CHRONICLES OF AN UNDERCOVER REPORTER
At the end of April the art-fair season started up again with Miart in Milan, boosted this year by the unveiling of the key element in the Fondazione Prada, the tower, once again signed Rem Koolhaas. Then came Cologne, which is one of the oldest fairs – very German, i.e. high quality – followed by Brussels, which celebrated its 50th birthday with a slightly lacklustre edition, even if the presentation of the future Centre Pompidou in the Citroën-Yser buildings caught fair- goers’ imaginations. But you’ll have to wait until 2022 to see the final result, the work of a group of architects – noAarchitecten, EM2N and Sergison Bates – with input from the curator Anne Pontégnie.
The highpoint of events in Belgium was probably the dinner given by gallerist Xavier Hufkens in honour of his exhibition of work by Sherrie Levine, an event which took place at the Wiertz Museum, the former painting studio of a 19th- century artist that has been closed to the public for years. Visibly proud,
Hufkens came with his mother’s dog, the first one allowed inside the building since Magritte’s more than 50 years ago.
artmonte- carlo, a spin- of f of artgenève, is not to be confused with Art Monaco, whose exhibitors are all unknowns. This year it gathered together 30- odd international curators for a particularly efficient sort of speed- dating event. At the same time the design salon Nomad was taking place in Karl Lagerfeld’s former residence Villa La Vigie, above Monaco’s Beach Club, whose Pompeii- inspired façade looks like a branch of Home Depot.
It has to be said that contemporary architecture in Monaco is particularly insipid. Which isn’t the case for Eileen Gray’s Villa E1027 in nextdoor Roquebrune- Cap- Martin, now open to the public, nor for the Villa Santo Sospir in Saint- Jean- CapFerrat, which was entirely decorated by Jean Cocteau who lived there with his lover and an army of dealers. Meanwhile, in Grasse, Mme Silvia Fiorucci- Roman held a reception in her bastide to inaugurate an artists’ residency at the Moulin des Ribes, each apartment of which has been fitted out by a different designer.
For ( perhaps) the first time, the New York edition of Frieze did not open in pouring rain, which in previous years transformed the spot where all the limousines pull up into an immense mud- bath. On the contrary, this year the fair’s tents were as hot and steamy as a sauna. Back on form after setbacks and criticisms, Frieze nonetheless faced stiff competition from Tefaf, which had set up shop on Park Avenue in the air- conditioned former Armory building. Seizing advantage of the presence of all these collectors and donators, the Swiss Institute, whose director is Simon Castet, showed off the just- completed revamp of its building by architect Annabel l e Seldorf with a dinner concocted by New York’s gastronomic star Daniel Humm, chef at Eleven Madison Park, which is considered simply the best restaurant in the world. And funnily enough, Humm is Swiss.