again… The earth is simply round…

So far away from home and yet you still feel at home and like you’re at home compared to all the Chinese at the trade fair. But this is primarily due to the fact that the trade fair organizers fly in art dealers from all over the world. IFAS flew in many from Switzerland and France, while Lotus drew from the US art handler pool. Once again, we are flying in our own art handlers for the benefit of our gallery customers. They have already secured their favorite art handlers as best they can. It helps if you book in advance.

We arrived with a team of 4 art handlers, a trade fair coordinator and myself. We increased the transport volume once again via air and sea freight. With 13 galleries on board, 6 of which we set up and/or dismantled ourselves. Our art handlers are also available to our customers during the fair for moving the stand. We were booked several times, which speaks for the success of our customers in Hong Kong. Things went well for most of the galleries. It seems that the European galleries have adapted to the Chinese market.

While other art fairs are weakening at the moment, the Asian fairs are attracting more and more interest from both galleries and collectors… keep it up! Hong Kong has about 7.4 million inhabitants on 1100 km²… in Berlin there are just 3.4 million on 890 km². This means that every square meter in HKG is used very efficiently, with the consequence that every day for set-up and dismantling is very tight. During dismantling, we are busy packing up all the galleries and loading them into the collection boxes until 5:00 a.m. at the end of the fair…

It’s almost impossible, but we wouldn’t be Artseco if we didn’t overcome this challenge. Dismantling done and now off to bed…

And again it’s “after the fair is before the fair” see you soon…